No Good, Terrible, Very Bad Events and Their Impact on the Workforce

How three key events over the last 22 years have altered our work

Quiet quitting, bare minimum Mondays, resenteeism, and now rage applying…

Catchy new names for not new concepts.

 Spoiler alert: these work/worker trends have been around for a long time, we just didn’t have social media to spread the word – quickly, globally, and repetitively. However, what you do see is that these ideas tend to be more pronounced after large-scale macro events that impact not only business, but our society as a whole. TL:DR, big events shake up our lives and work norms.

What do I mean when I say macro events? Often these events are sudden, catastrophic and reach across the work/life barrier. The three that come to mind from the last 25 years are: 9/11, the 2008 financial collapse/Great Recession, and the global COVID pandemic.

Let’s take a look at 9/11 as our first example. The terrorist attack on the US was a sudden, unprecedented event that had immediate economic impact. However, it also affected the collective mental health of many Americans long after that day, and the workplace was never the same afterwards in many ways. In a paper which looked at the impact of 9/11 on HR management, the researchers found that:

“Psychological reactions such as depression, posttraumatic stress re- action, and other stress reactions were more frequent among employees. Employees were continuing to rethink their priorities in life and seeking a better balance between their work and off-work lives—according more time to the later.” (Kondrusak, 2004)

This “rethinking” sounds familiar, doesn’t it? After 9/11, workers who kept their jobs during the months following the attack were more inclined to prioritize life outside of their work – at least for a little while – and their employers made that possible by delivering thoughtful policies and benefits. In the immediate aftermath, work travel was limited, meetings were cancelled, EAP services were implemented or upgraded, and there was, at least for a period of time, a more compassionate attitude towards each other. Business practices changed to accommodate the “new normal” – as is to be expected, some changes stuck long term (EAP and disaster planning) while other things were eventually rolled back (cancelled meetings and postponed work travel).

Fast forward to 2008 and the Great Recession. The financial catastrophe caused the elimination of hundreds of thousands of jobs essentially overnight. This impact rippled into the employment market with one in five employees losing their jobs (How the Great Recession Changed American Workers, Knowledge at Wharton podcast, 9/10/18).

“The Great Recession accelerated a number of trends and arrested the development of others. “The fact that so many people took temporary jobs, often as contractors, was pushed along by the downturn, in part because employers were so unsure about the future but also because workers had no choice but to take them,” says Cappelli. “Good employee-management practices took a big step back during this period because employees were willing to put up with anything as long as they had a job.” – Peter Capelli, How the Great Recession Changed American Workers

It was time to rethink work yet again. The rise of the iPhone/smart phone, new tech platforms, and the need to rebuild wealth (or let’s face it – just scrape by) brought about the new “gig” economy. With so many people losing retirement savings, their homes, and/or struggling to pay for college, the stage was set for employers to benefit from short-term, flexible, and freelance employment that didn’t cost much due to a labor surplus. These new “service on demand” companies took advantage of the excess labor pool by leveraging freelance workers to keep their liabilities low – especially important for early-stage tech-based start-ups.

However, in the years after the Great Recession as the economy was recovering, tech-savvy workers were able to take advantage of the “side hustle” in a way that benefited them, as well. Driving an Uber/Lyft, shopping for Instacart, shuttling food for DoorDash, and running errands via TaskRabbit became the new “moonlighting” without the hassle of set schedules and fickle employers. Workers could choose the best use of their time and work with platforms that compensated better and treated them better. The idea of the company exploiting the worker was flipped on its head when the people doing the work could come and go as they pleased.

New technology, high speed internet, and flexible work created a more connected and mobile workforce in the 2010s. While we still saw people working in traditional office-based models, there was a shift happening. And that’s a good thing because we had no idea what was coming.

Fast forward again to 2020. Was global pandemic on your career, or life, bingo card? No?

Seemingly overnight, our world changed again. We were asked to sacrifice for the greater good for an indefinite amount of time while juggling the shift to remote work and school and shopping and living. For many workers, the social structure of work shattered and once again we were plunged into a “new normal.”

 Overnight, offices emptied, and people were asked to work virtually, if possible. Those tech, internet and flexible work advancements that accelerated after the Great Recession came in handy for office workers. People were able to log in to work systems, communicate with their teams, and deliver on their goals while simultaneously managing through an extremely challenging few months (years?) of uncertainty.

Unfortunately, the workers who suffered the most were in low-wage and/or customer facing roles like food service, hospitality, and personal services. Working moms/women left the workforce in droves because, as it turns out, working full time and managing online school for one or more kids is hard to do. In hindsight, rigid work constructs about when and how work was to be accomplished forced families to prioritize life first and work second. This will have long term impacts on financial health of women (and their families) and diversity within organizations.

Office workers grew accustomed to no commute, flexible working arrangements where they could meet their goals but also get to that doctor appointment at lunch time, spend less on work clothes and lunches, take their dogs for a walk mid-day, and eventually pick their kids up from school. This was the compassionate work arrangement many had dreamed of, and it worked – for a while. At some point, many large organizations decided that work from home employees should return to the office for either all or part of the week for various reasons (collaboration, culture, etc.). Turns out that mandating changes that may potentially negatively affect employees’ lives after a traumatic macro event is a tough sell.

My thoughts on this subject: Ultimately, being transparent and specific about the benefits of the return to the office policy would go a long way to smoothing out the rough edges. Commuter benefits, satellite offices, and flex time would also help. Looking at the job as a set of accomplished goals versus a set of tasks will open up new employee growth channels while offering much needed flexibility. Bottom line, if you can’t make a great argument other than “because I said so” and offer supportive policies and benefits, you need to assess why this is the mountain you’ve chosen to climb.  

The positive news is that each of these events, while traumatic, have helped shape and quickly expand new benefits (EAP and mental health support), driven tech-based solutions to labor shortages (gig economy), and offered flexible work arrangements (remote/hybrid) that might have taken longer to implement under normal circumstances. Is it perfect? Not by a long shot. Should we be happy with what we have? Not by a long shot.

We haven’t collectively dealt with the real impact of the pandemic on mental and physical health. At this point, it’s almost feels like a fever dream, doesn’t it? That doesn’t bode well for how we’ll manage over the next few years. Now pair that with a shrinking labor market due to excess deaths and Boomer retirements and immigration issues and inflation and student debt and wage suppression – why would we be surprised by quiet quitting, bare minimum Mondays, resenteeism, and rage applying… 

What’s next? While we can’t predict what the next macro event will be or when it will happen, we know it’s inevitable. Bottom line - if you’re not thinking and planning for the future of work and how that’s going to impact your teams, you’re already behind.