I do believe a lot of people are burned out, not just from work, but from everything else going on in the world, on top of work. Then they look at their workplace and ask a simple question, does this job make burnout better, or worse, and if it’s worse, what are my options for changing that.
Not continuing to work in that place, is one option that many are opting for.
Can we blame them?
AI is not without bias, and maybe the best thing we can do is know that going in, instead of assuming that technology would solve this problem.
Do the calculation yourself. What do you ask employees to tolerate versus what they get from the job, and consider what you’ve asked them to put up with during the last year versus what they get from the job. The calculations have changed. As it turns out, those employees were watching you, and watching how much you valued their health and safety.
Consider the possibility that you didn’t show them what they wanted to see, and that’s why they’re not coming back, and why no one else wants to work there too.
Maybe they’ll come back to work when they have no other options, for a short time, but they’ll never be committed to you again. You’ve lost that, and in many cases, you deserved it.
I know, I’m asking you to follow a few links and do a bit of reading here, but this is important. Not just because supporting employees is key to attracting and retaining the best talent, nor because employees who can bring themselves honestly to the workplace are likely to be more engaged and passionate about the job, but because those people who work for you are human beings. The workplace is where they will spend so much of their day to day lives, even when that workplace is virtual. They’ll spend more time interacting with each other than most other people in their lives. If we can’t look out for each other in that space, we’re doing a massive disservice to each other.
I wish I could take credit for the line in the title. But, I can’t. It has, however, been rumbling around in my brain for the past couple of days since I heard John Amaechi say it on a recent episode of Adam Grant’s podcast “Worklife” (Go listen to the whole episode, it’s very thought-provoking)
In an episode about how to build an anti-racist workplace, this was the line that sort of stopped not only me, but Adam as well. And, I think it applies to much more than anti-racism.
Sadly, most of the mentions I’ve seen of these issues place the blame squarely outside of the employer. It’s the government’s fault for being too generous with stimulus checks and unemployment benefits, it’s the lockdowns and working from home, it’s the lack of daycare options, etc.
What they all fail to mention, that this article at least starts to recognize, is that there are actually a lot of things employers could do.