The Great ... divide

It was in this forum as few weeks back that I was throwing my 2-cents-worth regarding the Great Resignation, Quiet Quitting and all post-COVID professional trends, which are redefining some workplaces - well not Twitter, or Facebook this week it seems. But anyway.

Back in late summer of this year some folks, which are much much cleverer than I am, spotted the early signs of a new trend however; the Great Resignation was turning into the Great Uncertainty, and that also included the tech sector, which traditionally laid the foundations of all things radical in the workplace. And how did that come about?

Let me tell you what I think. I do admire the naiveté of our global workforce. Not admire per se - I am in awe. And I say this because, I have said it before and I will say it again: the house also wins! While we are posting on Instagram about how we logoff at 17:00 in our underwear, and starting our work-life balance, there are global crises ongoing, wars, mortgage rate hikes and so much more. So when Twitter very publicly laid off half of its workforce, it was not the first to do so - but it was one of the biggest to do so. And while doing so it sent a signal; a very clear message: you know what, we overextended, and this is not really working for us. So there you go.

What does that mean for all of us, who are not running Twitter? or own majority share position at Facebook? Well you figure it out. In my mind, this translates into: Hanker down, Winter is coming. And I am 46 - I have been employed through the financial crisis, I have seen colleagues stand inline to sign a document accepting salary decreases as long as they can keep their job. Does that sound grim to you? Does that sound like it could not happen to you? I signed one too.

But it's not fear that keeps me motivated. It is ownership. And that is the biggest loss of the last two years. We know longer think that we own what we do. We divided ourselves into groups - the Companies (faceless, exploitative, decision-making tools) and the good people (taking their kids to school, making their coffee, logging on from their veranda, logging off to maintain their mental health and drawing red lines). And we own nothing - we do our work. That is it. The good people, that is all of us, are displaying a sense of misplaced resentment in my view. There is no such thing as Companies - they are not faceless! They are you - three promotions from now. You will be asked to make those decisions - and all of a sudden, you will have a face! The divide is now a chasm. People believe that companies exist in perpetuity; after all they (most) survived the pandemic and paid our salaries - their cash flows internal and their capacity knows no bounds. And they survive by crushing the mental health of employees. It seems to me that we have come very very very far indeed to simply resort to late 19th century rhetoric about working conditions.

So what is the uncertainty about? very simply ... layoffs ... it seems that most of us tend to be ambivalent or uncertain only when the stakes are this high. And for me that is the most worrying trend. We lay everything on the line, to the point of no return. I have seen people take pride in nothing, owning nothing, expecting a lot, and quietly quitting in the process. It is extremely frustrating, not because being fired is now less unlikely than before, but because for a lot of us our work is something to be proud of, not just how we pay the bills. I realize that I could be in the wrong; and I guess that is why it is called the great uncertainty and not the small one!