What’s up in RTO and layoffs? If you are confused about mixed job market signals, layoffs, and talent shortages living alongside each other, and leading teams amidst the uncertainty, our weekly workplace trends digest will give you a clear view of what’s going on.
As always, we are exploring the latest layoffs, assessing the progress of remote/hybrid transition, sharing nuggets of leadership advice, and focusing on emerging workplace trends.
If you want to take a walk down memory lane, check out our previous digest episodes on workplace trends.
Layoffs
CNN employees brace for layoffs after network chief warns of ‘unsettling’ changes ahead | CNN
It might not be the most enjoyable thing to experience: opening your work inbox only to learn layoffs are coming and the future of your company is uncertain. This unpleasant discovery struck the employees of CNN last week – in the letter of Chris Licht, the CEO of the media conglomerate, they were warned to brace for layoffs by the end of the year. The decision, according to the email, was motivated by “widespread concern for the global economic outlook”.
Credit Suisse to cut 9,000 jobs and seek billions in new investment | The Guardian
Last two years were full of bad news for Credit Suisse: the bank was at the center of the collapse of Archegos Capital, a US hedge fund, implicated in a Bulgarian mafia money laundering scheme, shown to serve clients involved in torture, people trafficking and drug dealership. Now the company is hoping for a fresh start, with a multi-billion investment and a “restructuring” that will sweep 9,000 jobs this year and over 40,000 – by 2025.
Zillow Lays Off 300 Employees as US Housing Market Slows Further | Bloomberg
At the onset of the pandemic, Zillow was driving a revolution in the housing market, enabling instant house buying. The company became widely known and transformed browsing housing listings into a hobby and means of escapism. Yet, the clouds of recession are closing over the company: it has recently announced a reduction that, according to news media, will impact up to 5% of its total workforce.
The tide is shifting on tech’s layoff wave. Kind of. | TechCrunch
Layoffs have been the key tech trend of the last quarter but, according to last week’s write-up by TechCrunch, the worst might be over. Basing its claim on the data provided by layoffs.fyi – a publicly available layoff tracker – the publication claims that the pace of tech downsizing is slowing down.
Hybrid and remote work
What commuters get up to when they no longer commute | Financial Times
Finacial Times has analyzed the data provided by Google Mobility to find out that the number of trips to the workplace has dropped by 24% from February 2020. The article explores how used-to-be commuters are using the time they saved.
Remote work changed their lives. They’re not going back to the office. | The Washington Post
On a macro scale, the shift to remote work brought about cost-saving, increased productivity, and higher employee satisfaction. Its impact is even more evident once you zoomed into the personal stories of people whose lives changed forever and who no longer imagine going back to the office.
There are two cultures of hybrid work | UNLEASH
In his post for Unleash, Danny Seals, an organization design thinker, argues that there are two types of hybrid work culture – the pre-transition one, similar to the traditional office, and the in-transition one. All the common attributes of the office – trust, unity, shared experiences – are common to the first type of culture – yet, the author argues there’s no way back to it. Instead, the road ahead should focus on realigning the workforce in an increasingly digitized and dispersed environment.
Japan’s banks break with Wall Street by embracing hybrid work | The Japan Times
Be it by the virtue of the stereotype of an office-working Japanese salaryman, you wouldn’t expect the country’s banking companies to commit to hybrid work when even Wall Street is moving away from it. Yet, surprising as it may seem, the largest players in Japan’s finance sector, plan on staying hybrid as they exit the pandemic.
Leadership and team management
What Great Remote Managers Do Differently | Harvard Business Review
Managing a remote team can make leaders feel like they are “driving on the wrong side of the road” – the destination is the same but the processes and rules take getting used to. The concerns a manager would never have known in the office – like employees never seeing each other in person, are commonplace in a WFH workplace. It is a different environment: to tackle it, we need to rip the old playbook to shreds and write a new one.
Why you hate virtual happy hours | BBC Worklife
Team building was always a balancing act: there is always a degree of the awkwardness of watching your peers break out of their professional and collected shells. Yet, in pre-pandemic days, playing games or throwing a karaoke party was at least semi-effective in bringing people together. Enter Zoom-hosted happy hours, and that is no longer the case. For most, virtual tea time is simply an extension of work which would rather live without.
5 ways to find joy at work: Top leaders share strategies | World Economic Forum
For the last two years, most leaders have grown accustomed to leading teams through anxiety. Yet, we are far from excelling at it: 3 in 5 employees report lack of motivation and fulfillment at work. In a joy-depleted workplace, managers have to deliberately focus on bringing satisfaction and fun back.
Nine Ways To Ensure Your Company Culture Breeds Successful Leaders | Forbes
When you promote successful employees in your company to management positions, how can you be sure they excel in their new roles? The prerequisites for being successful in management vary organization by organization: figuring out if someone is going to be good at it seems to be a roll of the dice. Yet, according to successful leaders, there are practices for methodically and consistently grooming high-performing managers in any workplace.
Workplace trends
‘Go-Forward’ | New York Times
In the bitterness of mass layoffs, some HRs try to sweeten the pill by masking the truth: “You no longer have a job” with an opaque euphemism: “You are no longer a go-forward role”. As often is the case with beating around the bush, it creates miscommunication and misunderstanding, failing to achieve its intended purpose.
What’s in a name? Maybe a job | NPR
According to new research data, a hard-to-pronounce name breeds more than the occasional awkwardness of mispronunciation and misspelling on a Starbucks coffee mug – it often hinders job search and makes it hard for skilled workers to get the job market recognition they deserve.
Social media is creating a new era of resumes—what hiring teams can learn | Quartz
It’s no secret that traditional CVs and cover letters are on their way to obsolescence – yet, hiring teams still rely on them for the sake of a viable alternative. The surge of short video content might give HRs a better glimpse at candidates and help applicants present their knowledge and experience in the best light.
Great Resignation quitters got big raises—now, they’re worried about their job security | CNBC
Given the pay raises that followed it, switching jobs at the height of the Great Resignation seemed an excellent idea – until it no longer did. The rapid turnaround of the job market now leaves many job-switchers anxious for the security of their positions – it is, after all, “last one hired – first one fired”.
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