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Well give week dont quit.5/6/2023 ![]() ![]() A wealth of choice for many workers – especially those in sectors like tech and finance – is enabling workers to act on leaving companies due to policies that don’t sit well.īut despite workers having more power, not everyone is in the position like Goodfellow’s, with seniority, highly specific talent and a strong network. "If you're in this knowledge-worker class, I still see it as a pretty flexible time, and a pretty empowering time, to be in the economy right now," says Anicich, since we're currently in a tight labour market in which many companies will fight over candidates – even if they're as young as interns. While reports indicate that Goodfellow already has another job at Google, workers' ability to transition into more flexible jobs will hinge on multiple factors. Of course, workers don't all have the same options. "All of those things are going to be hard to uproot – even going from five days remote to three days remote." "With much of the Covid-related uncertainty now lifted, workers may begin to act on the preferences they formed over the past two years," says Anicich. And, in many cases, they don't seem to be on the same page. ![]() Return-to-office plans have been a can many companies have kept kicking down the road, but the road has finally come to a dead end, forcing both companies and workers to react. Woolley agrees, saying more "workers have friends who are changing jobs, and so it can start to seem less intimidating to take the leap". “Seeing similar others – e.g., peers, co-workers – and respected authority figures – e.g., high-level executives – quit may be the final straw for some employees.” These two factors have led to "a tipping point", says Eric Anicich, assistant professor of management and organisation at University of Southern California, US, and when workers start to act, others are likely to follow. "The other reality is that there are a lot of open positions out there." "Companies are really starting to go back more, and at scale – so employees are having to really step back and decide" if staying is worth it, says Elise Freedman, senior client partner at Korn Ferry, a US-based recruiting company. ![]() However, some recruiters and analysts believe a prominent professional’s much-talked-about move could be a sign that more resignations will follow as RTO policies start to sink in – and workers begin to bite back.Īlthough there isn’t any hard data to show increased quits due to ending flexible work specifically, anecdotes of worker exits are starting to trickle in. Yet there are plenty more workers itching to leave who haven’t yet. Goodfellow is just one highly visible example of a worker choosing to quit, instead of reluctantly accepting an undesirable work policy. She says senior leaders at businesses she works with have all been "kind of watching each other to see who's going to do what first, and what the reaction is going to be" to tapering off remote work. "I'm not at all surprised – in fact, I'm surprised it took this long" for an executive at a high-profile company to quit over return-to-office, says Anita Williams Woolley, associate professor of organisational behaviour and theory at Carnegie Mellon University's Tepper School of Business, US. A recent survey of more than 650 Apple employees on third-party anonymous polling site Blind revealed 76% of respondents were dissatisfied with the company's return-to-office plans 56% said they'd consider resigning over it.īut outside the company, some experts aren’t shocked, either. Perhaps Goodfellow’s exit wasn’t surprising – at least not among Apple’s workforce. (Apple has not responded to BBC Worklife's request for comment it also has yet to comment publicly on the reports of Goodfellow's resignation.) The high-ranking Goodfellow wasn’t on board with the plan – so he walked. The company had started bringing back workers one day per week starting 11 April, then two days 2 May, with a ramp-up to three required days starting 23 May. In March, Robert Half, a global recruiting firm, released a survey that revealed 50% of US workers would rather resign than be forced back to the office full-time.īut in early May, one high-profile worker put his money where his mouth is: Apple's director of machine learning, Ian Goodfellow, resigned over the Silicon Valley giant’s return-to-office policy. Throughout the pandemic, many workers have said they'd quit if employers forced them back to the office. ![]()
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