After the pandemic years in which working remotely was a necessity and sometimes even an obligation, many companies have been determined to get people back to the office. And while companies are betting on face-to-face work, it is becoming more and more noticeable that workers prefer to do their tasks from home and save the daily trip to the office (or even save the costs that may come along with it).
The upshot of this, according to LinkedIn’s head of global economics and labor markets, Rand Ghayad, has said in an interview with The Washington Post is that there is “a big remote work mismatch”. That is, firms like LinkedIn, dedicated to uniting companies with people looking for new job opportunities, can always find that there are gaps between what companies need and what job seekers offer.
These gaps used to be things like not finding people with the skills or professions you are looking for. But, after the pandemic, another gap is added: “the workers look for jobs that offer certain attributes – such as the ability to work remotely – that employers are unwilling to offer.
And with the looming recession, which has started to translate into mass layoffs at many companies, including in the technology sector, now companies seem to feel they have to “the upper hand” to re-demand its conditions. A few months ago, at the beginning of this year, the Great Resignation that occurred of people leaving their jobs, made companies look for ways to retain talent. And the trend that is observed now goes the other way around.
Fewer and fewer remote vacancies
In October, there were two office job postings for every job seeker, according to a recent report written by Ghayad, from LinkedIn. On the contrary, there were two applicants for every available remote job. And it is that the jobs published on LinkedIn that need remote workers have fallen to only 14% of the vacancies.
With all this, it seems that company managers no longer feel the pressure to offer remote work or more flexibility. It seems that the idea is maintained that a productive and well-managed workforce is fully face-to-face and five days a week. This is according to studies from the United States, which we take into account here because the trend of teleworking went very hand in hand in Europe with the North American country.
According to Fortune magazine, “employers feel they now have the upper hand; there is a belief that looming layoffs amid a declining economy mean that workers will be more desperate to work and will give up the demands they made during the pandemic“.
We must not forget that while teleworking is part of our world as a new reality that has changed certain patterns of our life (because work occupies a huge part of our life) and has brought with it new behavioral studies, new routines ( as we have gone from presenteeism in the office to being connected much longer, something known as digital presenteeism) and new forms of business control.
From the great renunciation to remorse
While we started in 2022 with a great resignation that also reached Europe, a study carried out by Joblist affirms that a quarter of these people who left their job hoping to get a better position with better conditions, he has regretted the decision.
On the other hand, a study carried out by the Harris Poll says that 70% of people in the US said that it was more difficult for them than they expected. get a good position. This has coined a new term: “the great regret” that many analysts talk about.
When a worker feels exhausted or is not satisfied with the working conditions, it is normal for him to want to look for other opportunities. But when an economic recession is expected, the decision is not so easy.