[ad_1]
Among the many nuggets of wisdom I have received about building a successful career is this: Be the one who turns the office lights on in the morning and turns them off at the end of the workday.
Of course, that was from the days when people actually went to the office and the term “work ethic” really meant something. The idea was that working longer and harder than the job description required – including nights, weekends and holidays, if necessary – was a way to distinguish yourself from the herd of clock-watching Dilberts who spent their time finding ways to shirk responsibility rather than take on more.
With a slowdown looming and companies continuing to trim their work forces, slackers should beware. The watchwords for 2024 we’ve been hearing on virtually every corporate earnings call are “efficiency” and “cost-cutting,” as the strategic shift from growth to profitability that began last year continues. That means the old-school idea of a work ethic isn’t just in vogue again, it’s an imperative.
This will upset people who believe jobs are an entitlement, not a privilege, including the armies of employees who got comfortable working remotely and continue to gripe about how unfair companies are in making them go back to the office, even if it is in the best interest of the business. When the going gets tough this year and the axe falls – as it did this week for 600 people at big investment management firm BlackRock – many of those who have overinflated opinions of their own value to an enterprise and enjoy making their own rules about when and where they work may find themselves wishing they had an office to go to.
Those who survive the purge will find things tougher. And companies are not sugarcoating their expectations. In a recent memo to employees, Niraj Shah, the CEO of online home décor company Wayfair, was blunt.
“Working long hours, being responsive, blending work and life, is not anything to shy away from,” Mr. Shah wrote.
You can bet Wayfair’s HR enablers lost sleep over Mr. Shah’s candour. In an era of work force coddling and capitulation, the suggestion of working long hours and being responsive is a lawsuit waiting to happen.
The reality, of course, is that’s why they call it work, not play. And like it or not, the hard line reflects the harsh truth of an economic environment that requires decisive, if sometimes painful, tightening of corporate belts. The numbers support the posture – while productivity among U.S. workers improved in the last half of 2023, it is still well below long-term levels.
While investors are delighted with the frank practicality of leadership at companies such as Wayfair, there are downsides to the emerging era of workers being expected to do more with less.
Recent research shows a majority of workers are increasingly unhappy. Among the causes are return-to-office mandates, some with serious repercussions for non-compliance.
The tug-of-war between companies and workers over the right balance of remote and in-office work has strained the relationship. Many workers now consider work flexibility a top priority when deciding whether or not to stay in a position and in evaluating other opportunities. Some workers have simply walked away from jobs requiring in-office attendance.
The coming crunch – and the resulting pressure to work harder with fewer resources – is likely to leave workers who manage to keep their jobs with less flexibility to do what suits them. As 40-hour weeks are pushed to 50 or 60 hours or more – and more of those hours are booked in the office – we may hear the re-emergence of terms such as “burnout” and “job fatigue” in the workplace lexicon.
As control swings back to companies that tiptoed through work force issues during the pandemic but now have economic reality to deal with, it’s sort of a be-careful-what-you-wish-for scenario for workers. If you are lucky to keep your job, personal productivity expectations will go up as the resources required to do the job go down.
Another bit of career advice I got was this: Do the jobs no one else wants to do. Showing such initiative where others won’t will help set you apart, even if you fail.
Heading into what promises to be choppy economic times, workers may have no choice but to take that advice. There won’t be anyone else to do the dirty jobs – or any other jobs, for that matter.
Gus Carlson is a U.S.-based columnist for The Globe and Mail.
[ad_2]
Source link