Power Surge: Do Employees Have Too Much Control?
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As someone who has long championed employee experience and putting people first, this was a really hard but necessary article to write.
Recently, we have seen a dramatic shift in terms of the balance of power from organizations to employees but it has gone too far in one direction.
In the past few decades, particularly during the 1980s, 1990s, and early 2000s, organizations wielded immense power. They controlled every aspect of work, and employees were mere cogs in the machine — showing up, completing tasks, receiving pay, and going home. However, from the mid to late 2000s, the balance of power began to equalize a bit. Organizations started investing in employee engagement and experience programs, creating a more balanced environment. This trend accelerated in the years leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The pandemic, however, has swung the pendulum too far in favor of employees, especially white-collar workers. CEOs and leaders frequently share stories of employees demanding higher pay, better benefits, more equity, remote work, and reduced four day workweeks. As companies face inevitable layoffs, those who demand too much and contribute too little are the first to go, which is what we are seeing now.
For the past few years, organizations have been acquiescing to the demands of their people and now with the end of The Great Resignation and Covid, that trend is reversing, in a sharp way so what does this mean for you?
Today we have to incentivize employees to come back to work which sounds crazy doesn’t it? When I was younger, the work itself was the incentive. I wanted a job so that I could get paid, grow, learn, develop, and become more successful. I wanted to save money to buy car, a house, and have a family. Work was my incentive, nobody needed to convince me to show up. I had a job I was hired for and I did it. Now we see employees protesting when they are asked to come back to the office?
Today, we are finally seeing some top companies telling employees to get back or get out.
Consider some of the following stats:
- The lowest wage a worker without a college degree is willing to take is over $61,000 which is a $10,000 increase in a single year and at an all time high. The survey was from 2021 so it’s undoubtedly higher now.
- 88% of companies are offering incentives to employees to entice them to return to the office.
- 42% of workers surveyed say they’d consider quitting if forced to come back full time.
- 21% said no incentive could convince them to return to the office.
We keep hearing about the fact that the great resignation occurred because employees didn’t want to work for bad managers or organizations which I know was a part of the equation. But I want to propose an alternate view. When employees have too much power what is their incentive to work harder or to go above and beyond?
There isn’t any and so one reason why I think we have seen the quiet quitting trend is because employees were just coasting in their roles, knowing that they could. Many CEOs I’ve talked to over the past 18 months agree. I can’t help but feel that there is a general decline in terms of work ethic where many (not all) people want to work less but get more, and this is a dangerous and not sustainable place to be in. In fact a recent article by the WSJ highlighted that organizations are hiring older employees instead of younger ones because they want hard workers.
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Complacency kills innovation and stagnates growth, not just for the business but for you as an individual. Competition, hard work, occasional sacrifice, and going above and beyond what is expected of you are all good things. Some people might read this and say “ya, but productivity has been great!” But that’s not the goal here. Productivity is about checking things off a to-do list, it’s about doing your job. If that’s all that matters to you or your team then sure, don’t ever come into an office. But if you care about things like leadership development, executive presence, effective communication, coaching and mentoring, career progression and growth, connection and collaboration, and innovation, then yes, there is still value to being in the office, not all of the time, but some of the time. Even Microsoft did an internal analysis and found that working remotely all the time hurts collaboration and innovation.
One reason companies mandate office returns is to facilitate a reset. Employees need to reconnect with company values, culture, vision, and future direction — elements that may have been lost during the pandemic. The issue is not merely productivity but also longevity, creativity, proactivity, and adaptability.
The smart move for employees across all levels at the moment is to stick to basics which is to focus on doing great quality work. We are already starting to see things re-balance a bit and I expect this will continue through the end of this year at least.
In fact, we are now talking about The Great Stay, the idea that employees are now grabbing on tight to what they have in terms of employment as the market continues to show signs of severe turbulence.
My concern now, is that the pendulum swings too far in the other direction back in the hands of organizations and the leaders who run them, as a result, turning employees back into cogs! This is a very real possibility especially with the advancement of AI which I will talk about in a subsequent subscriber post.
My best piece of advice for everyone reading this is to continue to work hard and don’t do any boat rocking…at least not yet!
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