Working Free says it understands it. Here’s a selection of material from the serious Media – all except one within the last month. It’s looking like a pattern.
FT Magazine – 20.11.22 – Gillian Tett – “Don’t mess with the way this generation works.”
“There is so much quiet rebellion in the working world – and executive alarm about it – that many companies have been more accommodating.” (… than, for example, JP Morgan Chase….and WFH.)
Sunday Times – 21.8.22 – Louise Eccles, Laith Khalaf and Tom Calver
“ Working 9 to 5 then 5 to 9 – the new way to make a living.” 2mn FTEs (Full time Employees) in the UK have second jobs. Numbers increasing all the time – now at its highest level for 23 years.
Sunday Times – 6.11.22 – Jill Treanor
“Jobs on the line: BrItain’s labour miracle falters. Unemployment has defied the doomsters after Covid but now companies are sharpening the axe. Redundances are very much on the minds of chief executives.”
Sunday Times – 13.11.22 – David Smith
“How do we get Britain back to work? The labour market is more dysfunctional than at any time in recent history.” David Smith says “ Strikes are costing us millions but a much bigger enemy of growth is the ill-health and apathy that is keeping many would be employees at home.”
Daily Telegraph – 14.11.22 – Tom Rees
“Bosses gain the upper hand as recession looms.” Tom Rees writes – “Staff shortages have boosted wages, perks and bonuses ….. but what if the cost of living squeeze sparks a rush for the best jobs?”
Matthew Lynn of the Daily Telegraph observes, on 5.11.22
“Even if taxes must rise, a raid on entrepreneurship is madness.” (Entrepreneurs and Start-Ups.)
From the Guardian – 16.11.22
Britain is suffering worse economic performance than its rivals because of Brexit and a stark drop in the size of the workforce since the Covid pandemic, the Governor of the Bank of England has said.
FT – 26.11.22 – Camilla Cavendish
The Great Unretirement era is coming for Britain. Older affluent workers are leaving the labour force – employers and the government must get them back. Many are retiring early not because they are too sick to work but because they are sick of working.
The experts know what the questions are but the answers seem to be elusive – and practical action – by anyone – not to be seen anywhere.
Most thought that post Covid unemployment would surge – and it didn’t. Most did not anticipate the high volume of no-shows back at work. No-one seems to know what the exact absentee number is – and go for various numbers between 400k and 1mn. No-one seems to know exactly how this is segmented; nor exactly what ill-health means; nor what inactive means; nor what is going to happen next; nor what the timing is going to be.
When this dust settles a bit, what we will have is a growing number of “workers” who fall back – willingly and/or advisedly – partly or not at all – on their own personal resources – which might be money – but not when it runs out – and leaves them to their own personal abilities, ingenuity and drive to find solutions.
This is what Working Free does. The best answers are often the oldest.
In 1859, Samuel Smiles published “Self Help”, www.workingfree.co.uk/echoes-samuel-smiles-1812-1904/ It was a massive best-seller in its day. It told multiple stories of those – mostly ordinary – individuals who came to power the Industrial Revolution. What they had in common was desire, persistence – and being able to find out how to do it.
(Most of the statistical data in this overall area comes from the ONS Employment Statistics and, probably, the best interpretations come from www.Employment-Studies.co.uk )