Amazon has joined other companies in delaying their reopening plans, pushing the date back until January 3rd. The company has not added a vaccine mandate to their plans, although masks are required for unvaccinated employees. Uber has announced that corporate employees in their US offices will be required to be vaccinated, but drivers and passengers are not.
Let’s reference Business insider, which highlights this new landscape. Startup Workato reopened on June 15 – and no one showed up. Zoom is delaying office openings… because only 1% of workers are willing to show up. And Google has approved 85% of nearly 10,000 requests for remote work or relocation.
US Employment is at a new pandemic era low of 5.4%, with an addition of almost a million new jobs in July. Wages have risen 4% from this time last year. That from the US government, while LinkedIn is reporting an average of 49 days from submission of an application to hiring for engineering jobs. It’s 46 days for business development. CompTIA noted that the unemployment rate for tech occupations dropped to 1.5% in July, according to that same U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data. That’s the lowest level since August 2019 and is close to the historic low of 1.3%.
In that context, l’m linking to Protocol which dives into the four day work week an the companies that are embracing it.
I’ve got two themes. First, tactically, work isn’t just sliding back to the way it was, nor is the pandemic over. It bears repeating – get vaccinated – but also work a plan and help customers with one.
The second is the changing employment situation. I’ve long since thought this rush to return to the office was artificial, and exposes a legacy thinking that isn’t based on either current market conditions nor on actual data. It smells more like lazy management. That leaves an opening for creative thinkers, as well as opportunity to deliver services around helping customers examine their options. The reason I keep focusing here is that the consulting opportunities are just so ripe, so a constant feed of data is something to mine.