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Employee confidence is still down from its July 2022 high.
gettyTired of hearing the same old excuse (“sorry, we overhired!”) for layoffs? You’re not the only one.
I wrote about a new report from jobs site Glassdoor, which publishes anonymous employee reviews. It found that the share of reviews mentioning overhiring has increased 24% since last March, and is up more than threefold since 2022. Not only is overhiring getting more mentions, but it could be one of the reasons employee confidence remains low.
When companies lay off employees and blame it on overhiring, those who remain are likely to feel discouraged and question management’s decisions, especially if the quantity of work stays the same or increases, says Peter Cappelli, management professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. Sounds about right.
Take the technology industry, where more than 191,000 workers lost their jobs last year, according to Crunchbase. After hearing the “overhiring” rationale, employee confidence has fallen nearly 12% since last year. The result? Employees remain stuck, demoralized and unproductive at work, as fears of more layoffs have them updating résumés between meetings and deadlines.
On the bright side, employee confidence in their employers remains highest in some of the most stable industries, such as education and healthcare. According to Glassdoor, they accounted for 59% of jobs added in the U.S. so far this year. I’m not sure I’m ready for a complete career change, but would you consider changing industries to tame your layoff fears?
Also a quick happy 20th anniversary to Gmail! (A little meta-celebration if that’s where you’re reading us from today.)
WORK SMARTER
Practical insights and advice from Forbes staff and contributors to help you succeed in your job, accelerate your career and lead smarter
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SPOTLIGHT: WHO’S USING AI AT WORK?
Increased AI use at work may make companies pay more attention to valuing their employees.
gettyAmericans are increasingly using artificial intelligence more than they were a year ago: According to new research by Pew Research Center, the share of American workers using AI for work has risen to 20%, up from 8% in March 2023.
But which workers are using AI—and how?
“There is a vanguard of people starting to become heavy AI users who are not technical talent,” says Aaron De Smet, senior partner at McKinsey and author of its latest generative AI report. Non-technical workers refer to employees who are not building the AI software, and thus find themselves using it to complement their tasks. Think project managers, nurses or salespeople.
AI technology has allowed them to become more productive and efficient in their work, De Smet says. But what managers are not paying attention to, he says, is the level of burnout heavy users of AI are experiencing.
“There’s a surprising number of people who say ‘I’m using AI and it’s working. I’m more productive and effective than I’ve ever been,’” he says. A two-hour task may turn into a 10 minute deal with AI. That also means employees are spending more time doing “higher level” work, but if the frequency increases too much they could quickly burn out, which could lead to workers searching for a different job .
While some may be lured away by higher salaries or a better title, the McKinsey study found higher pay wasn’t the top reason people were leaving—instead, they’re looking for “meaningful work” and more flexibility with their time. Employees want to know they’re working toward a goal and feel aligned to the company’s mission.
In a way, more AI use will mean companies need to focus more on the human element of work. As you spend more time using AI tools, you’re going to want more flexibility, more wellness benefits to prevent burnout and more reassurances that you’re valued. Put another way: It’s going to become even more important that your company treats you like a person at work.
“A couple hundred years ago, the industrial revolution dehumanized work,” says De Smet. “And now automation and AI is rehumanizing work.”
TOUCH BASE
News from the world of work
Artificial intelligence darling Stability AI is the latest company to undergo a sudden and contentious shift in management, Forbes’ Kenrick Cai and Iain Martin report. Bad management, poor financial decisions and quiet layoffs, they report, prompted the eventual resignation of founder Emad Mostaque. It’s not the first (and won’t be the last) hopeful startup to undergo a sudden management shift. What do you do if you find yourself working for a startup and the founder leaves? Here are some tips on how to make the best of your time working at a startup.
Some big workplace app news: Microsoft is unbundling the video conferencing app Teams from its Microsoft 365 offerings and will offer a slightly cheaper subscription without it as the company tries to avoid being penalized by the European Union’s antitrust regulators. Google, meanwhile, announced it would delete “Incognito Mode” data from before December 2023 to settle a class action lawsuit against the tech giant.
Employees at Sega of America, the video game makers behind Sonic the Hedgehog and Football Manager games, voted to ratify a union contract that provides wage increases, making them the first workers of a major U.S. gaming company to do so. After the company laid off 61 workers this year, the union’s X account posted that it was able to more than double the number of saved jobs.
Fast-food workers in California will be paid at least $20 an hour, the highest minimum wage of any state in the country, as the state’s new minimum wage law went into effect April 1. About 500,000 workers will benefit from the 23% increase, which will apply to restaurant workers at chains that have at least 60 locations nationwide.
Gen-Zers are going back to the trades. Disillusioned with the cost of higher-education, an increasing number of young high school graduates, the Wall Street Journal reports, are turning to apprenticeships and trades like plumbing, welding and construction out of school. Forbes’ Emma Whitford reported in late 2023 that half of high school seniors are not applying to colleges costing more than $40,000, and more than half of college grads are still underemployed. The potential to earn money soon after high school, without picking up student loan debt, is understandably appealing. But in the long run, college graduates still earn more than those without higher education degrees, earning up to $1 million more
VIDEO
NFL Pro Bowl linebacker Jaylon Smith talks about finding business mentors.
NUMBER TO NOTE
1.7 million
That’s the number of layoffs in February of this year, according to the latest U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics report. It’s a slight increase from January’s 1.6 million layoffs, but job openings (at 8.76 million) and the number of people quitting (at 3.48 million) mostly held steady.
QUIZ
Which tech billionaire is looking to go back to his company and is reportedly bidding over $500 million to buy WeWork, the coworking space company founded in 2010, out of bankruptcy?
A. Adam Neumann
B. Bill Gates
C. Travis Kalanick
D. Masayoshi Son
Check if you got it right here, and join me in rewatching the Hulu and AppleTV docuseries on the company this week!
