BETA
This is a BETA experience. You may opt-out by clicking here

More From Forbes

Edit Story

Career-Impacting Workforce Trends To Watch Out For In 2023

Following

The new year will ring in changes and the continuation of workplace trends from the prior year. There will be ongoing layoffs and hiring freezes, as the Federal Reserve Bank continues fighting inflation, hiking interest rates and causing businesses to cut costs and jobs.

Quiet quitting will lead to quiet firing, as belt-tightening companies will no longer tolerate workers who don’t meet expectations. There will be a return to a retro business mindset, in which companies will see the worker-boss relationship as purely transactional. In response, workers will switch jobs to find better opportunities. They’ll also be more careful. Instead of going to high-flying startups or crypto exchanges, finding a secure employer will be a more prudent path.

Artificial intelligence and the metaverse may be two hot growth stories for 2023. Workers, ranging from fast-food to white-collar professionals, may grow concerned that AI could take over their job. Unionizing and workplace strikes will become more commonplace, as workers, burdened by high inflationary costs, need to fight for their financial and job safety.

The Job Losses Will Continue Until The Fed Is Happy

It’s only the first week of the new year and major layoffs have already been announced. Amazon announced on Wednesday that it will downsize more than 18,000 white-collar workers. The number is sharply higher than the previously reported plan to lay off 10,000 workers. Software-as-a-service giant Salesforce will downsize its staff by 10% and jettison its costly real-estate holding. Salesforce, along with Meta, Apple, Google, Microsoft and other tech titans, over-hired during the heady days of cheap-money flow and low inflation and is now paying the price by seeing the value of its stock plunge and the need to trim the staff to reign in expenses. Video platform Vimeo plans to ax 11% of its workforce. Similar to other companies, Vimeo points to a renewed focus on costs and expenses rather than its prior growth pursuits despite the burn rate of money. Stitch Fix, the subscription-based online retailer, is cutting 20% of its salaried staff, representing about 330 workers, and closing a distribution center. Sales plunged as consumers left their homes and shopped in malls and stores instead of ordering everything online as they did during the virus outbreak.

Although the announcements were made in January, most likely, the companies planned this months in advance and didn’t want to let people go during the holidays. It's highly probable that this trend will continue into the new year. Federal Reserve Bank chair Jerome Powell refuses to back down on his program to hike interest rates, which will depress the economy, causing businesses to cut costs, including headcount. This will continue until Powell sees a shift down to his 2% inflation target from a current 7.1%.

Quiet Quitting To Quiet Firing

The economy and job market were blazing hot up until it wasn’t in 2022. Businesses were engaged in a war for talent. With the pent-up demand from the lockdown, along with supply chain disruptions, the war in Ukraine and trillions of dollars flooding the market, jobs became plentiful. Employees had the upper hand, due to the outsized demand for workers. Recognizing the imbalance, managers had to acquiesce to the demands of job seekers and workers, as it would be too challenging to find, recruit, onboard, train and retain talent. They looked the other way when their staff surfed the internet, ran errands and engaged in non-work-related matters as they worked at home.

Now that the economy is predicted to enter a recession, job cuts, hiring freezes and job offers being rescinded will become more commonplace. Supervisors will feel emboldened to call people out who are disengaged and give their undivided attention to their responsibilities. There will be a growing pool of people in between jobs to draw from. To save money, companies will hire on a contract basis. Unlike permanent, full-time employees, health benefits and secure long-term employment is off the table for them.

Additionally, jobs will be relocated to lower-cost cities within the United States and businesses will recruit people worldwide, arbitraging the compensation differentials between what an American worker earns compared to someone in Nigeria.

Back To The 1950s

Sensing the vibe shift, workers will wake up to the fact that businesses won’t kowtow to their workers. Instead, they’ll return to the days of the 1950s to the pre-pandemic times. The company will provide you with a job for a certain wage and you will be expected to do all of what is expected. Acting your wage will be seen as a sign of defiance and will not be tolerated. Bosses will take more decisive actions against those who don’t pull their weight.

With greater control, corporate leaders will push for people to come back into the office. Baby Boomer bosses were never completely sold on remote work. At home, the executives were just like everyone else. They spent 30 to 40 years wearing suits, commuting into the office and barking orders at their workers. When everyone is under one roof, managers can watch when you come into the office, see when you disappear for two hours during lunch and notice when you sneak out early for your kid’s school events.

An unintended consequence could be companies deciding to downscale their real estate holdings to cut costs. Once their leases are up, they won't renew them. Excess space will be offered for sublease.

Government Intervention

There has been a push by lawmakers to make pay more transparent. New York City, California, Colorado and other states must post salaries or compensation ranges on job descriptions.

Recently, the U.S. proposed doing away with noncompete clauses. The restrictive covenants prohibit employees from taking jobs with competitor companies with the threat of being sued. The Federal Trade Commission, which voted 3-1 last month to issue the proposal, asserts that noncompetes suppress wages and hinder new business startups.

Another bill was recently introduced by the New York City Council that could be a complete game changer for workers. Under this legislation, it would be illegal for employers to fire people without a good reason. The bill will offer security and protection from a manager capriciously firing you, if approved. Corporate leadership must ensure that their managers and supervisors expend time and energy to conduct extensive due diligence and have just cause before terminating a worker.

Separately, there has been a growing interest in workers unionizing and going on strike. Front-line workers, for example, were heralded as heroes during the dark days of the pandemic, and now they feel forsaken. They see the rich getting richer and inflation eating away at their paycheck. This employee-empowerment movement will continue as families have difficulty financially, as inflation has caused costs to skyrocket. Higher interest rates have priced many people out of the housing market, while apartment rentals in New York City average around $5,000 per month.

Job Safety Is Paramount

The new year will call for you to focus on job security, finding companies that can assure you that they are not planning layoffs and compensation that can keep up with inflation. You may want to go into the office up to five days a week to ensure that management notices you, as you’ll benefit from the proximity bias.

The beginning of 2023 will be challenging for workers. Job hunters will need to play defense. With predictions of continued layoffs, hiring freezes and an upcoming recession, the job market outlook won’t be as robust as it was in the recent past.

Just because a page is flipped on the calendar doesn’t mean that runaway inflation and high-interest rates will suddenly abate. The economy is likely to get worse before it gets better.

Job Switching

2023 is the start of a new era. It will be more transactional. Knowing that they don’t have the luxury of coasting and will be held to a higher standard, people will look for other opportunities.

During the Great Resignation, organizations realized that people wouldn’t likely stay for too long. Silicon Valley has the highest employee turnover rate. These workers want to learn as much as possible at their jobs and build networks.

Armed with new knowledge and robust connections, the person feels free to move on to another opportunity. Then, they will do the same thing again and again. Learn as much as possible, widen your network and move on when it's time. By jumping ship, you can exponentially increase your exposure to smart people who can help with your career.

The Metaverse And Artificial Intelligence

The metaverse will offer new, exciting opportunities to people. It could be an enhanced work-from-home experience that makes you feel part of the team and not isolated alone in your apartment. You can interact with co-workers, interview, find a new job, communicate with clients and build businesses. There’s an unlimited possibility of what can happen in a new virtual reality.

Unlike earlier tech paradigms, the metaverse will be much more challenging to wall off and control. Blockchain will allow access to metaverse participants who can build and create in a decentralized technology—without needing gatekeepers like Google and Apple—and make money without giving a cut to toll takers.

OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, was the standout tech of the last couple of months. People who previously felt that robots would take over jobs, fell in love with artificial intelligence. The software was one of the fastest-growing technologies in history.

Follow me on Twitter or LinkedInCheck out my website or some of my other work here