Results of a recent survey by Harris Interactive caught my eye due to its revealing evidence of behavioral change in the American workplace. Elizabeth Olson wrote a beautiful piece about this in Fortune and I thought the subject of her work is timely to share.
When the economy went in the tank four years ago America was teetering on our second Great Depression and workers were consumed by fears of job security. Today things have shifted. Americans are worrying less about job security and more about the size of their paychecks. It is easy to tie these two together, as millions more Americans vacationed this summer than years past. Where guilt suppressed vacation frequency over the past several summers, activity is up this year—fed by marketing campaigns such as what Westin Hotels & Resorts refer to as “mental breaks.” With job continuance somewhat assured, people will go take a break.
The slide percentage of potential layoff worries is convincing: just four percent now, down from 13 percent a year ago. This worry dominated the minds of American workers in 2007, surpassing 50 percent. Economic stabilization (to some extent) has resettled the workforce. Today workers are more concerned with flat pay than they are about job security, work overload, commuting, tyrannical bosses, and other negative distractions. One of every nine respondents ranked flat pay as their number one worry.
Jobs data seems to back the survey. Economist Christine Owen of the National Employment Law Project said, “We are not seeing the same level of job loss. The massive personnel rifts that characterized the recession period have ended and fewer people are looking for employment after losing their jobs than they were several years ago.
“After one year, two, or three, people worry less about being let go by their employer,” adds Owen. “And the kinds of jobs being created are not highly paid.”
Her view is key: stability comes after acceptance. The rules are different now and workers know it. As those lucky enough to have jobs demonstrate, trenching down in the new economy comes with far less upside expectation of boom era stability.
One of seven women place low wages at the top of their workplace stress list, compared to just one of 12 men.
Fortune’s Olson reports, “Women have made some progress in closing the gender pay gap, according to newly released federal census data. Last year, the median income for a woman was $37,118, up from the $28,699 in 1973, taking inflation into account. Men, on the other hand, saw their median earnings fall to $48,202 this year, some $2,000 less than the $50,622 average in 1973.”
As I am a massive champion of finding work you love to do so it never seems like work, twice as many women as men see their stress coming from that particular chafe: one of nine women versus one man in 20 are working in a job they do not like performing. Necessity, not choice, is usually the culprit.
John Swartz, spokesman for Everest Collect (who sponsored the survey) deduced, “The economic recession may be contributing to that workplace distress. Women may be working for the good of the household, and taking any job because that’s what they have to do.”
Interestingly, college-educated workers ranked an unreasonable workload more stressful than flat pay. Grumbling even louder—one of seven—were blue-collar workers who lack a high school degree.
This being the case, the undereducated and menial skilled are in for a tough road: If wages stay flat—as they are predicated to do—working in these jobs is likely to remain stressful because advancement is limited and economic security nearly impossible. Aging, blended with emotional stress and creeping inflation, is not the stuff of a yellow brick road.
Who wins and loses in flat times like these?
Newly released U.S. Census Bureau data on 2011 income, poverty, and health point directly to the winners and losers: the rich win, the middle class is getting pummeled, and African-Americans are being body slammed.
The stats tell the story:
- The top 5 percent of income earners saw their average household income rise by 5.1percent between 2010 and 2011.
- Typical median household income was down 12.4 percent in 2011 compared to 2010.
- African-American households took a beating. Median household income fell 16.8 percent. For every $30 coming in during 2010, $25 came in just one year later.
- Hispanic households saw a 10.8 percent decline.
What jobs were lost?
Two-thirds of jobs lost in the shocks and aftershocks of the recession were mid-wage occupations. The recovery is slow because 58 percent – nearly three out of every five created since — are in the low-wage tier. The government defines the low-wage tier as salaries ranging between $15,995 and $28,766. Middle-wage jobs are classified as those paying between $28,787 and $43,950.
Workers, however, are feeling like grapes: squeezed by flat pay on one side and excessive work overload on the other. They are busier than ever before but barely as productive, the culprit for which is an insidious bad habit known as “multi-tasking,” is a conceptual myth fabricated and fed by those who benefit from selling the tools that litter the battle-scarred landscape of the concept while creating dependence and addiction.
A worker can do but one thing at a time and multi-tasking is nothing more than jumping back and forth. One of every 11 workers surveyed said their workload isn’t just excessive — it’s totally unreasonable. Some employees, especially task-oriented workers, are vulnerable to dramatic emotional reactions when faced with increasing demands.
Excessive pressure, if measured by output-per-worker and called Worker Productivity, increased 1.6 percent from April through June, according to the Labor Department, which led companies to reduce hiring to 75,000 jobs monthly. While encouraging, that rate is roughly one-third of what it was in the first quarter.
Brett Good, senior district president for national staffing firm Robert Half International, dissects the hiring trend: “Unemployment for those with college degrees is in the three to four-percent range, in serious contrast to probably 14-to-16 percent unemployment for those with lighter skills.” Good then added that his firm’s research determined that 17 percent of U.S. executives queried say they will add full-time, professional-level staff in this year’s fourth quarter.
But, as many will expand, some will contract—it is the nature of our free enterprise system. Five percent of companies expect layoffs.
“That means (a net of) 12% will be hiring,” said Good. “And that’s a good sign.”
There are several valuable insights in these real-time trends, and many reasons to look forward with optimism. The recovery will be too slow for the impatient, but work will be steady for many, especially for those smart enough to retool their skill sets with strategic intent.
Too many people spend more time planning their vacations than careers. This is a great time to invest in yourself and plan your route to growth and fulfillment. We have stabilization, and stabilization rewards those willing to compete.