A stagnating labor market is leading workers to hold tightly onto their jobs, even as growing workplace uncertainty stokes resentment and concern among employees, consultants warn. But while employees are staying put to weather the storm, this act of “job hugging” could only be temporary as they prepare to flee as soon as market conditions improve.
“Given just all the activity that happened post-Covid and then some of these constant layoffs, people are waiting and sitting in seats and hoping that they have more stability,” Korn Ferry managing consultant Stacy DeCesaro told Fortune.
“No one is wanting to leave unless they’re very unhappy or miserable in their job or just feel so unsettled by the company,” DeCesaro said.
“It’s no accident that trends like ‘quiet quitting’ are resonating now,” Daniel Zhao, lead economist at Glassdoor, wrote in the report. “As workers feel stuck, pent-up resentment boils under the surface and employee disengagement rises.”
On top of bleak job prospects elsewhere, employees are also grappling with a rotating door of company management, which has exacerbated feelings of discomfort and disconnect from a firm’s vision, DeCesaro said. Some of her clients said they’ve worked under three different company presidents in the 18 months.
In other cases, DeCesaro said, new management has provided hope for employees, incentivizing them to stick around that much longer, even if their workplace culture ultimately doesn’t end up changing for the better.
Employees may have few other career options now, but once market conditions approve, this quiet discontent will no doubt mean deja vu for employers, DeCesaro said: another Great Resignation is coming.
“Once the market improves, I think it’s going to be super active because there’s a lot of pent-up demand of like, ‘I’ve been miserable here for a while, but I’ve just been waiting for a better opportunity or a better market to move,’” DeCesaro said.
If employers want to ensure their workers don’t leave as soon as they see other career options, they should focus on looking for opportunities to open doors of communication between management and rank-and-file workers, as well as take time to gather and listen to workers’ feedback, according to DeCesaro.
With some jobs remaining entirely remote, there should be a continued effort to gather once a year or quarter to create a cohesive company culture.
“It’s going to be a fruit basket turnover of talent,” DeCesaro said. “But if you’ve invested in your people between now and when that happens, people are going to be reticent to leave.”
