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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Should I stay or should I go?

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RHAS been telling me of her recent troubles with some young employees who, despite the pandemic and its impact on company revenues, were able to keep their jobs and their usual salaries.

Yet midway, even as many others in the country lost their own sources of income and livelihood due to the lockdown, these 20-somethings, reared in upperclass homes and having studied in posh colleges and universities, decided that staying at R’s company didn’t do them any favors. They resigned.

I asked R what reasons these kids gave for their resignation. “Kasi daw, they didn’t get the raise they were promised. And we didn’t give them a bonus last Christmas.” But did you tell them that the company had not been earning as well as before because of the pandemic? R replied, “Yes. We had meetings with them to tell them about the state of the company’s finances.”

Haaay…I sighed to myself, while my eyes rolled back into my head.

According to R, when she asked her resigning employees what they would do instead, one answered she would go back to school and get her Master’s Degree. The other said she would just set up her own business, to be funded by the parentals, no doubt.

I get it. There is a difference between these younger generations’s concept of a “job” and ours. We would basically stay in an unremarkable job doing uninspiring work as long as it pays well. Even if the job is super-challenging, pressure-filled and low-paying, many of those in our Generation X would still stick to it. “It pays the bills,” we would tell ourselves.

On the other hand, millennials and Z-lennials would rather work in a place they enjoy and be among people they can have fun with. They want a job that will pay them a high salary, despite their lack of experience. (Remember the Ateneo graduate who turned who turned down the P37,000-a-month job?) They also want to work in a company that allows them to have the perfect work-life balance, which may be admirable to an extent…who wouldn’t want to spend more time with friends and loved ones, or go on regular vacations? They need to be cajoled into working long hours and on weekends, even if it comes with overtime pay.

Look, I’m sure not all millennials and the new graduates are directionless. There will be some, who, out of necessity, will learn to live with the challenges their office throws at them, and hopefully, they overcome those. But for the most, their patience will wear thin, and despite this raging pandemic, will walk out the door without thinking of the next steps they will take.

  So, is it worth staying or leaving your job?

1. First, try to identify what exactly about your job bugs you. Is it the salary? Is it boring, or are you receiving too much pressure? Are your colleagues insufferable, or, more importantly, is it your boss who’s a boil in the butt of humanity? (It’s important to find out as well if these non-endearing qualities of your coworkers/your boss are symptomatic of a larger issue in the company, or they were just born that way.)

2. Ask some friendly coworkers about their own experiences. It’s also important to discuss what your own feelings are about your work, not just with people your age, but older coworkers or maybe supervisors. If you admire them for how they’ve risen through the ranks, ask them how they became successful. You might get insights on how you can approach your own work challenges.

3. Even if working from home, the stress on many employees can multiply. (The Zoom meetings alone take a terrible toll on one’s mental health.) Because we’re in a pandemic, I think this is the worse time to be out of work, or to switch jobs. So ask yourself if the situation is so bad that you can no longer wait another day to get out of that office, or are there attractive features in the company that can compensate for the difficulties you’ve been having. I would urge caution, buckle down to work, and get enough experience and successes that you can take to your next job, post pandemic.

4. If you’re still unconvinced it’s not worth it to stay, then by all means walk away. Talk to your boss, make sure you leave with the air all clear and no hard feelings between anyone. The world is too small; you might still end up working with these people in the future. 

As for the managers and bosses out there trying to keep the company afloat amid this pandemic, just be open and honest about your company’s situation and how you’re dealing with the financial challenges. Solicit ideas, get the help of your employees—who knows, they might have some excellent ideas on how to help you hurdle the obstacles you are currently facing. No one has the monopoly on good ideas; maybe these youngsters can teach us a thing or two about dealing with the hard stuff.

If they must go, then let them, especially if you did everything to keep them happy. Find out why they are resigning and make sure to keep a mental note about it. The reasons given will enable you to address employment issues in general, and help you build a better and stronger company in the future.

Image courtesy of Kinga Cichewicz on Unsplash

Read full article on BusinessMirror

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