#87: Above Average Millennials Laid Off Most, Google On The War Path Against Rest and Vesting, Remote's Here To Stay (Duh)
Layoffs are a feature, not a bug of full time employment. While this sucks for some, 93.98% of millennials don't have time to feel bad.
Leaders,
I ended my Saturday by spending over an hour picking burs out of Luca. Burs are those sharp things that attach to your skin and are impossible to pick out without pain.
The poor thing had a blast paddle boarding, and celebrated by rolling in a patch of burs that attached to literally every inch of him.
I hope you’re week goes better than that :)
Today we’re talking:
Layoffs crushing millennials
Anti-solution to quiet quitting from Google
Data to state the obvious that remote work is here to stay.
Let’s have a great week - Matt
🤯 Who’s getting laid off?
Above average millennial recruiters, engineers, and marketers. Check out the charts below from Business Insider. As a millennial myself, this is extra painful, but not surprising.
WTBFD (what’s the big f’ing deal) For Individuals:
WTBFD 1: Layoffs are a feature, not a bug of full time first employment.
WTBFD 2: Literally every single one of us needs multiple opportunities within reach. Freelancing is the quickest and safest way to do this. It doesn’t mean you need to quit your job or be a full time freelancer. It just means that you need to navigate your value in a remote, contract based environment.
WTBFD For Leaders:
WTBFD 1: Just as it sucks when full time employees get laid off, it sucks when you’re stuck in a hiring freeze, and it sucks that full time employment carries such a heavy risk.
WTBFD 2: Instead of high risk full time positions, start by hiring people as freelancers, then if the relationship grows, bring them full time. We see this all the time.
🤣 Google Goes A Step Further To Prevent Quitting By Ridding Of ‘Rest and Vesting’
Honestly, I still find it hilarious that coasting is now a story. Like why now? This has always been a thing.
No where is this truer than tech.
In the Inc. story, a former Googler said, “My days began at 11 and I took long lunches". I mean…as someone that lived in SF at a time when large company people introduced themselves by saying, “yeah…I know I sold out but the perks are sweet and I barely work”, this person sounds like the norm.
Which is why Google is cracking down in a hilarious way - literally trying to get rid of rest and vester’s.
According to the Inc. story, during their productivity sprint that they tried to get rid of inefficiencies and stated getting rid of 20% of their workforce was a possibility, they explicitly stated tracking down rest and vester’s as a solution.
According to the article: “There will be a number of solutions put in place to find efficiencies and weather this economic downtown. One of the approaches may just be a concerted effort in uncovering the resters-and-vesters and calling them out. Or getting rid of them altogether.”
WTBFD 1: Entrepreneurs start licking your chops at the time Google’s going to waste doing this.
WTBFD 2: Like above, coasting is a feature, not a bug in perpetual full time employment. Some companies can keep you excited for your whole career. UST seems like they can (stay tuned for leader portals highlighting this), Centric Consulting seems like they can (Larry English’s leader portal). But most can’t, and that’s okay. Instead of trying to force square pegs into round holes, embrace the reality of our digital ecosystem - a blend of freelance and first time with freelance making sense in most options.
WTBFD 3: Leaders, don’t become the rest and vester yourself. I know it’s tempting when the handcuffs are golden and the corporate machine seems too big to fight. But you don’t need to play politics, you can scale your impact by embracing the skills and scope that come with hiring freelancers.
🙌 Duh - Remote Work is here to stay
Wrapping it up with someone smart and with credentials to show us the obvious - remote work is here to stay.
We’ve seen the bounce back after Covid, and while we’re not at the peak, we ‘returned to normal’ with 30.9% of paid full time days being from home.
Also adding context around which industries are returning vs not.
🚀 Keep Going - Resources From Above
Take 30 minutes to position your freelancer value without quitting your day job.
We mentioned UST as a place that excels at keeping lifers. Below is Akhil Seth’s leader portal, a younger changemaker at UST.
We also mentioned Centric Consulting. Learn how they nurture life long leaders through Larry English’s leader portal below.
Keep the collaboration going with the social contract!!!!!
We’re on V3 of the social contract! Paid leaders, find the collaborative link at the bottom.
We updated:
Legal language added to protect your clients from classification risk
Termination language to protect both talent and businesses
Paid Leaders, Check Out…
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