Ancillary#4 First thought on the deabte of Work
I always believe that the Pandemic has fundamentally changed our life. With social distancing, we rely more and more on the Internet: more people work online, more people order takeout instead of going to the restaurants in person, people spend more time with their families, and students like me must take zoom university. These factors all contribute to the change of work form and how we will job. The idea of the Great Resignation really surprised me: I thought more people got unemployed due to the pandemic. After reading all those articles, I still believe the overall job positions decreases greatly, but jobs mobility increases and people’s notions about jobs changes. More people, especially the young, are trying to pursue their ideal jobs with flexibility, higher salary, and meanings, while those positions without those attributes become even less attractive and struggle to meet the demand for labor force.
I learned a lot from QR library and support most of its ideas about the changing of jobs. Due to the pandemic and the improvement of people’s material life, more and more employees concern about their health and tend to put working condition on a higher priority while choosing jobs. This argument agrees with my observation to the people around me. To avoid getting infected by Covid in workplace, working remotely is a great attraction to more people. My cousin just refused a job with higher salary and chose another one that allows remote working. In fact, he went travelling around China while working for the past half year, enjoying his life while earning money. The technology development really set up the foundation for remote working mode. Without internet, we can not work online or find jobs easily: the popularization of internet is also the catalyst of the Great Resignation.
From the article of The Great Resignation, I learned that many employers have plenty of openings and need more employees. However, I don’t think that “employees are in the driver’s seat right now” is accurate to describe the labor market now. The jobs with high salary, meanings, flexibility become even more competitive since more people quit their jobs to pursue better jobs like those. The employers that can give good offers can have more choices, in fact, due to the Great Resignation. Also, many jobs are taken away by computers. The unemployed need to fulfill the openings of the jobs people are reluctant to take, while the talented and employees with professional skills, that cannot be replaced by computers, are even more wanted in the labor market. Also, from the article of The Pandemic Revealed How Much We Hate Our Jobs, I think that the Pandemic made people realize how they can live without doing their original work. More employees turn their focus on their families, instead of careers. I think this will induce a decrease in shopping, since many people quit their jobs and don’t have money.
