What HR Leaders Can Learn From the Anti-Work Movement
Like many HR professionals, I have felt the frustration, constant stress, and finally, burnout since COVID-19 entered our realities. But there is another movement gaining traction since COVID: The anti-work movement. A common theme in many blog articles, posts, and updates online is, “How is HR feeling?” But there is not much talk on the counterparts who also want to see a change in the workplace - the anti-work folks.
The people behind this emerging trend became vocal and even viral on social media outlets like Reddit and Tik-Tok in the latter half of 2021 and are showing no signs of stopping as we enter 2022. As employees ourselves, it can be easy to feel for one side or another on this debate of the work culture in the US. Regardless of which side of the fence you lay on, one thing is true - HR and management are the keys to bringing the anti-work movement and the Great Resignation trend back into balance.
While scrolling social media on sites like Reddit, often referred to as the front page of the internet, you will see a forum titled r/Antiwork. The name itself can pique interest from anyone curious enough to scroll through the hundreds, if not thousands, of posts talking about the treatment of employees in the workplace.
As an HR professional, it can be easy to spot the trend of hourly workers telling their stories of their experiences in the workplace pre, and post-COVID, spoiler alert - the stories show conditions getting worse post-COVID. However, when looking further into the content, you will also find that it is more than hourly employees posting; professional roles, managers, and business owners are all sharing their stories.
I mentioned earlier that HR and management are the keys to bringing the two most significant trends in US working culture to a balance. Still, to know the steps we must take, we first need to understand what all these posts are sharing or, more interestingly, what they have in common. It should be no surprise that the common theme that ties The Great Resignation and the anti-work movement together is respect - respect for your fellow human beings.
After looking through the countless posts, it doesn't take long to realize that these two movements and HR should be on the same side. However, that is not the narrative most people believe, primarily due to the feeling that HR is not on the employee's side but the employer’s. This assumption is simply not valid; we are there to ensure the employer is not breaking laws, sure, but we are also there to provide an employee experience that is positive, respectful, and safe.
Oftentimes, we walk the tight rope balancing the needs of the employees and the employer, and it can become difficult to show this balancing act with everything that has changed with COVID. Recent research suggests and even confirms that what is good for the employee is also good for the employer (and even business overall), which is where HR and management comes into play.
There are posts about asking employees to come in on their approved PTO days, posts of employees not having safe working environments like proper ventilation, posts of managers making overarching and even threatening claims to employees that are jawdropping. These are just a few things you can expect to see on the forum, but what can we take away as professionals?
Here are three things HR professionals can do with managers to ensure that balance can start to be restored in 2022.
1. Talk the Talk, Walk the Walk
This first tip seems simple enough, but one thing that I have noticed as a root cause for resignations or people that are "anti-work" are managers holding employees to higher expectations than themselves. One user shared a story about their manager reaching out to them while they were out on approved PTO. The manager got upset when there wasn't an immediate reply and said they were expecting them to respond and even work while the employee was out of the office. However, the employee also shared that when they had a question to ask the manager while the manager was on PTO, the manager responded, in all caps, to respect their time away and not to contact them while they were out of the office.
As HR professionals, we can work with managers to establish the standards they must maintain for themselves and others. Managers have another level of responsibility and expectation to ensure experiences within the workplace are respective. As a manager, asking an employee to respect your time out of the office means that you must also not reach out to an employee if they are out of the office. Simple - walk the walk that you talk.
2. Understand the Reality of Work
No one wants to work for a living. People work to live. This is a newer concept in the workplace as more employees and trendsetters within organizational psychology talk about the cultural and environmental changes that have taken place throughout the former decades. This next tip can be challenging for some more traditional managers to embrace. Embrace and understand that most people don't adore working for a living.
A few interview questions I removed from my collection were, "Why are you looking for a job?" or "What is causing you to make a move now?" These questions serve no purpose in today's environment. We are looking for a job to make money because we all have bills to pay - accept this and move on; it doesn't make their motivation any less of a cultural fit.
Why is someone looking now? There can be many reasons, but it is our job to not judge fully on the past, but to take it only as a piece of the total picture and judge on potential. This is one way I started bringing balance back into my practice and catering to both sides' needs - the anti-work movement and the employer's. I know we need people working, but I also know that as a candidate, I don't appreciate wasting time in interviews forcing answers that do not relate to the role or can feel insulting, especially after COVID-19 redefining work culture overall.
As HR professionals, we can work with managers to clarify the employer/employee relationship in a way that isn't romanticized and lives within our new reality. We create a contract of expectations when we work for a company, they expect a certain level of work or result, and we expect a certain level of pay for that work. Sure, we can do several other things to improve the details, such as culture, benefits, perks, and more. But at the end of the day, we have to work to live, not live to work.
3. Simply be Human
Finally, all of these things come down to the Golden and Platinum rules of life: treat others the way you want to be treated, and treat others how they want to be treated. These rules talk about being patient, kind, understanding, empathic, respectful, or simply put, being human. All professionals that manage people in the workplace, either directly or cross-functionally, can improve their emotional intelligence. This is the best way to ensure that we treat our fellow humans with the respect they deserve and follow the Golden and Platinum rules of life.
At the end of it all, 2022 is about a shift in perspective, workplace norms, and the overall employee/employer relationship. HR and managers need to work together, balancing the needs of both the employee and the business, which shouldn't compete but be cohesive as a strategy ensuring we are growing and moving forward in these uncharted waters of Post-COVID.