I have a collection of job data I need to catch up on.
Hiring pauses and layoffs are impeding upskilling initiatives, according to a Monday Pluralsight report. The software company surveyed 1,216 IT executives and technologists.
The report found that hiring freezes have burdened nearly half of tech workers with tasks outside of their job function. Two-thirds of tech managers said software, IT, and data layoffs have pushed their teams to take on additional responsibilities, cutting into time that might otherwise be allotted to training.
Despite budget constraints, companies haven’t cut back on investments in tech training. Nearly two-thirds of tech leaders have been asked to cut costs, yet almost three-quarters still plan to increase spending on tech skill development this year.
And from that GoTo survey, I mentioned earlier this week. The survey saw almost double the amount of in-office workers compared to when the same question was asked in 2022 (36% now compared to 19% last year); hybrid work remains the gold standard, with half the respondents splitting their time between home and the office. Year-over-year results show a decrease of 10% in the number of businesses that have official rules on the number of days an employee needs to be in the office, meaning that employees have more flexibility than ever.
Roughly three years after the COVID-19 pandemic upended U.S. workplaces, about a third (35%) of workers with jobs that can be done remotely are working from home all of the time, according to a new Pew Research Center survey. This is down from 43% in January 2022 and 55% in October 2020 – but up from only 7% before the pandemic.
The new survey finds that 41% of those with jobs that can be done remotely are working a hybrid schedule –working from home some days and from the office, workplace, or job site other days. This is up from 35% in January 2022.
And in what is likely the most unpleasant use for remote working, Zoom layoffs are gaining traction — This week, McDonald’s told corporate employees not to come to the office so that the fast-food giant could “communicate key decisions related to roles and staffing decisions” — or, in plain English, do layoffs remotely. PepsiCo reportedly told workers to stay home while it conducted job cuts in December 2022. Twitter closed its offices in San Francisco to conduct layoffs last year.
Why do we care?
Telling it in story form. Companies doing layoffs and hiring freezes need to compensate for the impact of the training initiatives because keeping your existing staff is critical. We’re setting into a happy medium of remote and hybrid work, as it was never going to be all of nothing.
And smaller companies should lean into their ability to be personal and generous because a Zoom layoff sounds awful among a selection of pretty awful choices.