Kate Hackett
Augie Ray, who is a Vice President of research in customer experience at Gartner, recently posted on LinkedIn that quickly went viral on the AntiWork subreddit. Ray explained why company leaders should stop complaining and blaming workers for the issues the leaders are having keeping employees. Instead, he says, it’s the bosses who are not doing enough.
Here’s his full post.
Augie begins by pointing out that raises need to go beyond inflation, which is currently 7%.
“No one wants to work. Our turnover is terrible.”
Did you give raises over 7%, the rate of inflation, so workers got ahead? “No”
He then asks about raises and bonuses compared to others in the same fields.
Did you give larger raises and bonuses to execs than others? “Well, yes, but…”
And points out that labor just shifts when people leave, which means employees do more work for the same pay.
Did you ask people to pick up slack for those who left? “We had t…”
He then notes the safety concerns of the pandemic, as well as the costs of working from home.
Did you force people to come back into the office who didn’t feel safe doing so? “I mean, we…”
Did you cut budget for training or shift expenses to employees working from home? “Like other com…”
Did you ask people to do more with less? “Like every yea…”
And how gross it is to spy on WFH employees.
Did you install digital tools to spy on employees working from home? “We need to ensu…”
Did you threaten to take salary away from remote workers who relocated? “We assess the cost of liv…”
Another problem: workers relocating to save money because the boss-man isn’t raising their pay to meet inflation are now being paid less because they live in a lower-cost-of-living area.
Sounds to me like people want to work, you’ve just made it unpalatable to work for you.
WILD APPLAUSE. Damn right. All of this is so spot on.
The post went viral with over 17.1 likes on LinkedIn and 130,000 upvotes on Reddit. The AntiWork subreddit is “for those who want to end work, are curious about ending work, [and] want to get the most out of a work-free life.”
Because the post was so popular, Augie Ray gave an update. He wanted to clarify particularly that he is not “anti-work”.
