#1

#TalentShortage #Pandemic

As workers and consumers, both, we're feeling the effects of a massive labor shortage right now. This (paywalled) article explains what's at play, and puts the magnitude of the shortage in perspective. From June 29 to July 11 last year, 1.8M people missed work due to Covid or needing to care for someone with Covid. But this year, over the same 2-week period? The figure more than doubled -- to 3.9M absences.

Compounding the shortage, workers are also taking more vacations right now -- leaving for the breaks they couldn't take last year (or two years ago). In a one-week period cited by the article, vacations were up more than 28% this year, over last. All of this is creating incredible complexity for businesses, and their ability to plan, resource and meet demand.

#2

#WorkNorms #Pandemic

Nick Bloom is a Stanford economics professor whose research reveals -- that fist bumps are surging in the workplace. Use of a fist bump is up12% since the pandemic. But that increase pales in comparison to the growth of "no-touch verbal greetings" -- which are up 34% -- more than double their pre-pandemic share. And all of this is coming at the expense of the good, old-fashioned (and yes, antiquated) handshake. Handshakes went from ~61% of greetings, to ~18% ater the start of the pandemic. 🤯 📉

#3

#WorkJoke #JobDescriptions #GuiltyAsCharged😔

We got such a kick out of this, because we've killed more than our share of plants -- and written more than our share of job descriptions about our "fast-paced" work environments. What a fun reminder to keep it all -- work included -- in perspective. 🙃

Thanks for reading, and have a great week. 🙏🏻

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