Friday Fun(d) - Where are the Workers?
Happy Friyay 👋
Today, we examine the theory of “The Great Resignation.” The post-pandemic labor trends will be examined for years to come because it’s nothing short of a head-scratcher. Let’s try and shed some light on it before the weekend!
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Hard work, work 👇
Where are the Workers?
In the past year, I’ve experienced poor customer service frequently. What started as a perplexing development has become a predictable trend. Some friends and I got seated at a restaurant this past weekend, and we got up and left after waiting 10 minutes for our server to approach us. It wasn’t her fault; she was one of two servers running around the whole restaurant. Then, we walked to the place next door only to be greeted by the manager saying, “Sorry guys, but we are out of food.”
Out. Of. Food.
I have never arrived at a restaurant to face these circumstances, not to mention it was lunch on a Sunday. But, honestly, it wasn’t that shocking.
The post-pandemic economy has been nothing short of earth-shattering. In a year and a half, we have gone from unemployment like never before seen to “The Great Resignation.” How did this happen? You would think in a recovering economy, people would be struggling to find jobs. Nobody predicted this, but here are the steps we took to get here:
Stimulus - Give a dog a bone, and it will come back hungrier.
Extra Unemployment Benefits - These expire this month, so maybe there will be an influx of labor
Work From Home - It turns out people like their house.
Delta Variant - Although, I’d imagine you would still like a job
Minimum Wage - Because inflation is astronomical, it’s almost pointless to work for $7.25/hour. Even though plenty of companies are raising it on their own
Vaccine Mandates - (Ehh, maybe another time)
Passion Economy - Life’s too short to sit at a desk
And it’s not just small business. Among a select group of CFOs of major U.S. corporations recently surveyed by CNBC, 95% say it is harder to find workers for open positions now, up from 18% who said that it was harder in the first quarter of the year. Look at how many job openings there are across the board:
What does this mean?
More often than not, the past decade’s rhetoric has been that technology will take everybody’s jobs. Andrew Yang ran for president on this entire premise; thus, he would give every working-age American $1,000 as a form of “universal basic income” (UBI). I was never against this idea, as I love hearing new thoughts from our country’s best minds.
But did we see how this system would work out, albeit on a much smaller scale, in the form of stimulus and very generous unemployment benefits? The main pushback to this notion is you’re incentivizing people not to work. By the end of the year, if we see a significant spike in labor participation, then we got a glimpse into a world of UBI without the technology infrastructure to back it up.
On the other hand, I think the pandemic snapped many people out of their work amnesia. Many realized life is too short not to be doing what you want to do. These ventures are a part of the “passion economy” (which I wrote more on here). For example, if I ever pursued my newsletter full time, I would join the passion economy. Things like that are a new normal that many employers have to compete with.
Overall, I think we’re still in the sweet spot of technology, allowing us to pursue new heights before it “takes over,” as many predict. We will be in this phase for a while, too.
Electives
What to Read
I don’t give book recs often because, if you’re going to invest the time in reading, it should be what piques your interest, not mine. So the few times a year I give a book recommendation is purposeful. It’s been a year since I have read Persuadable, and it’s honestly been life-changing. It’s allowed me to see scenarios with a broader lens and adjust my thinking. It’s not a long book either, and you can read it in a few sittings.
Podcast to Listen to
The Tim Ferriss Show: Kevin Systrom - tactics, books, and the path to a billion users
Kevin Systrom is the co-founder of Instagram, and my goodness, this guy is fascinating. I don’t know how I’ve never listened to him before. Here are some of the highlights (paraphrasing):
Kevin’s first startup was called “Burbn,” a concept around “checking in” to where you were drinking. Checking in was a big part of web 2.0, and Kevin thought this was his business model. As the app developed, he realized that posting a picture with the check-in was a huge hit. Quickly, Kevin discovered he was one-to-many in the space of check-ins but zero-to-one in mass posting pictures to friends.
Kevin emphasizes that successful startups are pivots. Instagram started as “Burbn”; Youtube was initially a dating site. “It’s tough to see what a product is until it’s in another person’s hands.”
My favorite theme Kevin lives by is never assuming, in any scenario, the answer is no. He explains this is a very hard mental model to break but life-changing once it happens. I’ve since put this mindset to work and have gotten two yes answers where I would have commonly assumed the answer was no.
Historical Find
Einstein-Szilard Letter
This letter was written by Leo Szilard (signed by Albert Einstein) and sent to FDR in 1939 as a word of caution that the Germans might develop atomic bombs. This warning jumpstarted the program and led to the Manhattan Project or the first atomic bomb. The letter itself is outstandingly written. It’s the perfect mix of words of caution with recommendations for steps to take.
Patent App of the Week
I was at a music festival this past weekend and had no phone service the entire time. This is always the case when in a crowd of thousands of people. But it still sucks when I have to miss shows with friends because we’re all running around the grounds, unable to communicate. Shouldn’t we have alleviated this problem by now?
Location-Based Messaging System - Callfire, Inc.
Description: The present disclosure is directed to systems and methods for managing location-based messaging. The location-based messaging may occur between users within a particular venue. A location-based messaging system may facilitate messaging between event attendees and service personnel at the venue, such as during times of emergency or other times when the location of one user is to be sent to and used by another user.
Bonus:
Here is a picture I took at Railbird Music Fest last weekend before my favorite act - Billy Strings