Bad Managers Are Making the Labor Crisis Worse
With quit rates soaring, companies can’t afford to let lousy bosses be one more reason for workers to leave.
Notoriously tough bosses like celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay won’t make it easier to keep workers on the job.
Photographer: CBS Photo Archive/CBSIt’s being called the Great Resignation. Quits are at their highest rate in 20 years and no one seems to understand why. One thing is for sure: the labor market has gone weird. People are leaving their jobs without having a new one lined up, pushing up unemployment rates even as wages rise and companies complain they can’t find enough workers. That’s led to lots of speculation that the pandemic has changed people’s priorities — and hence the U.S. labor market — forever.
In the urgency of the moment, it’s easy to overstate the significance of what’s going on; every major recession leaves scars. But some things don’t change, and that includes the most basic requirement for keeping employees happy and on the job: Good management.