Employers ramp up office attendance pressure | Gallup: Stress rises as employees take on more duties | Are there productivity benefits from monotasking?
Roblox is the latest employer to ramp up its efforts to get staff back to the office by informing them that they must come in three days a week from January or accept a severance package. The move, also taken by Grindr on a two-day-a-week basis, is an escalation from companies such as Google informing employees that their expected attendance of three days a week in the office would affect performance reviews.
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A Gallup survey found 58% of employees say they've been asked to take on additional responsibilities during the labor shortage, increasing the risk of stress, burnout and loss of engagement, writes Gallup's Ryan Pendell. "Employers are in danger of overloading their people, leading to increased sick days, disgruntled employees and departures, making their workforce problems even worse than before," writes Pendell, who adds employers should customize employees' responsibilities to match their strengths.
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US companies increased employee salary budgets 4.4% on average this year, marking the highest growth since 2001, and plan an additional 4.1% increase in 2024, according to a report from The Conference Board. A recession could ease competition for workers and slow salary increases, but senior economist Selcuk Eren said any downturn is expected to be short and shallow with limited impact wage growth.
Scientists at Nvidia taught ChatGPT to play the popular video game Minecraft by itself, demonstrating that generative AI can be programmed to serve as AI agents that automatically use apps, websites, spreadsheets, other digital tools and other AI for complex tasks. AI agents could improve efficiency and productivity, but it could also replace human workers.
Stress and burnout are different, but both can be addressed with some of the same tactics. Emotional intelligence is at the heart of it, and using it to combat stress and burnout can improve resilience, writes leadership consultant LaRae Quy.
And the office wars are heating up! Google, Amazon and Meta have been talking about bringing workers back to the office and imposing consequences for those who refuse. Now, according to our top story today, several other organizations -- including Roblox and Grindr -- are also laying down the law with their employees, calling them to either return to the office or accept a severance package.
What do you think? Sounds a bit draconian to me, but I know many employers want their workers in house. Would this work in your organization? Will employers struggle to fill the jobs of those who opt not to return to the office? Let me know! And if you enjoy this brief, tell others so they can benefit also.
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'Can it be true,' said the first leaf, 'can it really be true, that others come to take our places when we're gone and after them still others, and more and more?'
