The survivors are now burned out, fed up, and looking for an escape route. Idris*, who lives in Manchester, England, doesn’t remember a time when his team was fully staffed. Since joining the product team at an insurance tech startup in early 2020, he has witnessed three waves of resignations. “The first lot left toward the end of 2020, when it was clear the pandemic was going to drag on—lots of people had been with the company a while, so it made sense,” says Idris.
“I soldiered on, mostly because of the promise of new recruits. I was involved in the hiring process, and although it was good to feel a sense of control over that, it ate into my working time massively.” His line manager didn’t acknowledge how long he was spending preparing and holding interviews, creating tasks, and discussing hires. All the extra work went unnoticed because he worked remotely, and he repeatedly pulled all-nighters to cover the gaps and deliver on internal deadlines.
After a lack of suitable candidates, the process ground to a halt and the business moved its focus elsewhere, even though Idris was doing the work of three employees.
If companies don’t start hiring, they could hemorrhage loyal, experienced employees who are being pushed over the edge. Indeed, the US-based Society for Human Resource Management found that 27 percent of workers feel less loyal to their employer amid the tumult of staff shortages. Idris has been contacted by several recruiters on LinkedIn and has his first interview at another startup next week. “I feel disrespected by my company’s failure to hire and the impact it’s had on my life,” he says.
And life is about to get a whole lot harder for the employees left behind, as tech companies across the globe trim their workforce amid plunging stock prices, inflation concerns, rising interest rates, and geopolitical issues. US firms such as Root Insurance, Rhino, Peloton, and Lacework made 20 percent of their workforce redundant in the first half of 2022. Across Europe, companies like Nuri, Klarna, Getir, Cazoo, and Hopin have also announced layoffs, all of which are double-figure percentages of their workforce. In May alone, 16,395 tech employees were let go, according to the crowdsourced tracker Layoffs.fyi.
Source: Wired
