對于一些員工來說,無論經濟多么不景氣,就業市場多么黯淡,或者當前的工作多么費力不討好,都無關緊要。一旦被裁(尤其是在疫情期間),許多員工都絕不會想要回到拋棄他們的地方。
根據情況跟蹤公司Layoffs.fyi的數據,僅今年一年,科技公司就裁掉了近24.5萬名員工,Meta和賽富時(Salesforce)等硅谷巨頭領先其他公司,各裁員數千人。
但勞動者們并沒有長期淪為輸家。現在,隨著就業市場再次發生轉變,各個公司正在搶奪人才,有些公司還意圖請回他們不久前才裁掉的員工。真正的問題是,如果被裁的員工不想回到這些公司呢?
Glassdoor最近的一份調查顯示,在受訪的6000名專業人士中,超過半數的人(58%)表示永遠不會回到裁掉他們的公司。在科技行業尤其如此,只有46%的員工說會“吃回頭草”。男性比女性更有可能考慮回頭,年長的員工比年輕的員工對此持更加開放的態度。
Glassdoor的首席經濟學家亞倫·特拉薩斯(Aaron Terrazas)在接受《財富》雜志采訪時表示:“由于勞動力市場在過去一年趨于疲軟……有些遺憾是免不了的。”隨著對經濟衰退的擔憂消退,一些行業已經開始“謹慎地”加大招聘力度,但“企業聲譽問題對招聘影響深遠”。
特拉薩斯補充道,“在勞動力市場的鐘擺不可避免地回擺時”,裁員(以及當時裁員的方式)的影響“會反過來困擾公司”。“前員工可能是公司最忠實的擁護者,也可能是最尖銳的批評者。”結果取決于公司的性質。
賽富時今年年初裁掉了約10%的員工,但如今其首席執行官馬克·貝尼奧夫(Marc Benioff)正在鼓勵被裁的員工申請填補公司3000多個空缺職位。貝尼奧夫9月表示:“我們的工作是發展公司,并謀求繼續獲得巨大的利潤。我們清楚公司必須招聘數千名員工。”他希望招聘的員工中有很大一部分是“回頭客”。貝尼奧夫承認,他試圖通過舉辦“前員工活動向已另謀職位的員工傳達這樣的意思:沒關系,回來吧”,以此吸引員工返回公司。
至于Meta(此前裁掉約四分之一的員工),他們如今又開始招聘了,該公司甚至為想要插隊的“回頭客”創建了一個專門的“前員工門戶網站”。
為何員工們對“吃回頭草”望而卻步
離職是讓人頭疼的事,尤其是當這項決定是員工自己做出的時。在所謂的“大辭職潮”時期辭職的員工中,80%的人后來都感到后悔。因此,這些人相對不那么抵觸回到原公司,這就解釋了為什么整個就業市場的員工回頭率呈上升趨勢。但對于被動離職的員工來說,回頭無疑是一個艱難的決定,只有極少這樣的先例。
在匿名員工論壇Blind上,一位Stripe的員工不久前問道,員工在被裁掉后返回原公司的現象是否很常見。發帖者提到績效改進計劃,并寫道:“我知道如果你被績效改進計劃淘汰或解雇了,那么你基本上就進入了公司的“不聘用”名單,但假如你是被裁掉的呢?有人會在被裁掉后回到原公司嗎?出人意料地是,在我的職業生涯中,我從未見過這種情況發生。”
一名微軟(Microsoft)員工說,他們在“許多工程師”身上看到過這樣的情況,尤其是那些在大衰退時期被裁的人,往往在短短一年左右后又返回了原公司。有些人會進行面試,但也“只是走個過場”。
誠然,如果員工能夠承受早期的尷尬,回頭或許是一個極佳的選擇。他們很可能已經掌握工作的訣竅,可以跳過整個面試流程,并且無需證明自己的能力或與經理建立新的關系。
當然,這對公司也有好處。軟件公司Visier的首席執行官黃瑞安去年在領英(LinkedIn)上寫道:“回聘員工可以節省招聘成本及免除入職和培訓流程,還有一個好處是,員工會把從最近工作經歷中新獲得的知識帶到公司。”不過,經過一年,員工考慮回頭的可能性已明顯降低。黃補充道,員工如果真的返回原公司,那很可能會期望公司給他們平均加薪25%。這就給雇主留下了一個問題:你的回頭究竟值多少錢?(財富中文網)
譯者:中慧言-劉嘉歡
對于一些員工來說,無論經濟多么不景氣,就業市場多么黯淡,或者當前的工作多么費力不討好,都無關緊要。一旦被裁(尤其是在疫情期間),許多員工都絕不會想要回到拋棄他們的地方。
根據情況跟蹤公司Layoffs.fyi的數據,僅今年一年,科技公司就裁掉了近24.5萬名員工,Meta和賽富時(Salesforce)等硅谷巨頭領先其他公司,各裁員數千人。
但勞動者們并沒有長期淪為輸家。現在,隨著就業市場再次發生轉變,各個公司正在搶奪人才,有些公司還意圖請回他們不久前才裁掉的員工。真正的問題是,如果被裁的員工不想回到這些公司呢?
Glassdoor最近的一份調查顯示,在受訪的6000名專業人士中,超過半數的人(58%)表示永遠不會回到裁掉他們的公司。在科技行業尤其如此,只有46%的員工說會“吃回頭草”。男性比女性更有可能考慮回頭,年長的員工比年輕的員工對此持更加開放的態度。
Glassdoor的首席經濟學家亞倫·特拉薩斯(Aaron Terrazas)在接受《財富》雜志采訪時表示:“由于勞動力市場在過去一年趨于疲軟……有些遺憾是免不了的。”隨著對經濟衰退的擔憂消退,一些行業已經開始“謹慎地”加大招聘力度,但“企業聲譽問題對招聘影響深遠”。
特拉薩斯補充道,“在勞動力市場的鐘擺不可避免地回擺時”,裁員(以及當時裁員的方式)的影響“會反過來困擾公司”。“前員工可能是公司最忠實的擁護者,也可能是最尖銳的批評者。”結果取決于公司的性質。
賽富時今年年初裁掉了約10%的員工,但如今其首席執行官馬克·貝尼奧夫(Marc Benioff)正在鼓勵被裁的員工申請填補公司3000多個空缺職位。貝尼奧夫9月表示:“我們的工作是發展公司,并謀求繼續獲得巨大的利潤。我們清楚公司必須招聘數千名員工。”他希望招聘的員工中有很大一部分是“回頭客”。貝尼奧夫承認,他試圖通過舉辦“前員工活動向已另謀職位的員工傳達這樣的意思:沒關系,回來吧”,以此吸引員工返回公司。
至于Meta(此前裁掉約四分之一的員工),他們如今又開始招聘了,該公司甚至為想要插隊的“回頭客”創建了一個專門的“前員工門戶網站”。
為何員工們對“吃回頭草”望而卻步
離職是讓人頭疼的事,尤其是當這項決定是員工自己做出的時。在所謂的“大辭職潮”時期辭職的員工中,80%的人后來都感到后悔。因此,這些人相對不那么抵觸回到原公司,這就解釋了為什么整個就業市場的員工回頭率呈上升趨勢。但對于被動離職的員工來說,回頭無疑是一個艱難的決定,只有極少這樣的先例。
在匿名員工論壇Blind上,一位Stripe的員工不久前問道,員工在被裁掉后返回原公司的現象是否很常見。發帖者提到績效改進計劃,并寫道:“我知道如果你被績效改進計劃淘汰或解雇了,那么你基本上就進入了公司的“不聘用”名單,但假如你是被裁掉的呢?有人會在被裁掉后回到原公司嗎?出人意料地是,在我的職業生涯中,我從未見過這種情況發生。”
一名微軟(Microsoft)員工說,他們在“許多工程師”身上看到過這樣的情況,尤其是那些在大衰退時期被裁的人,往往在短短一年左右后又返回了原公司。有些人會進行面試,但也“只是走個過場”。
誠然,如果員工能夠承受早期的尷尬,回頭或許是一個極佳的選擇。他們很可能已經掌握工作的訣竅,可以跳過整個面試流程,并且無需證明自己的能力或與經理建立新的關系。
當然,這對公司也有好處。軟件公司Visier的首席執行官黃瑞安去年在領英(LinkedIn)上寫道:“回聘員工可以節省招聘成本及免除入職和培訓流程,還有一個好處是,員工會把從最近工作經歷中新獲得的知識帶到公司。”不過,經過一年,員工考慮回頭的可能性已明顯降低。黃補充道,員工如果真的返回原公司,那很可能會期望公司給他們平均加薪25%。這就給雇主留下了一個問題:你的回頭究竟值多少錢?(財富中文網)
譯者:中慧言-劉嘉歡
For some workers, it doesn’t matter how grim the economy is, how dismal the job market, or how thankless their current job. If they were laid off—especially during the pandemic—many workers would never dream of returning to the place that dropped them.
Tech companies have laid off nearly 245,000 workers this year alone, per tracker Layoffs.fyi, and Silicon Valley heavyweights like Meta and Salesforce have led the pack, each culling thousands of jobs apiece.
But workers weren’t losers for long. Now, as the job market shifts once again, companies are scrambling for talent, and some are angling for the very kinds of workers they just cut. The real question is what will happen when those workers decide they don’t want them back?
Over half (58%) of 6,000 professionals who responded to a recent Glassdoor poll said they’d never return to a company who laid them off. In the tech sector specifically, just 46% of workers said they’d boomerang. Men were slightly more likely to consider boomeranging than women, and older workers were more open-minded than younger ones.
“As the labor market has softened over the past year….some regrets are inevitable,” Aaron Terrazas, chief economist at Glassdoor, tells Fortune. A few sectors have begun “cautiously” ramping up their hiring as their fears of a recession recede, but “corporate reputation casts a long shadow.”
The legacy of layoffs—and how they were carried out—could “come back to haunt companies when the pendulum of the labor market inevitably swings back,” Terrazas adds. “Former employees can be a company’s most loyal advocates, or they can be the most piercing critics.” The result depends on the nature of the company.
Salesforce laid off about 10% of its workforce earlier this year, but now CEO Marc Benioff is encouraging those people to apply to fill its 3,000-plus open roles. “Our job is to grow the company and to continue to achieve great margins,” Benioff said in September. “We know we have to hire thousands of people.” He’s hoping a good portion of those people will be boomerangs. Benioff admitted to attempting to lure workers back in with an “alumni event for people who are employed in other companies to say—it’s okay, come back.”
As for Meta, after laying off about a quarter of its workforce, jobs are open again, and the company has even constructed a specialty “alumni portal” for boomerangs looking to cut the line.
Why boomeranging makes workers cringe
Leaving a job is fraught, especially when it’s the worker’s call. Eighty percent of employees who left their jobs during the so-called Great Resignation came to regret it. That would make boomeranging, for them, a bit less conflicted—and explains why boomeranging is on the rise across the board. But for workers who had no say in the matter, it’s no doubt a rocky call to make, with minimal precedent.
On Blind, an anonymous employee forum, one Stripe worker recently asked whether layoff boomerangs are common. “I know if you get PIPed out or fired you are basically added to a ‘do not hire’ list but what happens with a layoff?” the poster wrote, referring to performance improvement plans. “Has anyone ever returned back after being laid off? I’ve surprisingly never seen it happen in my career.”
A Microsoft employee said they’d seen it with “multiple engineers,” particularly those who were laid off during the Great Recession, only to rejoin a year or so later. Some were re-interviewed, but it was a “mere formality.”
Granted, boomeranging—if an employee can withstand the early awkwardness—could be a strong move. A worker likely already knows the ropes, can skip the interview process entirely, and won’t need to prove themselves or forge new relationships with managers.
Naturally, it would help the company too. “Re-hiring employees means saving on recruitment costs, onboarding and training, and they bring the benefit of newfound knowledge from their most recent employment experience,” Ryan Wong, CEO of software firm Visier, wrote on LinkedIn last year. But, after a year, workers are significantly less likely to consider boomeranging. And if they do come back, they’re likely expecting an average pay bump of 25%, Wong added. That leaves employers with the question: How much are your boomerangs worth?