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Employees have spread their wings. This manuscript will analyze various factors that have had a unique impact on the American workforce that have led to a workplace power shift. Factors considered include the impact of the pandemic, current employee developments, and an historically tight Labor Market. Furthermore, generations and the evolution at the workplace of changing workplace relationships are analyzed. Technology's role in these shifts will be considered. Furthermore, Chris Argyris' maturity theory adds new insights to understanding changing workers' demands and desires. Throughout this document, HR's challenges and opportunities are presented.
Keywords: business, management, human resources, leadership
USA PANDEMIC-ERA WORKPLACE
COVID has upended the labor market. Part of how this has been demonstrated is that employees are using their leverage (Rogers, 2022) at the workplace in ways not seen for decades or ever before. Employees are trying to reclaim what they gave up before the pandemic. They are emboldened by a series of related events: soaring company profits, a renewed respect for "essential" workers.
Two years on from the start of the Coronavirus pandemic, the workplace remains in a state of severe disruption. The economy has more than a million jobs more than workers to fill them. Employees are quitting in large numbers. Wages are rising at an annual average of about 5%. The recovery in the labor market has been historic, with the unemployment rate now at 3.5% as of August 11, 2022 (Smart, 2022). This trend has continued as noted in the December 2022 jobs report. The unemployment rate was 3.5%. Most noticeable was that if discouraged workers and those holding part-time jobs for economic reasons were taken into consideration, their numbers declined to 6.5%, which is the lowest reading in a data set that goes back to 1994. The unemployment rate therefore is tied for the lowest rate since 1969. Wage growth was up 4.6% from a year below. That was slightly below the 5% estimate for that time. Leisure and hospitality sectors led the job gains followed by health care, construction, and social assistance. The relative strength in the job market continued to stay robust notable despite the Federal Reserve 's efforts to slow the economy at this time (Cox, 2020, January 6).
Companies in many industries are finding...