Is Your “Workplace” Making You Miserable?

Let me guess: you work from home. You don’t miss the commute, the traffic, the wasted time, the business attire, etc. You love the flexibility, the freedom and the day-jammies. But, are you happy?

According to a recent survey, you haven’t been this unhappy at work since before the pandemic forced you into those day-jammies and the endless Zoom calls.

The Great Resignation

Prior to the pandemic, we had all been operating a warp speed. Then everything just stopped. And, the sudden slow down gave many folks an opportunity to pause and reflect. It allowed people to reimagine their careers, their stress level, and their long-term goals. Many found the unexpected down-time to be eye-opening. Workers finally got to see exactly what they were missing in life. Turns out they were missing a lot. So, they quit in search of purpose and meaning. (Spoiler alert: They didn’t find either.)

The nation’s “quit rate” reached a 20-year high in November 2021 and it was labeled The Great Resignation. Here a short explainer video.

By the end of 2021, 47.4 million employees bailed out. Even the G.O.A.T.-Tom Brady quit his job with the New England Pats.

This trend alarmed employers, talking heads and economists as they struggled to make sense of the mass exodus from the workplace. Where the hell was everyone going?

Prior to the pandemic, 60% of all employees were working on-site. Then the pandemic lockdowns forced everyone to convert their breakfast table from Snack, Crackle & Pop to Zoom, Teams and Meet.

As the pandemic lockdown started to lift, employers had a choice to make. Most employers worried that employees would join The Great Resignation if forced back to the office.

As a result, two years later, only 20% of employees work on-site, while 29% are fully remote.

The other 51% are hybrid and work in the office as little as one day per week. That one day can be stressful for some people. See this video for a pep talk on going in to the office.

Quiet Quitting

Once employees started to adjust to the post pandemic world in 2022, a new trend emerged: Quiet Quitting. That’s when people started mentally quitting their jobs but keeping their paycheck. The idea is to stay at your job—and do the absolute bare minimum to keep from getting fired. Here’s a video of a Gen Z employee explaining why it makes sense (to her).

The simple truth is that working from home might make employees happier, but it also leads to other problems.

Bare Minimum Monday

After quiet quitting became mainstream, Bare Minimum Monday emerged in 2023. This new trend involves intentionally putting in the bare minimum amount of effort on Mondays. Just enough effort to keep from getting fired. (see also quiet quitting, above).

The theory, according to those that embrace the trend, is to ease into the work week. To prioritize your mental health over your professional responsibilities. To prioritize only those tasks that absolutely must be done on Monday. And, punt everything else to later in the week. As if our mental energy is finite and must be conserved to allow for personal growth. As if it’s a zero-sum game. It isn’t.

The flaw in this theory is that personal and professional growth are often symbiotic. For example, honing my writing skills makes me a better communicator at work.

If you need an explanation of how the various generations view Bare Minimum Monday, watch this 90-second explainer video.

The Great Gloom

In April 2020, happiness reached an all time high. Perhaps it was a wave of gratefulness for having a job. But, that was before the Chardonnay and toilet paper shortages hit. A few months later, the US unemployment rate skyrocketed to 14.7%. As the lockdowns and isolation set in, overall unhappiness in the US reached record levels and hasn’t recovered. The latest trend is called “The Great Gloom”.

Gallup has been tracking happiness for the last twenty years and in 2023, across 29 different measurements, just 38% of Americans say they\’re satisfied with their lives.

Those that are least satisfied with their lives do not follow Wit & Wisdom in audio format on Spotify, Apple iTunes, iHeart Radio and all other major podcast platforms. See what I did there?

And, despite all this newfound work-from-home freedom and the reduction in dry-cleaning bills, happiness at work is declining, too. It’s dropping ten-times faster than in the previous three years. Houston, we have a problem.

A Lonely Existence

The simple and undeniable truth about remote working is that it can be a lonely existence, especially for extroverts. There is a profound loss of professional engagement and stimulation.

In a 2022 Glassdoor survey of full-time employees, 33% of respondents said working from home made them feel lonely. There are no impromptu lunches, no water cooler talks about the latest Netflix show and no private chit-chats with your Manager to thank you for finishing that project on-time. The most exciting face-to-face conversation of the day happens between you and the UPS man. And, he’s always in such a darn hurry.

To combat The Great Resignation, Quiet Quitting and Bare Minimum Mondays, employers have done back flips to create perks and packages to keep people happy during a time of unprecedented low unemployment. If you lose a worker, the odds are it will cost twice as much to hire a replacement.

Yes, employees are in the driver’s seat for now but that is changing. Some employers are using Return to Office (RTO) mandates as an opportunity to restructure their workforce. Wanna find out who is truly committed to the mission and purpose? Companies like Google have started badge tracking and noting employee attendance in performance appraisals. The RTO mandate is a “a layoff wolf in sheep’s clothing“.

The Erosion of Mission and Purpose

The issue with remote working isn’t a lack of productivity. The issue is a gradual disconnection from the broader mission and purpose of the organization. In fact, that connection is at a record low.

You’re probably thinking, so what? Employees don’t have to bleed for the organizational mission. True, but here’s the problem. Employees who aren’t connected to the mission and purpose aren’t happy. Unhappy employees eventually lead to unhappy customers.

Those disconnected employees also find it easier try Quiet Quitting or partake in Bare Minimum Mondays. (The explainer videos are all over Tik-Tok.) And, if you buy into those ideas you already have one foot (and maybe your entire leg) out the door.

But, here’s the most important question. (Stick with me 60 more seconds.) Do you think it’s possible that the unhappiness driving the resignations, Quiet Quitting and Bare Minimum Mondays is caused by working remotely? By the loneliness of working from home? By a loss of professional engagement and stimulation? I do. Wouldn’t simply returning to the office reconnect everyone to the mission? And, if so, solve for the festering unhappiness contagion?

Alrighty, let’s summarize what we’ve learned here and see if I can bring this conversation to a big finish. First, the pandemic ushered in a new era of working from home. Second, The Great Resignation led to 47.4 million people jumping ship by the end of 2021. That trend and the low unemployment rate put employees in the driver’s seat. Third, those that didn’t bail out started Quiet Quitting. That’s when people started mentally quitting their jobs but keeping their paycheck. Fourth, in addition to Quiet Quitting, some people now embrace Bare Minimum Mondays. Those people do as little as possible on Monday to protect their “mental health”. Fifth, we are now in a period called The Great Gloom as overall unhappiness in the US has reached record levels. People just aren’t happy. At least some of that unhappiness is being driven by the loneliness and the disconnection of working from home. Lastly, if you think none of this will ever change beware the RTO mandate or the “wolf layoff in sheep’s clothing”.

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