If You’re Not Already Looking for a Job Now, You Probably Will Be Soon

A new survey says that 34% of employed Americans plan on looking for a new job once the economy improves. Add to that the huge numbers of unemployed who are already looking for jobs—and probably will still be looking for jobs by the time the economy gets better—and what we’re looking at is an unstable onslaught of job hunting, hiring, and notice giving. That is if the economy improves, of course.

It’s pretty obvious why the unemployed are looking for jobs: They don’t have salaries, and probably haven’t been making money for months. But why do people with jobs plan on looking for new gigs as soon as opportunities open up? A new Deloitte survey says that nearly half of workers don’t trust their employers:

According to Deloitte LLP’s fourth annual Ethics & Workplace Survey, one-third of employed Americans plan to look for a new job when the economy gets better. Of this group of respondents, 48 percent cite a loss of trust in their employer and 46 percent say that a lack of transparent communication from their company’s leadership are their reasons for looking for new employment at the end of the recession.

Another 40% agreed that they are “being treated unfairly or unethically by employers,” and while 14% of employees say their trust in their company has increased since the economic downturn, 36% say their trust has decreased.

You’d think that perhaps an employee who kept his job over the past three years would have more trust in his company, but that’s not the case. Why? Chances are that employee had to watch plenty of his colleagues and friends lose their jobs, and the folks who were lucky enough to continue to draw salaries felt like their luck was bound to run out—especially while being employed by a company that could slash salaries quickly and callously.

The problem is: What company can you trust nowadays? I know plenty of people who would trade some of their income in exchange for work with a stable, trustworthy company. In the total absence of stability and trust, workers have little choice but to keep on the hunt for the highest bidder—which isn’t a good situation or employee or employer alike.

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The argument for staying put, is the possibility that a false recovery will woo people into jumping ship… only to discover the economy is heading for the edge of a proverbial Niagra Falls. Before I consider jumping ship when the economy seems on the mend, I will try to negotiate a market rate salary with my present employer.

By the way, it’s a misnomer that employers were necessarily unethical in firing people during the crash, and that lady luck plays a big role in those not tossed overboard. Companies used the recession to throw under-performers overboard, instead of firing them for poor performance, thereby giving them a better chance at employment (instead of ruining them professionally by claiming they were fired for poor performance). The recession was a perfect excuse to clean house! Many employees were not performing as if somehow companies owed them a salary without expecting anything in return.

The real crisis in unemployment is that many people have gone along for the ride their entire lives, without any interest in their companies. An unprecedented level of employees have reached gone along for the ride without updating their skills to the point where they are no longer providing any return on investment. This huge number of people in the U.S. believe they’re entitled to an income and consider productivity as something beneath them; some collected salaries over the past decades, punctuated by recessions like the dot-com bust, while being as unproductive as possible… believing that if they were productive, employers would expect continued productivity out of them! Whereas if they did barely enough to get by, along with other employees, this lazy bankers-hours status quo would become the norm.

Even at my company, some of the old timers continue to come in late and leave early. They just don’t get it. I’m afraid once they’re thrown overboard, they will sink like a millstone to the bottom of the sea to borrow an old proverb. I really think some will never work again if they are laid off.

In fact, the general consensus that some will never work again who were laid off, is sadly true. However, those determined to work again will reinvent themselves.