More than half of Latin American workers are considering a career change this year, after months of feeling exhausted and isolated at work due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, according to a report published Monday by Microsoft based on surveys and LinkedIn data.
This figure, 53%, is higher than the average number of workers in the world, 46% of whom are considering a similar change, which points to a highly dynamic labor market in the coming months in the region, especially once the virus is under control and economic activity is revitalized.
An Increase Of 30 To 46%
“Before the Pandemic, only 30% of workers in the world planned a company change in the next two years,” Microsoft vice president for the transformation of jobs, Emma Williams, declared. “The drastic drop in the number of employees who want to continue in their current positions means that companies could lose many of their workers if they do not adapt to the new expectations created by the Pandemic,” she said.
In Williams’ view, the data indicates that the most viable model for the future is a hybrid system, allowing some people to work in the office and others from home and participate in meetings and the day-to-day life through screens.
The Labor Trends Index of the US firm was prepared from more than 30,000 surveys of workers in 31 countries and the analysis of billions of data from the Microsoft 365 software and the LinkedIn labor portal, which it owns.
Women And Young People Prefer Remote Work
Remote work is particularly popular with women and members of Generation Z, that is, those born in the first decade of the 2000s, who are just now entering the labor market. Over the past year, fully restricted by COVID-19, remote job openings on LinkedIn have increased fivefold, a trend that Williams does not expect to change with the end of the Pandemic. But remote work also has negative effects and after a year without physically going to work, many employees feel “exhausted” and “isolated”.
In the specific case of Latin Americans, they say they are less “burned out” by work than the world average, but nevertheless the feeling of isolation from working from home is stronger in the region than in the rest of the world. “49% of workers in Latin America regret that interactions with their colleagues have decreased, a figure higher than the world average of 40%,” said the head of the report.
Occasional Labor Relationships Fall
The study shows that the most direct work relationships, that is, those in which colleagues are part of the same team and interact on a daily basis, have been maintained, but nevertheless those considered occasional, that is, between team members, have drastically decreased, different or not usually working together.
It is precisely this second type of interactions that, according to the experts, most contribute to ensuring that companies do not suffer what in the professional world is called “herd thinking”, that is, that a single vision takes over the entire creative process, without receive contributions from other perspectives.
“Reducing interpersonal relationships in the workplace puts innovation and creativity at risk. That is something that we should be very concerned about going forward and that employers should think about how to remedy,” said Williams.
More authenticity
Another of the effects on labor relations of this Pandemic year is that it has allowed workers to be more “authentic” in the workplace and show themselves as they are, as shown by the fact that one in six admit to having cried in front of one of his colleagues.
