YOLO, You only live once. It may be that the verse of a rapper’s song Drake can today define a whole way of working and economizing? Yet it is so, the YOLO economyor the economy of “you only live once” is redefining the job market.
Or rather, it is a reaction, a possible response toeffect pandemic – before and war in Ukraine – today: over the past two years, adverse situations on a global level have taught us that nothing lasts foreverthat a trifle is really enough to upset an entire existence: a virus has forced us to distance ourselves from each other, but also from the previous life.
What’s the use of saving money, when suddenly you might end up intubated in the hospital? What’s the point of working 14 hours a day if you don’t have time to enjoy life? And finally: what kind of life is it in which you wake up in the morning and for strange games of power, someone thousands of miles away from you, could raze your city to the ground? Questions on which we have been struggling for a long time, having a lot of them available during the various lockdowns, and which are now leading to actions.
Which? The investigation published on Republic by title “The great resignation“in which the point is made on young people, of course, inclined to leave their permanent jobs, but it is a phenomenon that does not only concern Millennials.
The change is epochal: according to the data reported by a study of the Politecnico di Milano, 25 million of people in the last six months of 2021 have decided to quit4.5 only in November 2021. In Italyin the second quarter of 2021 the boom was of85%. Workers satisfied with their jobs are 10%, in Italy 5%, half. Beware of intendersor those who intend to change jobs in the next 6 months: they are 21%, 30% of those who have had Covid.
Has the paradigm changed? “Perhaps this is an exaggerated statement – comments the professor Alessandro De Carlo, occupational psychologist and psychotherapist – Certainly, the job market is in great turmoil: there are more dynamic contracts, which last less time, and certainly many leave their jobs without having a parachute. But more than a paradigm, we can talk about trend: many are starting or have already begun to rethink their job position. Until recently, we were more in plaster, today the job market is more similar to the American one. This means that a cultural change is in progress”.
Does Covid have to do with it? “Covid is what is called a “Collective trauma”: everyone was impacted in some way, some because they were hospitalized, some for their loved ones, some for the obligatory change of life … But like any psychological event, not everyone has experienced it, they have “assimilated” it to the the same way: the majority of the population – an estimated 65% – then reported symptoms of psychological distress (anxiety, stress, insomnia, more or less severe depressive states …).
Here, of these, those who are better off may have hired a attitudethat is the sum of a reasoning and an emotion, which then preceded aaction. A sum of many similar actions done by many different people becomes a social movement. Let me explain: the psychological trauma has induced an attitude of “stop wasting time, I change life”, which may have produced the action of changing and / or improving one’s working position. This, for the spirit of example, of emulation, may have led others to say: “Then you can, then I’ll do it too”. Here we have the tendency, the phenomenon ».
“There are two fundamental questions of this trend: the first is thealignment of the person with corporate values. That is, the salience of the concept of death, “unveiled” thanks to Covid, has led to a polarization towards values rather than towards material things. Does my workplace meet my values, my principles? If the answer is no, today many are willing to change. The second is the change of individual priorities: greater importance is given to personal satisfaction, one listens more, in one’s own deep needs.
It is easy to guess that today the social pressure counts less net of making a decision against the tide: until recently, judgment, the achievement of certain positions could “force” you to stay in the same place for life, but today there is more freedom in being able to say “no it suits me better ”, then to change. That is, there is more freedom in taking a certain attitude, which triggers an action. To put it in a nutshell: no one – or rather not everyone – takes you for mad anymore. Some decisions – such as changing jobs at a certain age or leaving a permanent job – are more acceptable, acceptable.
Of course, then the internal consistency: it is more difficult for a mature person, with thirty years of career and responsibility behind him, after a life of sacrifices, to take such a step. Someone does it, but it is the minority ».
A positive trend, it would seem, so … But is there any risk? “Of course, there is a cognitive bias: to believe that we will be rich forever, to take the step longer than the leg, to jump thinking that you still have the parachute. Which is still true at the moment, but for how long? True, there was Covid and the war in Ukraine is still ongoing, but we do not yet feel “affected” in our lifestyle, yet we are moving towards a redefinition of possessions and wealth. We can’t think it can get any worse. Still, we should take it into account, before throwing our hearts over the obstacle.
Today, many companies are already redesigning their way of doing business: more flexibility, reasoning by objectives and not by time spent in the office, greater ethics, greater corporate responsibility … But the change must be made in a professional way and not patched up. This is the only way to create harmony between supply and demand for work. And there will be lasting conditions for a concrete change ».
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Source: Vanity Fair
