More PIPs, RTO, Now Salary Cuts/No Bonuses for New Hires - What's Next as Management Unleashes Power Regained?

 The odds are that wheter you are an entry-lvel of a job-changer you will be hired at a lower salary than those already in the organization, documents The Wall Street Journal. Also, don't expect sign-on bonus. That's one more sign of the changing situation for workers now that, after the pandemic scramble for talent, management is firmly back in power. Professional anonymous networks for law firms note that it would be unusual if associates receive a mid-season bonus. 

The haircut on compensation follows PIPs (Proposal to Improve Performance) becoming standard to reduce manpower legally and often without severance or unemployment compensation. Of course some PIPs are structured to save the job. But they are atypical. Being put on a PIP could be code for: Start the search for work somewhere else.

There is also the push back to the office. Skadden law firm, for example, has mandated four times a week. Some leaders in Big Tech are becoming equally adamant about RTO. In this market in which there is overall a slowing demand for many categories of talent watchers are taking in what percentage of employees will resist.

The emerging issue is, of course, what's next as management exerts Power Regained. Already many view the current scene with horror. The vetting process has become longer, involving more interviews and non-paid "auditions," with fewer offers made. Obviously, though, even more hoops can be established to jump through - both during the application process and when on the job. 

In my career coaching I pick up that there are few "safe harbors," not in the category of job or internally when doing those tasks. 

For some the solution has been to create multiple sources of income. Lose the day job, there are the earnings from the gigs. Also take investing seriously. 

In addition more are opting to establish micro enterprises. As entrepreneurs know (I have been a serial one) there is more wiggle room for survival when you are the owner than as manpower when a Reduction-in-Force seems planned.

In addition, there are still those who seem not only downright untouchable but positioned for more and more of the goodies the system offers. Among those, as we recently observed, are the brandnames/rainmakers/high billers in global and domestic law. When law firm Paul Weiss poached  a number of them from Kirkland & Ellis, there was speculation that the ones in London were provided with $10 million annual compensation. The media gushed about their expertise and accomplishments. 

However, for the majority of those needing to make a living through working the mindset has shifted, at least for the present, to conformity. As a society we could be circling back to the military-model ethos of early Corporate America. That helped win World War II. It was assumed that if it was superimposed on business there would be extreme success. There was. But it might not have been primarily because of that variable. Many other factors were in play.

Not far in the future graduate business schools will be poring over case studies analyzing which industries and businesses thrived in 2023 and beyond and which, ham-handed in strategy/implementation, collapsed. You bet, a key variable will be leveraging generative AI.

Data or the gut for your careers and communications? Both of course. Complimentary consultation with intuitive coach, content-creator, and Tarot reader Jane Genova (text 202-468-8579, janegenova374@gmail.com).