• EMPLOYERS BE READY FOR A RESIGNATION WAVE?  “Anywhere from 25 to 40% of workers who’ve had a year to reconsider work-life balance or career path are asking ‘is this really what I want to be doing?”  Surveys are finding that many now opt for fewer hours commitment to allow more flexibility for family or hobbies; others are quitting to avoid commuting time & stress, since bosses won’t allow working from home post-pandemic; some who prefer to be back will quit because their employers converted to hybrid or all-remote offices; and many will quit “after finding that the office they came back to is not the one they left behind.” Collectively, resignations will bring significant challenges to staffing and HR programs[IMPACT LAB – 6/22/21]
  • THE DEGREE OF CORRUPTION, INEFFICIENCY AND ABSENCE OF INTERNAL CONTROLS in California’s Employment Development Dep’t is staggering! Unemployment payouts exceeded $128 million during the pandemic, of which over 25% is now documented as paid to fraudulent claimants, including convicted felons and international cyber-criminals. Nearly 2¼ million claims are still backlogged in the system for some 8% of the workforce (highest in the nation) while businesses cannot get job applicants for needed workers. Facing a Recall for ineptness on this issue and multiple other mismanagement, the Governor last week supported a new requirement: that starting mid-July, unemployment applicants must actually “search for work.” Imagine!  Once upon a time, EDD required weekly contact dates/ names/ addresses on claim forms, but that was abandoned to allow “more digitally-oriented” processing. But, given the entrenched ineptitude, the likelihood of even tracking such input is highly dubious.  [RED STATE – 6/18/21]
  • WECHAT is a Chinese developed & owned social media/messaging app which “evidence shows is a tool of censorship, monitoring and suppression wielded by the Communist Party, deemed a threat to U.S. national security.” Last year, the Trump administration issued a ‘prohibited transactions’ Executive Order, also covering new-downloads of Tik Tok and several other Chinese apps. That Order and policy have just been rescinded by the Commerce Department.  [REUTERS – 6/21/21]
  • “HOLOCAUST DENIAL IS THRIVING ON SOCIAL MEDIA, with Facebook’s algorithm ‘actively pushing’ denial & distortion content.” In  a 50-states survey of Americans age 18-40: 23% think ‘Holocaust’ is a “myth or exaggeration”; 12% said they’d “never heard” the word before; 11% thought Jews were responsible (19% in New York state); and two-thirds were unaware that 6 million Jews were killed.  A ‘knowledge score’ to measure awareness – based on having heard of it, ability to name one concentration/death camp or ghetto, and that 6 million were murdered – found fewer than one-in-five Millennials & Gen Z individuals were ‘aware’ in Florida/ Arkansas/ Mississippi, topping out at 35-40% in Wisconsin/ Minnesota/ Massachusetts. A bizarre, but now unsurprising, dimension of society’s direction.  [INDEPENDENT.CO.UK – 6/21/21]
  • THOUGHTS FOR THE WEEK:  “You can lead a man to Congress, but you can’t make him think.” – Milton Berle

       Latest PC: “Removal of all holiday names from the school calendar, so as not to offend anyone and avoid having hurt feelings” was the decision of a New Jersey school district.