The Great Resignation
Introduction
Tenisha
Welcome back to another episode of Black Girl Fly. I'm your girl, Tenisha Nicole.
Tashaunda
And Tashaunda Dixon.
Tenisha
And today we're going to be talking about the great resignation. Yeah.
Tashaunda
So so what aspect? I know we talked about that before, right?
It's an Employee Driven Market
Tenisha
So so we did talk about this episodes ago, but yeah, the landscape is different now. OK, well, we were talking about it before. We were more like, oh, go pursue your passions. This is the time. But yeah, start there are some serious incentives now to actually stay and maybe just do your thing on a CI. What do you think about that?
Tashaunda
Well, I do I'm experiencing it on my own and I'm having to make decisions about how we keep our talented people and we're passing out. I probably shouldn't say that, but we passed now components. Yeah, we we are career path being, sending people to training and, and basically bending to their will right. Now, I'm actually in a position where I'm upset that we are being so nice to our employees.
Tashaunda
Well, it's, it's, it's getting in the way of some revenue opportunities for the organization, quite frankly.
Tenisha
Interesting. Interesting. I didn't think about it from that perspective.
Tashaunda
Well, your employers are fearful like. Right? Right now a lot of employers are going, how will we be able to stay productive? Mm. So many people are leaving the workforce and they have a job to do and still being able to produce. Yeah. Yeah. And well, not only that, but maintaining a lower quality of employee. Yes.
Tenisha
There are some incentives for bad employees to stay. Yeah. They're not really making you know, those tough choices and filtering as much as possible because there are just few people, fewer people to choose from.
Tashaunda
So yeah, not only that, like I'm the have made jokes. I was like, you get the worst employees in code. I've been saying that all over. It's like, it's like, you know, I'm like, I'll go to an environment. I'm like, that was horrible service oh yeah.
Tenisha
I've been experiencing that.
Tashaunda
But, but it's because you got to hold on to who you can.
Tenisha
You just take what you can get.
Tashaunda
Yes.
Tenisha
And that's so interesting. On the I would say on the entrepreneur side, like I feel like so many people that I know have become entrepreneurs during this time. And it's been a very abundant time where entrepreneurs I think because of these larger companies are experiencing like shortages that that work is going to these smaller entities. Right.
Tashaunda
See that we're like right now. So I was telling you about this uncomfortable thing for one of my segments that I'm in charge of. We can't produce all the services that we would normally produce. And we've had to tell our clients, even though, you know, you pay us X dollars for this every year, we're not doing this this year.
Tenisha
Wow. Yes. Oh, wow. Really?
Tashaunda
Yes. Yes.
Tenisha
Like recurring work.
Tashaunda
Yes. Yes. I can't give details but just in the first four months of the year, I've had to turn down over $150,000 in revenue.
Tenisha
Mm wow. And that work is going somewhere. Y'all like going to competitors. It's going to probably people who have left to do their own thing are picking up the work. Like there is a huge shift. But so what would you say to people who are deciding to stay? I have a I have a data point. Y'all like finally have a data drum roll.
Tashaunda
Before we even given that, I'm going to say it's your time. It's the for the first time in a long time, it is an employee driven environment.
Tenisha
Yeah, market.
Tashaunda
So you can go to different places. You can go to your employer, you can demand more money you can demand more flexibility. Like some companies, smaller companies are going, we can't compete with larger companies on resources. So let's be more flexible.
Tenisha
Let's give them more benefits. Right. Be flexible in our benefits as well.
Tashaunda
Yeah. Well, I was going to say one thing that was large for us is we actually decided that we were going to stay work from home environment company.
Tenisha
Wow.
Tashaunda
Yeah. And so while we may not compete on whatever, now you're at home, right? So what does that mean for some people? Maybe you don't do childcare. You'd say you have to get dressed. You save 2 hours every day. Right? Exactly.
Tenisha
But other people I know, they've actually gotten more jobs, so they get like three full time jobs. Does they work from home? Yeah, I'm like.
Tashaunda
I'm not backing down. And if you're saying that you can be working in the same place, you know, I mean.
Tenisha
I think it depends on your industry, right? Like some jobs are set up differently where you can do that. But I'm like, listen, I can barely focus.
Tashaunda
Yeah. But I mean, it's just a lot of opportunity. Yeah. So like more PTO, right? A lot of people are doing this. Have you heard of this thing where they're doing, like, pet insurance and they're being pet friendly? No, it's an up and coming thing now. A little more pet friendly, I guess. So for all the single people who really love their pets.
Tenisha
I'm like, I'm good on the pets. That's not a benefit for me. I can give that.
Tashaunda
But but there's so much they're offering. So I'd say understand the market space and demand something. Yeah. What do you mean that you want.
Tenisha
Demand what you want from this market? Yeah.
Tashaunda
Because they need you.
Tenisha
Yeah. Yeah, this is definitely a shift. I remember I didn't graduate in 2008, but that's like when I was going to college. And so I know all these people who graduated in 2008 and they like, look back at like.
Tashaunda
Oh my God, it was the.
Tenisha
Hardest time of my life. And I'm like, this.
Tashaunda
Is so you can get a job.
Tenisha
Right? You can now get a job. Yeah. So I had just.
Tashaunda
Graduated 2007 from college. Yeah. Oh, and no, and I don't know if I told you this story, but, like, they were like, not hiring any like, I was so upset because before I got to college, I had worked all the recording and I was making like 14 $15 an hour in like temp work and stuff throughout college. Right before I had my degree and all that, I graduated.
Tashaunda
They offered me the same amount of money you like, and I was like, Wait a minute, I did it 40 years. I got this degree saying that I'm smart and you got to pay me the same amount I was getting before I got the degree.
Tenisha
Right.
Tashaunda
That's away. And no, like, I literally, if it was not for Mom, I was desperate. I was going to take something. And that's how I started doing other side hustles. I did. So Mom was like, Hey, somebody's going to say yes at that point that I respectable.
Tenisha
Yeah. So just do side hustle.
Tashaunda
And so I did. So I did side hustles, but I had at the time I had like before I took the actual job that I'm taking that was better like six or seven offers all under $17 an hour.
Tenisha
Wow. Wow. You had a degree while.
Tashaunda
I had a degree. And I was like like if I honestly, if my mom wasn't there, I would have taken one.
Tenisha
Yeah. I'm like, so this year, all we're saying is that I can say different market.
Tashaunda
Yeah. I mean, what do you mean? We're seeing recent college grads in i.t. Are asking for a hundred grand. Yeah.
Tenisha
Wow. Wow.
Tashaunda
And I'm like, ok, if I'll get it right.
Employer Thoughts on Hiring
Tenisha
Go ahead. Right, go ahead if you can if you can get it. But I think this is I mean, I think this is great for the the employee. I mean, now that I'm an employer, isn't that good for me?
Tashaunda
So how are you feeling? Like like what are you what are you experiencing there?
Tenisha
I mean, I, I've had a couple of moments. I've done a lot of hiring recently and I've had a couple of moments when I was like, oh, let's expensive. But then at the same time, I had to check myself because I believe in paying people what they were. Yeah, right. And so, like, I'm actually happy that I can pay people.
Tenisha
Like, I actually had an employee and she gave me her rate, you know, I was like, oh, well, like, what ballpark are you in? Or whatever? And she gave me her rate and I was like, You actually need to be asking for more. I told her, That sounds really nice, but she turned around to ask me before, and I was like, This girl did.
Tashaunda
And I was.
Tenisha
Like, I got to respect you for that. Let's do it. So I was really proud of her, but I'm like, like, I don't know, totally is so important in that specific hire. I was like, I knew how important it was. So I was like, All right, but.
Tashaunda
I'm going to say so I'm having a different kind of struggle. So. So I'm also hiring, right? Now. Mm hmm. But I do have a team that has been with me or that I've hired in the past, and now I'm having the problem of deciding like, yeah, there was this. So I've done my reviews or whatever, and I've given the raises are going to get for this year.
Tashaunda
And now I'm having to hire additional people, and I'm getting people who are coming in who are wanting significantly more money.
Tenisha
Than the.
Tashaunda
People I have today. And so I'm sitting there like, What do you do? Do I do it? And you.
Tenisha
Do. Yeah.
Tashaunda
And it's a struggle of so it's a balancing act too, of like career path with the people that I have and, and not undervaluing them and right sizing. And it's, yeah, it's a hard thing to do because your budget is only so much, right?
Tenisha
Like, yeah, that is actually interesting because I before this last hire, I actually did have people on another pay scale that I'm working with in this person is higher than the pay scale. And so but I'm already planning to increase the other salaries like but I'm not going to do it in this month, maybe in a couple of months like or the next quarter.
Tenisha
But I'm thinking about that too. I think it's actually not fair and this is where I'm laying.
Tashaunda
Low because when you think about it, I think historically employee areas have always done this.
Tenisha
But again, my philosophy is paying people what they're worth. I know that that's not that's not companies perspectives, though. Like large corporations, sometimes you don't have the flexibility to be able to do that. But I'm like, I'm trying to make it happen. Yeah, because that's the value of my company. So I might be a little direct. It might be different.
Tenisha
I mean, underpaid before is I'm like, I want to do that.
Tashaunda
Other than that, I get but I'm all about telling people about the opportunity and and I think that there is value in so so in that same mindset, I don't completely disagree with your thought process, but I am learning actually through this is that there's additional value to what you can provide a person and what's important to a person.
Tashaunda
Like I was saying like the flexibility of working from home versus having to go in somewhere or, you know, more PTO. And it all depends on like just like what's important in your life. So I may not be able to compete and say, I'm going to give you X dollars more because this is where I am, but I may be able to say, look, we can make sure that I'm accommodating to your lifestyle.
Tenisha
Yeah. And I would say, you know, even when I was starting out in career, like I always looked at this idea called total compensation. And it's not just the salary that you're going to get. I mean, but you could calculate what PTO turns out to be, you know, monetarily. Right. But at the end of the day, you have to look at the full picture.
Tenisha
I agree. What you're saying about all the benefits that are offered. Because, you know, I think we talked before about like cost value if it really is in alignment with your values, like the cost of it, actually, you know, it magnifies. It's not just the dollar that's on the page it becomes much more because it's something that is in alignment with your values and probably saves you a ton.
Takeaways
Tenisha
And then when you're costs, when you're comparing across companies or across opportunities, you have to look at it in that way, not just the dollar for dollar thing. Yeah.
Tashaunda
Yeah. But it's big guys. I think the big thing in this, though, is understand that it's an employee's market.
Tenisha
Yes, it is. And I like what you say. Demand more, demand all that you get, right? This is not the time to be shy about it. So until next time y'all, I'm your girl Tenisha Nichole.
Tashaunda
And I'm Tashaunda Dixon and we
Tenisha
are Black Girl Fly.
