> Remote work allows better matching of people and jobs.
This is my theory on non-tech jobs too. You get stuck in a rut with a shit job waiting tables, when the pandemic hits and your restaurant shuts down. We’ll now you have to take a crack at that other career you told yourself you’d try, or you’d move back home like you meant to. Friction is hard to overcome. But when something external acts as a catalyst, matching improves. Less friction between employees switching jobs/careers/industries/locations is a great thing.
The people complaining about difficulties hiring were probably the ones benefitting from high friction. Now it’s working against them (it’s harder to pick up your life and move back to that shitty job you hated than to stay and do something else).
Very good comment. I think you can call it metastability. Or Wiley E Coyote running off the edge of the cliff. He doesn't realise it until he looks down.
A lot of people, more than most of us realise, are stuck living hand to mouth. No time or money to train themselves up to do something different. No way to build the networks that are often needed to transition. That feeling of having to run to stay still.
When the treadmill stops you have to do something. Perhaps it's swallowing your pride and borrowing money from a friend, or moving back in with the parents, but I reckon a lot of people discovered that when they needed it there was some credit in the system, note to mention actual credit in the form of government help.
So now all those people who were busy being busy have some time to actually think about what they want to do.
This is my theory on non-tech jobs too. You get stuck in a rut with a shit job waiting tables, when the pandemic hits and your restaurant shuts down. We’ll now you have to take a crack at that other career you told yourself you’d try, or you’d move back home like you meant to. Friction is hard to overcome. But when something external acts as a catalyst, matching improves. Less friction between employees switching jobs/careers/industries/locations is a great thing.
The people complaining about difficulties hiring were probably the ones benefitting from high friction. Now it’s working against them (it’s harder to pick up your life and move back to that shitty job you hated than to stay and do something else).