Disclaimer: This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be considered professional advice. We are not responsible for any losses, damages, or liabilities that may arise from the use of this podcast. The views expressed in this podcast may not be those of the host or the management.
Disclaimer: This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be considered professional advice. We are not responsible for any losses, damages, or liabilities that may arise from the use of this podcast. The views expressed in this podcast may not be those of the host or the management.
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Francesca :
It's hard not to love it. It's so cliche, italian, but then every single Italian I know is like, absolutely like Tommy. Tommy DeVito, he's a boy.
Mel:
Listen. As someone who grew up with Italian family and living in the tri-state area of Connecticut, New Jersey and New York, I get it and I love it, Love everything about it.
Francesca :
Gotta appreciate it. Gotta appreciate it. We have two stories we wanted to bring to everybody's attention today. That might be a little bit off the beaten path, but we think you should know about them One that's super fun before the holidays and another one that's just one to watch. So, mel, what are you covering today?
Mel:
I am hopefully bringing some joy to folks. I'm covering an article talking about how workers across America are owed millions in wages.
Francesca :
Yeah, listen, cash money not a problem ever. No, I'll be covering Gallup's state of the workplace report. That they just yeah, it's basically all the sentiments around how employees are feeling about work. I love it. Yeah, all right, so let's get into it Exciting.
Mel:
All right, well, I will jump in here. I was reading an article online from CBS, Miami and Miami Herald, and the Miami Herald noted that $161 million is owed in unpaid wages on behalf of employees, and 6.5 million of that amount is owed to Floridians alone. So there's a lost money out there for folks and I want to tell them how they can find it.
Francesca :
What's going on in Florida? 6.5 million.
Mel:
I mean 6.5 million seem a little low compared to the $161 million.
Francesca :
Yeah, super fair, I'm spreading it out across each of the states, but I'm actually more interested in how do I find my money now.
Mel:
Yes, I'm going to tell you how to find that money. All right, well, just to give some education here, the US Department of Labor when a business violates labor law, the US Department of Labor recovers those unpaid wages on behalf of employees and they hold on to those wages. They do try to reach out to employees to give them the unpaid wages, but if they can't reach them it just kind of goes into this bank of money, essentially where you know they'll hold on to it for three years, but after three years that money is turned into the US Treasury Department and then you'll never see that money again.
Francesca :
That is that, Mel. That is just because I'm like how hard did they try to get hold of me? That's what I'm saying, I know, and I'm sort of like you can't just hold on to it in perpetuity, until like. I don't know yeah.
Mel:
In this day and age, you really couldn't find someone.
Francesca :
I know, come on, come on, we're tracking our cell phones. No, just kidding, I can find anybody. Yeah, yeah, but it's super fair, super fair, yeah.
Mel:
Super fair, so it's really easy process. I went down a rabbit hole about this. I went on the US Department of Labor's website. They have a page called the workers owed wages page and you can enter your employer's information there. You just enter their name and you can enter the location, so the state that you live in, which would be specific to whether they owe wages in your state and then you can search for your name and submit a claim form and get your money. I did. Yeah, it was really easy. It was super easy. I was just curious. I started throwing. I removed the location piece just to see who was out there, but I started throwing some big name organizations like Coca-Cola, Walmart out there and they did have unclaimed wages in certain states. So link's gonna be shared in our show notes. Go out there, check it out. You might have a small little cash sum just in time for the holiday season, so check it out.
Francesca :
It's just like fun. It's like fun.
Mel:
You know what?
Francesca :
that reminds me of Unclaimed property.
Mel:
Yeah, unclaimed property. I think if you don't know about unclaimed property, every state on their treasury department's page usually has an unclaimed property section where you can search for your name and it'll show you if you're owed some cash. I've gotten it before. Have you gotten it before?
Francesca :
Yeah, I mean it's interesting, so I've gotten it for like a class action lawsuit. You know how you usually in the mail sometimes you get the so-and-so credit card is filing a class action lawsuit.
Mel:
I throw those right in the trash.
Francesca :
Absolutely throw them in the trash. I don't even yeah, but I don't know why. I'm like is this serious? Do I need to do something? I know yeah, because who knows? I mean. I don't know, I'm like is it worth it? But unclaimed property makes it really easy because, to your point, every state has it. Look it up in every state. I don't think there's an expiration date on it and no, I don't think so. I found, like my great aunt, I got really down a rabbit hole.
Francesca :
By the way, this is one of the benefits of having like in Samio. When you wake up at two o'clock and go down a rabbit hole, you're looking up your great uncle Elmer's uncle's poverty, you know, in Chicago Heights? Yes, anyway, but this is a billion dollar industry.
Mel:
Yeah, it is a billion dollar industry. And I mean those are those lost wages are going to the US department, treasury department. If you don't claim them, so claim your cash, it's your money.
Francesca :
Listen. Your money, honey. Take five money, five monies. Take five money. Take five minutes to get five monies.
Mel:
Yeah.
Francesca :
Yeah, that's fun. Oh, I love that. That's gonna get fun.
Mel:
That's fun. Go check it out Again. We'll link to this in the show notes, but definitely check it out.
Francesca :
Nice, nice, yeah, yeah. So Gallup is an organization that is massive into research. They do this state of the global workplace report every single year and it's typically like a look back right on on the last year. Here's the headline from the findings Again, super comprehensive report. But the headline I want everyone to keep in mind is this we need to change the way we manage our people. Yeah, and I know I have absolutely been feeling this for a while, Mel you 100%, yeah, yeah.
Francesca :
The thing that struck me about this was, again, this is a look back, so a lot of this data is gonna be from 2022, okay, but the thing that strikes me about this is this data may be getting worse, since we all have discovered mass layups. So let me, let me. I'm gonna break this down for you in terms of pros and then some things that I think we all need to look at. So this might take me a minute, but it's really good data for all of you to have. Here we go In 2022, the world experienced a surge in job opportunities, and employee engagement reached a record high of 23%. Okay, okay, and what they're counting as engagement are workers finding meaningful connection between their team, their manager and their employer. But that's what engagement kind of feels like to Gallup right. So, again, more job opportunities. We had a surge in 2022 and people felt more engaged than ever at that 23%.
Mel:
Yeah, that makes sense, not about right. Yeah, I think so. Yeah, I think so. 2022 just felt like a surge in a lot of opportunity for people I don't know, and there was still a lot of the COVID recovery pairing that was happening in organization stores that time in 2022. Absolutely, that has seemed to now gone away, but at least in 2022, you still felt like that was happening. I don't know.
Francesca :
Yeah, agree, agree, those are some pros. Ok, and keep in mind that this data that I'm about to talk about is during that surge. Ok, so this is what's going to be really interesting. Ok, so let's talk about some of the things that were in addition to this surge and in addition to this high engagement. There were some other things going on. For instance, employee stress remains at record high, with 44% of employees saying that they experience a lot of stress the prior day. So you've got engagement slightly taking up, stress coming really up. Yeah, stress has also been on the rise over the last decade, and what they found is really interesting. You know what? The number one reason for stress for workers?
Mel:
No, what? What is it? It's not the work.
Francesca :
It's their manager.
Mel:
Oh, I believe it. If you get stuck with a wrong manager or someone who's not a great leader, that really impacts your mental health and your physical. I mean, it impacts everything.
Francesca :
Something that we don't talk about a lot when you're looking for jobs is are you sure you really want to work with the manager that's hiring you? Yeah, because they can make your life a dream or a living hell. And now the data is here that supports it that managers outsized influence on someone's stress at work. In fact, it's 3.8 times more influence on an employee's stress than even things like work location. So we see a lot of things coming out about stress around people having to go back to work. It's what causes even more stress is if your manager is shape.
Mel:
I'll speak for a personal example, when I did a commute that would take me almost four hours a day, two hours there, two hours back but I loved what I was doing, I loved the team that I was working on, I loved the leader that I worked with. So that commute was it a tough commute? Yeah, but I also believed in what I was doing, so it made it much easier. It wasn't like I was ending my day super stressed. So I can believe that.
Francesca :
Yeah, yeah, if you're really engaged and if you have someone that you love to work with you feel good.
Mel:
Yeah, you feel good about work.
Francesca :
Yeah, it makes a big difference, absolutely. So again, this is a look back we're at 44% of stress. We know managers are the number one Culper Hair Management and Leadership. Some of the impacts of this. Again, before all this layoff conversation six in 10 employees are quiet, quitting Six in 10, actively looking yeah, yeah, I believe it.
Mel:
So you take into account all these organizations who have layoffs, this number is going to go up, guarantee it it's really going to go up and then also take into it not just layoffs but, I think, attitudes from CEOs that have been making headlines lately. I'll just give it the recent Wayfair CEO to calling their workforce late. They can't be lazy even though they're making record revenue. It's in the way they're being treated from the top down which influences the culture, so interesting to see how this pans out.
Francesca :
Yeah, I mean. 2023 has been dubbed sometimes this year of efficiency. From a lot of these organizations that overhired quite honestly Made some bad business decisions and it's been very interesting to see the tone go from we love you, you're everything, to you guys are lazy and now we need to buy.
Mel:
You Sounds like an abusive relationship. A little bit, a little bit yeah.
Francesca :
But the thing here is you've got these employees that are quiet quitting for a lot of different reasons for the stress because the culture isn't there. Sometimes it's paying benefits six and 10. And this, even at six and 10, if you look at the financial impacts of it, it's major because it's costing the economy globally 8.8, not million, not billion, but 8.8 trillion dollars a year, or 9% of global GDP Yikes. This is shit that's turning, or it's turning it on it's axes. Yeah, you know.
Mel:
Yeah, that's massive.
Francesca :
It's massive. So that's at six and 10 employees guarantee you that number is going to go up to seven in time, and so is that financial impact. And and the last thing on here is that we can actually Change this because it sounds like it. Yeah, these are all doable changes, because what they're saying is a lot of employees. They were asked what would it take to change at work. I do use this stress to not have you quiet, quiet you want to guess More care from their leader.
Francesca :
The overwhelming majority said listen for a 41%. This engagement from my leader and this culture needs to change. So engagement, yeah, at the very top. These that's so. After that, 20% paying benefits and after that, 16% well-being. I want to stick on this engagement culture piece because, melanie, your experience. How much do organizations really pay attention to this?
Mel:
I've worked for some that were really focused on this and I've worked for others that weren't. And you could feel it, really feel it in places where they didn't pay attention to this and in a negative way, like I don't know. I, the culture piece is a responsibility of the organization at the top, and then the team, so the team leader setting the tone, and then the individual. Like you have your own Individual contribution into that. I really believe in those three elements but if it's lacking, it's, it's not a good thing.
Francesca :
That's not, and I think it's really. If you're wondering if your place of work has great culture or engagement, I know a few things you can check. And then, mel, I'm really curious because, again, 41% of people feel like we need to switch this again. I think, after these mass layoffs, this number is gonna go up right. But one thing I you know, I know we talk about this, but check out what people are saying on Glassdoor. That's absolutely something, because people, will you know, use some very candid information there. I also think, if you're not as an employee, if you're not clear on what the culture is, or if you're not clear on things like what the values are, and if you don't feel like those values, even if they are clear, are lived out every day, yeah, and the behaviors of your leaders, yeah, I think your, your company or your organization has some work to do.
Mel:
Agree. I think there are three primary requirements for every organization in terms of culture and care for their people, and that's Respect, and then relationships and meaningful work. And it's like this three-legged stall, and if one of those legs are missing, then it's not gonna be a good experience and the engagement is not gonna be high.
Francesca :
Respects. An interesting one, isn't it? Yeah?
Mel:
respect is at the top, like treating your people with respect, trusting, giving them the autonomy to do their work, not micromanaging. I think there's an there's an interesting element to me where You're seeing a lot, especially in the news today, going back to the CEO stuff, which that's at the organization level. So from the top down, if you're getting messaging Calling their workforce lazy or telling them to stop complaining that millernal CEO.
Francesca :
Yeah, millernal CEO.
Mel:
Yeah, there's plenty of examples of this right which is horrible, horrible to even think about. But, man, if that respect piece is missing, oof you know yeah, you know, it's really interesting to look at.
Francesca :
I keep coming back to the headline, which is we need to change the way we manage people Absolutely, and I can full on say the way we manage people five years ago is not going to work today. It won't.
Mel:
It can't. No, it can't, and it's. There's so many more expectations on leaders today because of how things have changed. You're dealing with not just the deliverables that you need to put out for the organization. You're one.
Mel:
When you're a leader, you're dealing with people, so it's not just about the work, it's about the humans that are involved and they are human beings. So there are things happening in their worlds outside of work that are impacting things. They don't need to share that with you, but hopefully you have a good enough relationship as a leader. You know if something's going on that they can't come to you, feel comfort in knowing that you're there to support them if they need any exceptions or things that are going to help them out to get through whatever they're dealing with outside.
Mel:
I don't know, the world is on fire every single day and, as a leader having empathy for folks who are being impacted by that or talking to your, I've been in organizations where they completely ignore major things, like don't put out messaging when major decisions like Ro are overturned and you're like what? You're not going to acknowledge this for women. You know, I think there's different expectations for leaders today, even from a mental health standpoint and being knowledgeable. You don't have to be a psychiatrist or psychologist, but you do need to be aware of mental health issues people are facing after going through something like COVID, in addition to whatever other issues they might be carrying. So I don't know that leaders are fully trained or understand how to do all of those things, and it's getting harder and harder to be a leader because you are expected to know how to do all of these things.
Francesca :
Yeah, yeah, so the data is there.
Mel:
I can talk about this all day. I could too. I could too.
Francesca :
I think, the Gallup Report. I covered some headlines and some highlights here. The report is chock full of really interesting data. I would take a gander at it, especially if you're in an organization wanting to make a change. There's a lot of very robust data to leverage. So take a gander at it. We'll post it. But what did everyone to know? That's where it landed for the 2023 and after these Q4 activities. How it looks, We'll see how it looks. We'll see how it looks. Want to watch? Want to watch? All right? Well, nice to see you today and chat with you. Nice to see you too. Yeah, I know we're going to take a little bit of a hiatus for the holiday and then we'll be back in January with new week, new headlines and what else. Mel.
Mel:
We are going to have our first guest speaker and we're going to talk about recruiting. Yeah, baby, get in those jobs, get in those jobs.
Francesca :
Mel was like I'm going to be a guest speaker, Get in those jobs. Mel was lovely, lovely to chat with you all the day.