Thought-provoking Things Worth Sharing - Issue #116
Is the US workforce about to start shrinking due to emigration?
That’s the question being pondered by this survey, and it seems like more GenZ members see themselves living outside of the US than inside.
Overall, young Americans are more likely to see a future outside the U.S. than within the country of their birth. When asked how strongly they felt that their future lay outside the U.S. on a scale of one to five, with five being extremely eager to leave, the 3,000 young folks we polled returned an average score of 3.1.
That’s just slightly more than even toward leaving. And, the reasons aren’t that big of a surprise. It’s the things other industrial nations have that the US doesn’t, like universal healthcare, gun control, affordable higher education, etc.
This presents a unique opportunity for US businesses that can figure out how to hire remote workers from outside of the US. It’s not easy, I know that in my own industry, the cross-border data privacy requirements can be a huge hurdle, but a labor market shrinking because workers see better opportunities in other countries is a new challenge too.
Welcome to this week’s collection of thought-provoking things. Each week I’ll share information about careers and workplace culture, mental health in the workplace, talent development, and important information about privacy, security, and legal tech.
You can find out all about me here - Mike McBride Online.
One bonus tip. You might already know this, but I just learned it so I’m sharing it. The quickest way to connect with folks you just met in person? Open the LinkedIn app on your phone, click in the Search bar, and then tap the icon on the left side.
It will generate a QR code for your profile, and on that same screen, there’s a scanner to scan the QR code of your new contact.
There you go, no need to remember to look up folks you meet at an event on LinkedIn later, just connect instantly on the spot. Give it a try, open up the scanner in your LinkedIn app, and scan the code above. ;-)
What tricks do you have to work your network?
Careers and the Workplace
I’ve said it before, if you demand employees be in the office all day, every day, for more than 40 hours every week, the only people you can hire are the ones capable of that. It isn’t a very diverse group - Return-to-office mandates could spell trouble for working mothers
We talk about the importance of networking around here, but we can also be honest that it’s not easy for many of us:
If you’re not transparent with your team it’s hard to have any trust and if you don’t have any trust, there won’t be transparency - Transparent Cultures Are Built on Trust
Training and Development
Linked - How Do You Encourage Your Team to Learn New Things
If you truly want to be an organization that supports learning, you need to put your money where your mouth is and figure out how to incentivize individual and team learning opportunities.
Mental Health in the Workplace
In other words, I'm more than simply a worker. I'm more than a cog in the capitalist system that pays me for my labor. We all are, but we don't always act like it, and I suspect that Helen is correct in her assumption that part of the reason is that we have prioritized work so far above and beyond the rest of our lives that we don't have anything else to do.
That's not a recipe for a healthy and balanced life.
It’s this time of year - Staying Mentally Strong: Tips For You And Your Team This Holiday Season.
The Future of Mental Health at Work Is Safety, Community, and a Healthy Organizational Culture
Privacy, Security, and Legal Tech
Linked - For 'Unhappy' Law Firms, There's Little Recourse From Fast Rising Legal Tech Prices
With all the announcements from Microsoft Ignite about Teams Premium, SharePoint Premium, CoPilot, etc. these subscription costs are about to get even higher if firms want to keep up with technological changes.
And this will remain a massive problem:
This is probably already happening - Shadow AI: A Thorny Problem For Law Firms
Also, this - The employees secretly using AI at work
Even small businesses get hacked - 5 Cybersecurity Tips for Small IT Teams
Perfectly legal for cars to harvest your texts, call logs:
"In other words, it's A-OK for your car to "automatically and without authorization, instantaneously intercept, record, download, store, and [be] capable of transmitting" text messages and call logs since the privacy violation is potential, but the injury not necessarily actual. "
I’ll have more on all of the announcements from Microsoft Ignite this week on Monday in the M365 newsletter, but for now, this wrap-up is pretty good. - Microsoft Ignite 2023 Announcements Emphasize Copilot. (Yes there was a lot of talk about CoPilot. Like, a LOT!)
That’s all folks. If you found something interesting in this week’s newsletter, please share it with your friends. It’s the best way to help support the effort I put in each week to share this with you.