Page 22 - BusinessWest January 8, 2024

EMPLOYMENT >>
Coping with the Elements
For Employers, the Challenges of Managing a Workforce Keep Growing
“It’s difficult ... if you’re a Baby Boomer C-suite executive and you’re trying to get your arms around this workforce, it’s a bear.”
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JANUARY 8, 2024 << EMPLOYMENT >>
BusinessWest
Allison Ebner says there is a good deal of tension between employees and employers in the workplace today.
BY GEORGE O’BRIEN
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Allison Ebner counts herself a fan of the Discovery Chan- nel show Deadliest Catch, which chronicles the lives
of crews fishing for king and snow crab in Alaska, with that name effectively communicating just how dangerous a profession this is.
And Ebner, who took the helm at the Employers Assoc. of the NorthEast earlier this year, can find seemingly endless parallels between the dangers of crab fishing in the Bering Sea and the perils of managing the modern workplace.
With the former, it’s gale-force winds, rogue waves, ice for- mations, and dealing with greenhorns. With the latter, well ... it’s everything from new regulations like family medical leave to coping with heightened expectations among employees concerning remote work, hybrid schedules, and more, to the demands of the younger generations.
In both cases, things come at leaders quickly and with great force, Ebner said. They must be as ready as they can be for whatever might hit them and then able to cope with the rough seas, whether they’re of the literal or figurative variety.
“It’s difficult ... if you’re a Baby Boomer C-suite executive and you’re trying to get your arms around this workforce, it’s a bear,” she told BusinessWest, adding that, over the past few years, there have been even more challenges heaped upon business owners and managers. These include everything from less tolerance of differing opinions (on everything from science to politics) to an apparent gulf between employees and employers when it comes to pre-pandemic levels of pro- duction and results, and whether businesses should be back there by now.
“There’s a very, very big Rock ’Em Sock ’Em Robots thing happening here — there’s tension between employers and employees,” she explained. “First, there was the Great Resig- nation, then there was quiet quitting, and now there is a great divide: employers’ expectations are coming back to pre-COV-