The brief Age of the Worker is over – employers have the upper hand again

The pandemic ushered in an era of quiet quitting' and bare minimum Mondays' but workers have since lost leverage

It seems that it was only yesterday that the media was filled with stories about workers calling the shots. There were the work-from-homers who refused to come back to the office after the pandemic was long over. There were the quiet quitters" who proudly - and publicly - admitted that, even though they were collecting a paycheck from their employer they weren't doing much at all during the day except looking for another job. And then there's the group of workers who were advocating for bare minimum Mondays" because apparently, a five-day workweek was just too much to bear.

During the past few years, we've heard employees publicly demand unlimited paid time off, four-day workweeks, wellness sabbaticals, gigantic bonuses to switch jobs and even pawternity leave" - getting time off when you adopt a puppy. Facing labor shortages, customer demands and supply chain headaches, most employers caved. The Age of the Worker blossomed.