Meet 3 remote workers who negotiated for better pay, workplace flexibility, or the right to quiet quit — and won
- Remote work has become increasingly popular, and make-or-break for many Americans when choosing jobs.
- Workers are using their current bargaining power to ask for better pay, flexibility, and work-life balance.
"The Great Resignation" has become a catch-all term for the exodus of Americans from the workforce during the pandemic. But underneath that umbrella term, several forces are at play.
Workers aren't just quitting, they're bargained for historic raises, better benefits, and better work-life balance. Many are "job hopping," thinking of the Great Resignation as a "Great Reshuffle," and others are quiet quitting.
Over the last few years, much of the workforce has been recovered, but a labor shortage has persisted — and will likely never be solved.
That means workers are holding onto their bargaining power, even amid a likely 2023 recession.
As worker preferences clashed with employer demands , desire for remote work options has been an important feature in many Great Resignation stories, due to accompanying flexibility, fear of COVID-19 exposure, and a lack of childcare options.
It's become a deciding factor for many job hunters. Two-thirds of the global workforce (64%) said they have or would consider looking for a new job if their employer wanted them to return to the office full-time, according to an April ADP survey of 32,000 people.
Aside from higher pay or "better career opportunities," a flexible working arrangement — which includes the option to work remotely — was the highest motivator to find a new job, according to a McKinsey survey from this summer. According to a different report by Adobe last year, 51% of 5,500 enterprise employees interviewed — workers at companies with more than 1,000 employees — preferred complete flexibility in scheduling, while only 16% said their ideal work week would involve no flexibility at all, with a "start and end work according to a set work schedule."
A lot of workers are opting for the safety and and ease of remote work, with many highlighting the way it can make work feel less time consuming while still being productive. It's especially in sync with the Gen Z mentality, with many younger workers reimagining how work fits into their lives, instead of the other way around.
Insider previously spoke with three remote employees about how they got more out of their jobs: better pay, more free time, and only doing work that they're paid for. They shared their stories and offered advice to those in similar positions.
A millennial hopped to three different jobs in two years, securing a 39% pay raise and remote work
28-year-old Lesley Labarba currently works remotely as a human resources director at the healthcare company Chopra Global. She loves her job, but it was an uphill battle to get there, she told Insider.
At the beginning of the pandemic, she worked at a company that she chose not to specify, but which has been disclosed to Insider. Not only did she not get a raise or a better position, but she had to work in person for much of 2020, she said.
"It was never going to be fully remote, they made that pretty clear," she said of the smaller agency. "They had a COVID year where they had outstanding sales… but my bonus was significantly less."
She realized that she wanted more out of her job: more fulfilling responsibilities, better pay, and also the option to work from home. She bet on herself, she said, quitting jobs then starting at new positions until she found what she wanted.
"If your employees can't actually leave at noon on a Friday because of the amount of work they have, then what's the point of that policy?" she said. "Even the idea of going in just once a week started to make me miserable."
Read more: Meet a millennial who took advantage of the Great Resignation to get a 39% pay raise and remote work
One millennial opted for remote work over a better-paying job
39-year-old Alonso Morris has been working in data-sharing and analysis long enough to know about how much the field can pay, especially for someone with nearly 20 years of experience.
But Morris, who asked that his real identity be kept private but has been disclosed to Insider, is fine where he is.
That's because remote work has changed his life for the better, he said. Working remotely means that he spends less time commuting from his home in Connecticut to an office in New York — and that makes it easier to deal with personal matters, such as his mother's health.
"I can always answer any emails, and if anything's immediate I can be back in my office within 10 minutes," Morris told Insider. "There is no fire alarm that's that severe that can't be looked at in 10 minutes. That kind of flexibility is honestly life-changing."
A Gen Z worker told her boss that she's quiet quitting for her health
Gina Cobb was diagnosed with a chronic autoimmune illness last year, and it completely changed her life — as well as her relationship with work.
Cobb, 26, asked that her real identity be kept private, but has been verified by Insider. Before starting her current job as a senior marketing strategist, she said she was the type to go above and beyond at work: spending time at the office after hours for no extra pay and doing tasks that weren't in her job description, she said.
But getting sick meant that she had to draw a hard line between her personal and working lives.
"Work was definitely a thorn in my side that really affected my entire life," she told Insider. "Because when I was neglecting my health that bled into my personal life… It became unclear to me where my illness stopped and the stress of my job began."
So she began to put her foot down in the office when it came to any extra work without accompanying compensation.