To modern workers everywhere,
New research from Qualtrics suggests it’s true that companies might alienate workers if they require vaccines. The number of Americans who say they would consider leaving their jobs if their workplaces made vaccination necessary has ticked upward, from 39% in March to 44% in August.
But employers may also want to consider another risk: The same Qualtrics survey shows that 38% of workers would consider leaving their current employer if the organization did not enact a vaccine mandate.
Willingness to consider quitting without a mandate was more prominent among men (43%) than it was among women (32%), and among Democrats (51%) compared to Republicans (27%). Overall, a majority of US workers support vaccine mandates, Qualtrics says, though the share of people who say they’re in favor of ultimatums slipped from 66% in March of this year to 60% in August.
Ben Granger, an organizational psychologist at Qualtrics, says the findings describe a tug of war playing out at many companies. Some people say they want their employers to mandate inoculation so they’ll feel safer around their peers, while others believe that an employer shouldn’t have that much influence over a person’s vaccination decision. “The internal struggle is real,” he says.
Granger’s advice to business leaders who are still undecided about their vaccine policy is to communicate with employees even if there’s no directive yet. Explain how the company will make the call and what information it is relying upon, he says, because “people are really good at adapting to change, but people are not good at dealing with uncertainty.”—Lila MacLellan
Read more here from Quartz at Work:
Nearly 4 in 10 US workers say they may quit if their employer doesn’t mandate vaccines
How much do corporate Covid-19 vaccine mandates really matter?
What are the best approaches to engage the vaccine-hesitant now?
Five things we learned this week
🙅♀️ A rape allegation at Alibaba has prompted an outpouring about toxic work cultures at some of China’s most admired companies.
🌍 The world’s leading climate scientists are becoming a more diverse group.
🖥️ India’s new IT rules have scary implications for social media grievance officers.
🏕️ Nearly 450 AI-related summer camps are open in the US this year.
👭 Melinda French Gates and MacKenzie Scott have joined forces to finance women’s causes.
30-second case study
Just a few months before a pandemic seriously threatened its business model, WeWork looked like it was going to implode all on its own. After a failed attempt to go public in 2019, and reports of a reckless culture, excessive spending, and corporate mis-governance, the company went through a major shake up—including the ouster of CEO Adam Neumann, the shedding of thousands of jobs, and the sale of a number of businesses.
Since Neumann’s exit, WeWork has kept a low profile. In February, Sandeep Mathrani, the former CEO of Brookfield Properties’ retail group, took over and focused on turning the company around—as well as slashing costs. He has reportedly cut the company’s burn rate by half, and WeWork now has at least $2 billion in liquid assets, plus a $1 billion commitment from majority owner SoftBank.
That’s a lot of pandemic staying power from a company that just two years ago felt compelled to warn investors that many of its clients—primarily small businesses and entrepreneurs—wouldn’t be able to withstand an economic downturn.
The improved picture is partly due to the fact that co-working is no longer reserved for independent contractors and freelancers. As of the first quarter of 2021, more than half of WeWork’s membership base was made up of big enterprises. As preferences for remote work and the emergence of Covid-19 variants force employers to rejigger their future office plans, many are considering co-working spaces, which would further benefit WeWork.
The takeaway: Between the rise of remote work as a permanent state at some companies, and the continued disruptions to the back-to-office plans of others, flexibility is becoming a sought-after feature in commercial property. In April, 40.5% of employers surveyed anticipated increased use of flexible spaces as part of post-pandemic workplace strategy, up from 29.1% in October, according to data from JLL, a global real estate services company.
As a result, big real estate companies have been making more deals with co-working startups recently. In February, CBRE invested $200 million to acquire a 35% stake in Industrious, a WeWork competitor. A month later, Newmark Group announced it will acquire Knotel, another co-working company, which had filed for Chapter 11 protection in January. And on Aug. 9, commercial real estate giant Cushman & Wakefield said it’s planning a $150 million investment in WeWork, which is preparing to finally go public this year via a SPAC.
Calling all readers
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It’s a fact
Global mean sea level rose faster in the 20th century than in any prior century over the last three millennia. Time to make sure your long-term business plans address the need for climate resilience.
Quartz’s coverage of climate change is predicated on the idea that every industry, and every employer, can be part of the solution or part of the ongoing crisis. Follow our climate economy obsession to track the latest in environment and sustainability news.
Words of wisdom
“While it took Covid-19 to push many women out of the workforce, what made their place precarious to begin with was a structural connection between the pressures they face at work and the unequal distribution of labor at home. There is no stimulus bill that can solve for this.”
SAP SuccessFactors’ April Crichlow, fashion designer Rebecca Minkoff, and investor Alison Koplar Wyatt (who have navigated careers while raising a combined eight kids) made a joint argument in Quartz at Work that employers need to step up to ease the plight of working parents. Read their article here.
Incoming
Quartz has a brand new lineup of member-exclusive weekly newsletters. If you’re not yet a member, sign up today and get 50% off your first year. You’ll get access to new emails including:
🔮 The Forecast: a short, sharp look forward at an emerging industry, technology, or trend
🏢 The Company: context on the companies changing (or about to change) the way other businesses work (companies like Coinbase, Discord, Krispy Kreme, and Shein)
💻 How To: specific things you can do to work more effectively and solve problems you care about (from spending too much time with your phone, to managing your team’s return to the office, to shrinking your company’s carbon footprint)
ICYMI
What’s the most generous act you’ve seen recently? It’s a beautiful question to ask, and to receive. In a time of renewed pandemic stress, variant outbreaks, and the reinstatement of lockdowns in various parts of the world, we suggest revisiting Quartz at Work contributor Elizabeth Weingarten’s April 2020 piece, 20 questions to ask instead of “How are you doing right now?”
Some of the suggested questions hold up better than others—with the global supply of toilet paper in apparently healthy shape, you probably don’t feel compelled to ask anyone what they’re stocking up on at the moment. But there are lots of still-resonant questions to choose from that can help take conversations from surface level to something more meaningful.
You got The Memo!
Our best wishes for a winning week. Please send any workplace news, vaccine mandates, and AI summer camp registrations to work@qz.com. Get the most out of Quartz by downloading our app and becoming a member. This week’s edition of The Memo was produced by Heather Landy, Michelle Cheng, and Sarah Todd.