Yahoo Finance Have you stopped fibbing to your boss? You’re not alone
Aussies have become more honest with their employers, post-pandemic, with the abundance of jobs one possible reason employees are now willing to speak their minds.
Just 28 per cent of people lied to their employer regularly in 2022 compared to 52 per cent in 2018, a WPP survey of more than 2,000 Australians found.
“Australians have worked hard, often in thankless conditions,” the report said.
Also read: Jobs boom slowing but these industries still need more workers
Also read: $250k starting salaries, bottomless holidays: The war for talent
“Balancing work with home-schooling, working all hours to keep up, removing whatever semblance of separation still existed between personal and professional life.”
These conditions may explain why people had become “unapologetic” about their true feelings towards work, the report said.
Ultra-low unemployment may also be playing a role in employee honesty, with the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics figures revealing there was now one vacant position for every unemployed person.
“They are far less likely to lie and, if their employer disagrees, there are plenty of other jobs out there,” the report said.
Despite Aussies becoming more forthcoming with their employers, the report found most people were fibbing more overall.
For example, back in 2018, 20 per cent used work as an excuse to avoid time with family. In 2022, that number had jumped to 29 per cent.
Job hunting has eased
In a sign employers were starting to respond to workers’ needs, the number of Australian employees actively seeking a new position had fallen for the first time in three quarters.
It only eased slightly, to 17 per cent in the second quarter of 2022 from 18 per cent in the first quarter of this year, according to a Gartner survey of 855 employees.
“Employees have just spent the past two-and-a-half years working hard to support their
organisations through challenging times,” Aaron McEwan, vice-president in the Gartner HR practice, said.
“As we start getting used to the new world of work, workers have created their own personal boundaries and employers are increasingly respecting that,” he said.
Despite signs of economic trouble on the horizon, employees were fairly optimistic about their job prospects going forward, with confidence in job availability increasing from 54 per cent in the first quarter to 56 per cent.
Follow Yahoo Finance on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter, and subscribe to the free Fully Briefed daily newsletter.
