Written by Kieran Delamont, Associate Editor, London Inc.

ANOTHER YEAR IS upon us, and as usual that has the work world thinking about the year to come. What lays in store for 2025, after a 2024 that saw lots of interesting trends in the workplace, from the increasing role being played by AI to the end of the free-wheelin’, job-hoppin’ days of 2021 and 2022. Here are three areas we’re keeping our eyes on this year:

Will we see employee resentment boil over this year?

The job market has been markedly softer over the past 18 months, and there’s a lot more folks out there starting to feel a little trapped. Sixty-five per cent of professionals polled by Glassdoor reported feeling stuck in their current roles, and overall, workers’ perception of opportunity in the job market is waning. Some are predicting that 2025 ― which is likely to bring lower interest rates that hopefully spur some additional hiring ― will be enough to uncork this pent-up frustration. “As workers feel stuck, pent-up resentment boils under the surface and employee disengagement rises,” reads Glassdoor’s 2025 trends report. “In the new year, the pressure from this resentment is going to keep growing. The longer the job market remains soft, the more workers are forced to stay even if it’s time for them to move on. Once the job market heats up again, that will open a relief valve to release the bottled-up pressure by giving workers the option to quit in favour of better options.”

Can generational friction be overcome?

We’ve heard so, so much over the last few years about Gen Z and their idiosyncrasies hitting the workplace like a nuke. Will it just be more of the same in 2025 ― or will all this generational friction finally cool off a bit? “It’s become enough of a problem for HR to have to step in,” writes HR-Brew. “The rhetoric around Gen Z employees is only a hair away from that in the 2010s when millennials were entering the workforce,” noted senior data scientist Heather Walker. “Blaming generational attitudes overlooks the structural issues that affect everyone, regardless of age. The problem isn’t about age ― it’s about a failure to adapt to evolving employee expectations like flexibility, meaningful work and career development.” That change might materialize as Gen Z continues to occupy more positions of power in the workplace ― by the end of the year, Glassdoor predicts that Gen Z will make up more than 20 per cent of the workforce, and 10 per cent of management ranks.

How flexible do we want to be?

Flexibility is one buzzword you’ll probably hear a lot of, since many see it as the resolution to endless arguments about RTO and WFH. Flexibility in working arrangements is proving to be one of the top employee motivators. “Nearly one-third of jobseekers say they want more flexibility than their company currently offers, and 34 per cent of employees say they’re not seeking a new job because they don’t want to give up their current level of flexibility,” said a survey of Canadian workers by Robert Half. Even when it comes to benefits, HR leaders look at 2025 and think that one of the key differentiators between employers is going to be how much, and how well, company leaders respond to the new reality of increased demands for flexibility.

LEADERSHIP

When did email layoffs become so normal?

The days of learning you’ve been laid off in a meeting with your boss appear to be disappearing as companies turn to increasingly impersonal methods to cut jobs

IN NOVEMBER, GENERAL Motors laid off around 1,000 employees via a mass email. No call, no company-wide meeting, not even one of those teary-eyed Zoom layoffs we saw a couple years ago. Nope, employees were texted to check their emails, where they would find pink slips.

If it sounds rough, you won’t like this news: even in an age where layoffs are scrutinized heavily on social media, a lot of companies are just fine with issuing pink slips by email. “In the hybrid-work era, some companies no longer feel obligated to deliver bad news face to face, or even over a Zoom call,” reported The Wall Street Journal recently.

“During the pandemic, many businesses grew accustomed to sending employees emails if their jobs had been eliminated ― a practice that largely remains today,” reported the WSJ. In July, when Intuit laid off around 1,800 people, they did it by telling them to watch out for a calendar invite labelled “Leaving Intuit.” And when Tesla did a round of layoffs, they timed the emails to go out in the middle of the night. “GM’s approach shows that the ways companies dismiss workers are evolving, human-resources specialists say, during another season of end-of-year layoffs.”

Part of it, experts suggest, is that HR leaders have become obsessed with the idea that they can perfect the layoff. You’re probably more likely to get laid off on a Tuesday or a Wednesday, since some HR staff believe that’s more humane than firing you on a Friday. Some believe that mass notification is cleaner, while other companies still do them one by one, dispatching managers and HR staff to deliver the news.

None of this is making workers and jobseekers very happy. “Imagine getting laid off from a company after 38 years of loyalty?” asked one career coach, speaking about the GM layoffs. “[One] guy had been working for GM literally longer than I have been alive. That’s literally a lifetime of loyalty to be let go, via email.”

And many HR experts agree ― and disagree ― with the new corporate comfort with emailed layoffs.

“It’s a human being here. They’re losing their job,” said Stacey Berk, founder of Expand HR Consulting. “We can take a half-hour out of our day to have these discussions.”

CAREERS

The rise of micro-retirements

Faced with dimming prospects of a traditional retirement, young professionals are finding that it might be time to reinvent the wheel

MORE FROM LONDON INC.

Follow Us