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Even Top Companies’ CEOs Are Worried About Losing Their Jobs Amid The Pandemic

Not just ordinary employees, senior leaders at large enterprises are also afraid of losing their jobs due to a series of prolonged business difficulties because of the pandemic.

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A new survey by management consulting firm AlixPartners shows that 72% of CEOs worry about losing their jobs in 2022 because of business disruption, according to Bloomberg.
The AlixPartners survey was conducted over 3,000 CEOs and executives across 10 industries, half of which have over $1 billion in revenue across North America, Europe, Middle East, and Asia-Pacific. The proportion of giant business leaders worried about being sacked has increased significantly in the past year.
Simon Freakley, director of AlixPartners, assessed that the said percentage is at an extremely high level.
According to Bloomberg, big bosses are always worried about losing their jobs, especially in companies that have issued shares. However, the proportion in the survey shows that their concerns have increased significantly this year, surging from 52% in 2020, which was already a high level.
The spike in CEO anxiety coincides with major changes in the business landscape since early 2020 as companies face supply chain disruptions, labor shortages and prolonged inflation.
The survey found that 80% of executives worried the ongoing labor shortages would be permanent, while 77% said solutions to supply chain problems were not effective enough.
When the pandemic occurred in 2020, all businesses had a difficult year indeed. And 2021 continued to be a struggle-to-survive year.
In 2020, when the epidemic occurred, businesses had a difficult year. 2021 continues to be a struggling year to survive.
Leaders realize that instead of decreasing, the pressure on their side is increasing even more, while the pandemic is yet to end and shareholders demand the company to grow. CEOs expressed concern about the direction of their businesses in the event of of recent challenges.

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“They realized that their business models, which have served them well for a number of years, are largely now not fit for the purpose,” said Mr. Freakley, adding that many companies are rushing to build supply chains locally, regionally and globally.
In the survey, 94% of bosses said their company model needed major changes within the next 3 years.
In fact, anxiety has only been forecasted, not yet clearly shown in the data. The rate of CEOs departures in the US in November - whether the reason was being laid off or retiring, moving to another job - increased only 1.1% compared to the same period last year, according to data from Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
One exception was in the technology sector, with a 17% increase in departures compared to past year’s figures. More than 162 big bosses in leading companies quit their jobs, 39 of which have left their positions in the past 2 months. Last year, the number was 126.
In 2021, the most famous names deciding to leave CEO roles include Jeff Bezos and Jack Dorsey. Bezos left Amazon's executive chair in February, while Dorsey stepped down from Twitter in November.
Both are co-founders of their respective companies. Dorsey remains an executive at another of his companies, Square Inc.
H/T: Bloomberg
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