Eyeworld

76 | EYEWORLD | SUMMER 2025 P RACTICE MANAGEMENT by Liz Hillman Editorial Co-Director Myth 1: Everyone's been quitting. Mr. Mull provided data that showed while 134 people voluntarily left their jobs since 2022, there has also been 44% more hiring in the U.S. in every industry category. There's been more hiring than quitting, he said. "It's not that everyone has been quitting—everyone has been switch- ing," he said. Why? For their quality of life. "What's happening right now is that they are upgrading their quality of life. Now we have to ask what's causing this." Myth 2: COVID caused it. Mr. Mull said it isn't COVID, rather workloads have gone up. It's not just the hours; it's the amount, constant connec- tivity, expectations, and consolidation of many responsibilities into fewer and fewer people. He said that employees are getting away from work less and are not taking vacations for various reasons (everything from fear of falling behind to lack of disposable income to needing to bank time to care for family members in the future). Mr. Mull said there is also a "wages reckoning" happening in the U.S. Work is up, time away from work is down, and the economics are not working for people. "COVID didn't cause this," Mr. Mull said. "COVID took an already exhaust- ed workforce and broke it." Myth 3: No one wants to work anymore. This isn't the case, Mr. Mull said. Rather, it's "no one wants to work for you." "We want to blame peo- ple instead of looking at the jobs and how those jobs allow [or don't allow] for a reasonable quality of life." When it comes to this myth be- ing applied to the younger workforce, Mr. Mull said those newer in the workforce need patience and mentoring; they're young. But no one has time for patience and mentoring anymore. "You have to flip the mindset that there's a staffing shortage. There is no staffing shortage, there's a great jobs shortage," he said. The conditions for a destination workplace "The era of simply trying to hire the best person for the job is over," Mr. Mull said, adding that to become a destination workplace, you have to create the best job for the person. Creating a destination workplace ASOA Annual Meeting keynote speaker provides strategies to attract and keep talent E veryone's quitting. No one wants to work anymore. COVID caused it. These are all myths, according to workforce engagement expert and lead- ership trainer Joe Mull, who served as the keynote speaker at the 2025 ASOA Annual Meeting in Los Angeles, California. It's not that people don't want to work, it's that people don't want to work for you, Mr. Mull said. His keynote address focused on "Employalty TM ," which is not a mashup of the words "employee" and "loyalty." Rather, it's "employer," "loyalty," and "humanity." Mr. Mull shared the conditions for becoming what he called a "destination workplace," a place where the jobs within your organization are an em- ployee's "dream job." "If you want people to commit to you, you have to commit to them," Mr. Mull said. "You have to create for them a life they can't get anywhere else." The myths Before you can get to the conditions to create a destination workplace, Mr. Mull first wanted to dispel the myths. Attendees engage with the message of ASOA Opening General Session keynote speaker Joe Mull. Source: ASCRS

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