I used to work at a large financial institution in the risk management department. For the past three years the C-suite constantly acknowledged
the War on Talent in reports regarding ongoing risks. In my naivety, I would correct reports coming out of our business unit to say the War for Talent. I did this because I thought we were fighting to hire and retain people. My direct supervisor was even supportive of the updates and agreed with the change.
About six months ago, my supervisor started suggesting that I don't reword the reports because we didn't want to use different wording the rest of the organization and we needed to focus on consistent messaging. I still thought, nah, this is the right way to put it, I'll keep doing it my way. Two months ago I was pulled into a conference call with an EVP who let me know that my continued use of unapproved language had been noted and it needed to stop immediately. I was also tasked with updating report language going back to Jan 2020 to make sure our messaging was consistent. I thought that this was f'ing weird until I saw caught a glimpse of our turnover numbers. We had annualized turnover of 25%+ for six straight quarters. Then it clicked. I could see the writing on the wall and got the hell out.
This place is drowning due to lack of talent retention, but executive management refuses to acknowledge the current paradigm shift for workers. I guess they really are doubling down on that War on Talent.