Taking a Closer Look at the ‘Great Resignation’
2021 razzle-dazzled us in myriad surprising ways—from a pandemic that seems tireless in its reinvention to a booming economy that has tipped in favor of workers, giving rise to the largest number of people leaving their jobs than ever before. But is the ‘Great Resignation’ really what we think it is?
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By now, you have all (likely) heard the term “Great Resignation,” coined by Professor Anthony Klotz at Texas A&M, describing one of the buzziest economic tales of 2021. He theorizes that an accumulation of stalled resignations stemming from realizations about work/life balance and new passion projects that morphed into possible entrepreneurial enterprises helped give rise to the phenomenon.
In May, the term ‘Great Resignation’ came to life when the number of people leaving their jobs broke records. The April record was shattered in July, only to be decimated again in August, surpassed in September, only to be toppled yet again in November —when a record 4.5 million people quit their jobs. To put that in context, that is almost three percent of the entire American workforce—the highest percentage ever reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
“I certainly think that the pandemic has led many people to reevaluate their work and their priorities and what they want to do,” Elise Gould, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, shared in a statement to Business Insider.
This trend has affected industries across the board, from tech to marketing to hospitality to manufacturing. We are in a deeply lopsided job market, with millions more job openings than applicants. It is a market tipped towards workers, and they are on the move.
Balance means different things to people in different industries. The increase in ‘resignations’ is more about low-wage workers switching to better jobs—more job hop than job quit. And in the world of market research and data analytics, the ‘Great Resignation’ is similarly more of a ‘Great Migration.’ People are taking stock of myriad issues—from WFH policies to company culture to career growth opportunities to whether they are happy. The ongoing pandemic and general economic boost of 2021 has helped re-orient the way folks in these industries frame and think about the place work has in their lives.
There is a great reshuffling happening, with work/life balance dovetailing with newfound economic leverage in this booming job market, inspiring many to seek out greener pastures if some aspect of their current role does not align with their current values.
The true “quitters” of the ‘Great Resignation’ are actually seniors who had plans to leave their jobs. The pandemic economy, with its increased health risks for the older folks—and perhaps even its rise in asset prices and savings rates—has produced a bumper crop of early retirees.
2021 revealed that many workers would rather leave their jobs than slip back into the “old normal” of a 9-to-5 office slog that no longer fits. How we work changed dramatically during the sudden and unanticipated experiment in remote work whipped into being by the pandemic.
Research indicates that many people thrive when they have autonomy over their work lives and environment (here’s looking at you, thermostat tug-of-war) and increased flexibility in managing their schedules. Excising stressful commutes has enabled focus and efficiency and allowed for more energy to be used where it counts—making the great work happen.
WFH allowed for enhanced efficiency for many workers, which led to increased productivity and happiness. However, others struggled and missed the more cleanly delineated separation of office life. Wherever you may fall on the continuum, our collective remote work experiment has laid bare the holes in some long-held dictums around evaluating performance. What had once been a critical indicator of office performance is the (now-outmoded) “derrieres in office chairs” metric—workers who spent more time in the office were generally seen as being more productive and dedicated.
It may take time to learn how to navigate the ever-shifting new normal as the mercurial winds of microbiology continue to buffet us in countless ways. But smart companies are paying attention and adjusting their policies in an effort to retain talent. We imagine the nimble will win the race in 2022.