Will the Great Resignation Lead to the Great Reassessment?
/Will the Great Resignation Lead to the Great Reassessment?
As I said in my last post - gone are the days when a company job would take you from college to retirement, with not much change in between. Currently, aside from the shifting demographics in work culture, there has also been a seismic shift in the culture of workers themselves. This phenomena has been tagged in the media as “The Great Resignation”.
Working people from all walks of life have left the workforce in droves. August 2021 recorded the highest ‘quit rate’ since December 2000 when this type of data was first recorded. Worker attrition has cut across many different industries and socioeconomic strata - from fast food, retail, hospitality and health care workers to lawyers, and software engineers.
Covid has been a precipitating factor for what has been called “turnover shock”, a life event that causes people to reassess their life and job priorities, and there is some diversity in the way this mass exodus has played out. Some employees were already on the edge with toxic work environments, excessive hours, too much work for too little pay, and unstable job security. Other’s felt their job environment was unsafely exposing them to Covid. Others, mainly women (who have left the workforce in
larger numbers than men) , had no options for childcare, and a surprising number of people used their pandemic relief money or unemployment checks to retool their working life into being freelancers, giving themselves more freedom and autonomy. Even beyond those who have already left the workplace, several polls recently conducted have estimated that nearly half of the current workforce is either looking for new opportunities or actively job searching.
Despite this current marketplace with greater demand for labor, both skilled and unskilled, than what is in current supply, there is no guarantee that changing jobs will offer substantially better opportunities. Going back to “business as usual” does not feel like a desirable option for many workers now, however many companies and employers do not yet recognize that peoples needs and desires in their work life have shifted beyond the immediate impact of the pandemic. These newly hatched priorities include: work that is more flexible ( including remote options), more supportive of families, less exhausting, and more connected to the social emotional and physical safety needs of their employees.
The corporate mindset may be slow to change but if we wish to move towards a newly vibrant economy, a re conception of what constitutes a healthy, happy and productive workplace may be a major factor.