I left my job in December.
I was looking for a new change and a role that offered more growth.
I didn’t see that in the role I was in, so I thought I would go look for that elsewhere.
Chloe Loh, like many other workers across the world, is part of the Great Resignation.
The term was first coined in the United States, describing the tens of millions
of Americans who changed jobs, or quit working for good, during the pandemic.
The phenomenon that started in the U.S. is now a reality in other parts of the world too.
So, why is this happening? And will it last?
4.5 million people in the United States quit their jobs in November 2021 – an all-time high.
This number had been trending upwards since June 2020, as Covid-19 cases steadily increased
around the world – transforming the way we work in the process.
We’re beginning to see a similar picture in other developed economies too.
That’s according to data compiled by the
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development or OECD.
There are about 20 million fewer jobs across the OECD’s 38 member countries,
compared to before the pandemic.
14 million of these countries’ unemployed are not looking for work.
Others are looking, but are holding out for the right opportunity.
Like Chloe, an architect by training.
At the end of 2021, she decided to quit the salaried position she’d held for several years.
I guess I had been looking for a few months, actually.
I had one
application process that got very close to a new job and I think that really spurred me on.
It made me realize I was ready to leave, and I had
enough experience from the role to move on to somewhere else.
I was talking with friends about it, and they sort of said,
if you have realized you need to leave, but the right job has just not come up yet –
you don’t necessarily have to wait for that job to come up before you leave,
and that was a bit of a lightbulb moment for me.
The U.K., where Chloe is based, added 100,000 new workers in February 2022.
But that’s still a long way short of filling the 1.3 million vacancies that were available.
Would you say that the decision was somehow related to all the lockdowns we have been through
and perhaps the chance to think a bit more about what you want from your career?
Maybe. I mean, I guess, maybe indirectly, more indirectly related in the sense that
not travelling, not commuting, not going out,
I have saved more than I would have, which has made this less risky, less financially risky.
Just like Chloe, many saw their savings grow during lockdowns and have used the disruption
caused by the pandemic to take stock of their professional development.
Stimulus checks in the United States and generous job retention schemes in
Europe and Asia also helped, giving workers the financial buffer they needed to quit.
But it’s not just about money.
When organizational psychologist Anthony Klotz coined the term Great Resignation in 2021,
he identified four reasons behind the phenomenon. First, there has been a backlog of resignations.
People who would have naturally changed jobs put that on hold
at the start of the pandemic because of all the uncertainty.
There was a lot of stasis in terms of job turnover, so there was a pause for a long time.
Actually a lot of redundancies.
People weren’t leaving their jobs.
But that changed.
I noticed over Autumn and Christmas - a quite high turnover of jobs - and that also spurred
me on thinking ‘okay there are actually jobs out there, this is a good time to go.’
Second, burnout. Many workers simply needed a break.
Think of people that faced extended working hours,
while home-schooling and taking care of an elderly relative, for instance.
Flexibility is another reason.
The newfound ability to work from home, or increased awareness of different working patterns,
has influenced some decisions to quit too.
Take workers who were told they need to return to the office full-time, for example.
Finally, the pandemic epiphany.
The health crisis pushed many workers to think about their jobs, which sparked the
realization for some that they would prefer to do something different, something more rewarding.
One of the things I am keen to find is somewhere that will invest in me, or appreciate my value a
bit more in terms of visibility or mentoring.
Chloe is not alone.
Adam Nicoll, who works for human resource consulting firm Randstad, explains.
You need to look at what people actually want, you know, and our surveys,
Randstad surveys tell us that increasingly, flexible working appetite, a safe place to work,
meaningful work, these things are as important as pay right now.
Training as well.
That’s what’s become very evident over the last 18 months is a greater emphasis
from candidates on wanting to belong to something and meaningful work.
This has been also reflected in the types of courses that people are applying to.
In 2021, for instance, the U.K. saw soaring interest in nursing courses,
with applications rising by 32%.
So would you say that, perhaps for
employers at this point in time, they should be focusing on developing that sense of belonging?
Without a question. Belonging, and a sense of what a company’s purpose is, is absolutely key.
It’s not a nice to have anymore.
It’s absolutely vital for you to retain talent and attract talent in the first place,
not just paying people more money.
Adam’s research shows that in the U.K,
almost a quarter of employees plan to move jobs within the next three to six months.
This was a survey of 6,000 people.
So as statistically robust as you can kind of get.
So if you extrapolate that across the 32.4 million people employed in the U.K. right now,
that’s 8 million people looking to change their jobs in the next six months.
We’ve not seen that. This is the biggest shakedown in the employment industry in the U.K.
Some experts argue that the Great Resignation is more the Great Reshuffle,
as employees change jobs, rather than leaving the labor market forever.
Regardless of the name, the exodus is bringing changes to the way we work and to our economy.
Both workers and employers say that they expect these flexible
work arrangements like working from home to be persistent to some degree.
This ability to work from home, to work from even a different state than your employer’s in,
that does look like it will be a lasting consequence of all of this.
And the longer that the labor market remains tight,
I think the more concessions employers will make on that score.
Another transformation is how much employers pay.
To retain and attract new talent, many managers have been forced to offer higher salaries.
In the United States, wages have gone up at an annualized rate of roughly 6%.
And surveys suggested that wage costs will rise by 4% in 2022 – a slower pace,
but still high compared to recent decades.
In the U.K., regular pay, which excludes bonuses, was rising by 3.7% per year at the end of 2021.
Wage growth expectations have even prompted the Bank of England governor to suggest that workers
should not ask for big pay increases, as he seeks to restrain inflation rates across the economy.
I think you’ll see higher salaries.
The gig economy is not going anywhere, of course.
So you’ll have more people having more types of work.
It’ll be more flux, probably less security.
More opportunities for people to reinvent
themselves. And people will be able to get roles quicker.