Why Do People Actually Leave? Deep Diving Into The Great Resignation Buzzword
Most probably you have also heard the famous expression “Great Resignation”. An expression that went viral as of the second half of last year, to capture the reality where employees would leave their employers en masse. People would leave their jobs like never seen before, resulting to new high records of resignations worldwide, up to 19% [Massachusetts Institute of Technology. (2022, January 11)] in some industries such are the retail and management consulting industries. To be fair, resignations were in an uptrend over the last decade anyway. However, the quantity of them in such short period of time was a first.
Of course, “The Great Resignation” is an expression that wakes concerns on every employer. Thus, the initial article/research made the headlines and soon managers and HR professionals were terrified and urged to find solutions. Who wouldn’t be terrified to know that people are quitting their jobs today more often than ever before?! Employers started losing their talents and thereof risking the quality of their services/products. A solution needed to be found, and many started making assumptions based on which their solutions would be based on. As always, pay, promotions, and development opportunities were unthoughtfully linked directly to the cause. The shortage of talent didn’t help either, and compensation packages skyrocketed.
Now, the critical question: Did it solve the problem? Are we out of this “Great Resignation” era?
The answer is simple and one-worded: “No”. Absolutely not!
The reason is also simple but requires more in-depth analysis and an out-of-the-box mindset: The actions taken were based on the wrong assumptions. People did not leave their jobs due to the low salaries, not getting their promotions on time or because their employer didn’t offer enough training. Undoubtably, all these are important factors for everyone, but not the main factors. For some perspective, research from MIT Sloan Management Review, showed that “pay” was ranked 16th [Stillman, J. (2022a, January 18)] amongst the reasons why people were resigning. And this research included employers from different industries to make it as much inclusive as possible.
Based on the MIT research, people were actually resigning mainly because of the five reasons below:
Toxic corporate culture
Job insecurity and reorganization
High levels of innovation
Failure to recognize performance
Poor response to Covid-19
The research is quite specific and detailed at the same time. You can find the source and link under the “References” section at the bottom of this article if you are interested to read it in full. That said, in this article we will not focus on explaining these reasons one-by-one. Instead, we will shortly focus on the bigger picture and try to understand how the combination of all five aforementioned factors and the working-from-home benefit builds up on a new reason that is being overlooked by employers.
Understanding the Problem. If Any…
To start with, deep diving into the data of the “Great Resignation” terrifying buzzword, one can easily see that the resignations for entry-level employees (aged 20 to 25 years) and employees between the age of 60 to 70, actually decreased [Who Is Driving the Great Resignation? (2021, November 10)]. The real problem was occurring amongst those between 25 and 45 years old. That can be explained because entry-level employees could not afford resigning without having another job secured (this category has not yet built financial freedom or support), and the “older” employees, were facing greater competition from the younger generation who potentially could be considered rising starts with a long future for an employer.
On the other hand, the groupage between 25 and 45, is a category which most likely sits in a comfortable position to take a risk from a financial standpoint, while at the same time has built enough experience to acquire the necessary skills throughout their career so far to market themselves into new beginnings. Resignations for this group increase by over 20% between 2020 and 2021.
In addition, the work-from-home norm opened even more opportunities for them to offer “their services” into a bigger potential client group. In the same line, having had the opportunity to combine work and home-staying, many people entered a thinking process of realizing how important it is for them to save the commuting time, to spend more time with their friends, to get engaged more often with their hobbies, and to be there during the early times of their newborn child. My LinkedIn timeline has been full of such stories over the last 2 years 😊.
But is that enough to justify such a huge increase in resignations in such a brief period of time? Not really. However, the reasons above are the basis for understanding the problem and for building the main reason below.
The Great Reshuffle
Working from home for an extended period of almost 2 years now has offered people plenty of time to discover their passions and rethink their purpose in life. As much philosophical as this may sound, purposeful jobs are key to an employee’s retention and satisfaction throughout the employment career. Especially during challenging times (the current pandemic and its consequences), thinking about purpose and perspective becomes even more important to one’s own mission and vision.
People are not looking anymore just for a higher pay rate; They are looking for multiple income streams that reward them for the value they add and not for the hours they spend (such as the current employment system structured).
People are not looking anymore just for the next promotion; They are looking for the next big thing that will make them feel fulfilled by contributing into it. Accomplishing a work task is satisfying, but it is not enough if it does not have a greater purpose linked to one’s passions and caring topics.
People are not looking anymore just for work-life balance; They are looking for flexibility. The flexibility that will allow them to structure their work as they prefer based on the other priorities they might have, without of course sacrificing accountability.
And lastly, people are not looking anymore just for teamwork and interaction with other colleagues; They are looking for meaningful close relationships where they can be themselves without having to deal with bureaucratic procedures and conflicting interests.
To summarize, people are not resigning because they do not get paid well or because they didn’t get that long-dreamed promotion. People resign to start doing what they really like. To start doing things that fulfil them and are aligned with their passions and purpose in life as they define it. Working from home became a norm, and it showed everyone that there is so much more one can accomplish with the technology we have today, without needing to be an employee in the current employment system that seems to be outdated for Generation Z and Y.
It is not just the Great Resignation era, it is the “Great Reshuffle” era, where people decide to reallocate their skills to the things that really matters to them and will serve their purpose.
I hope you have enjoyed reading this article and I would love to read your opinion in the comment section below.
In the next article, we will talk about how companies can deal with this situation and prepare to transform themselves to offer the NextGen “employment system” that adapts to the new needs of the talent market.
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#talent #personaldevelopment #growth #purpose #passion #career #job #retention
References:
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. (2022, January 11). Toxic Culture Is Driving the Great Resignation. MIT Sloan Management Review. Retrieved January 23, 2022, from https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/toxic-culture-is-driving-the-great-resignation/
Stillman, J. (2022a, January 18). These Are the Top 5 Reasons People Are Quitting During the Great Resignation, According to a Massive New Analysis (Hint: None of Them Is Pay). Inc.Com. Retrieved January 23, 2022, from https://www.inc.com/jessica-stillman/great-resignation-mit-revelio-research.html
Who Is Driving the Great Resignation? (2021, November 10). Harvard Business Review. Retrieved January 23, 2022, from https://hbr.org/2021/09/who-is-driving-the-great-resignation
Roslansky, R. (2021, June). Ryan Roslansky on LinkedIn: #GreatReshuffle #GreatReshuffle #NewWorldOfWork | 409 comments. LinkedIn. Retrieved January 23, 2022, from https://www.linkedin.com/posts/ryanroslansky_greatreshuffle-greatreshuffle-newworldofwork-activity-6812805059101913088-zU8q/
