*An asterisk indicates a subject we will write about in the future.

Has “The Great Resignation” been overhyped?

Intro:

You’re probably tired of hearing the story.  Apparently “no one wants to work”.  But yet, we’re all still working.  We are still looking for jobs that give us purpose and put money in the bank. 

Our clients? They are simply looking for employees who can fill open positions.

How did this become such a challenge?  

The Great Resignation

A term used to describe the elevated rate U.S. workers quit their jobs around the Spring of 2021—about a year into the Covid pandemic.  The Great Resignation.

The world felt different for most of us.  But what was the difference compared with the prior decades of our lives? We still needed money, a means to provide.  More than ever we needed a purpose. 

We wondered why there was no Great Resignation after other world changing events like 1929 (Wall Street Crash leads to Depression), 1962 (Cuban Missile Crisis), 1966 (China goes full blown Communist), 1982 (Mexico Debt Crisis), 1987 (Stock Market Crash), 2001 (9-11), 2008 (Financial Crisis). Stop arguing causes and think about employee reactions.

Why Covid-19 Different?*

Workers said their attitude changed

Workers gave the reasons we all would suspect with the Great Resignation. Low pay, lack of respect in the workplace, difficulties managing child care when schools we’re still operating remotely and, of course, simple burn out.  The Covid pandemic forced an opportunity for people to reflect on how they wanted to live their lives and what really mattered.  But businesses needed to maintain business—build, provide the goods and services for which they exist.  Workers we’re reflecting, and businesses were, and still are, facing a talent retention crisis.

(Pro Hint: We have heard this forever. We think that American workers were finally given the opportunity to pause their work lives for an extended period of time, culminating in a great resignation, all at once. This happened while the government paid them enough to survive. We expect this hint will upset a few of our readers)

Here, thoughts from a real pro.

Organizational psychologist, Anthony Klotz, is credited with introducing the phrase —In an interview with Bloomberg, Klotz announced within a year of the pandemic onset, “the great resignation is coming”. Fortune magazine summarized the story.  https://fortune.com/2022/04/04/great-resignation-could-last-years-expert-says/

Then came the Punditocracy

Soon we realized Klotz’s forecast.  The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) revealed that, in the Spring of 2021, over 4 million workers quit their jobs.  It wasn’t a blip– JOLTS showed that as of February 2022, we experienced the ninth consecutive month that quitting work exceeded over 4 million [former] workers.  Klotz expected the trend to continue.  Workers continued quitting, and, seemingly, people continued “sorting out their lives,” said Klotz. 

Which made us think….

The cause of the great resignation wasn’t, and isn’t, simply about work dissatisfaction—we’ve experienced that without mass resignations since the industrial revolution brought us into the collective workspace.  

Now, as more companies ramp up return-to-office plans, it’s evident that workers aren’t prepared to give up the autonomy of working from home and some are quitting as a result.

Kim Parker gets closer to the real cause

Writing for the Pew Research Center, Kim Parker and Juliana Menasce Horowitz https://www.Pewresearch.Org/fact-tank/2022/03/09/majority-of-workers-who-quit-a-job-in-2021-cite-low-pay-no-opportunities-for-advancement-feeling-disrespected/

This article nails the “low pay” and a “lack of opportunities for advancement” as the main reasons why Americans resigned last year. (We Agreed) However, Kim also found that those who those who quit and subsequently found new work are more likely to now experience higher pay with more opportunities for advancement in addition to better work-life balance and flexibility.   (We only partially agree) No surprise—respecting your employees contributions and promoting their happiness enhances retention and productivity. There are some nuances to the causes of the great resignation.

(We were not surprised.)

What the “Data” says

You may already know what we think about data generally – It’s assembled to prove a point so it’s inherently biased. Still it’s worth a look:

A closer look at why people left to begin with, around half stated child care issues and a lack of flexibility and paid time off was a major reason for resignations. For the most part, workers who quit a job last year and are now employed somewhere else see their current work situation as an improvement over their most recent job. At least half of these workers say that compared with their last job, they are now earning more money (56%), have more opportunities for advancement (53%), have an easier time balancing work and family responsibilities (53%) and have more flexibility to choose when they put in their work hours (50%).

Pro Hint: See all those 50% numbers? That means the data shows nothing changes job to job really. So much for data driven great resignation research.

Part 1 Conclusion*

Each one of us needs to question the headlines and the conclusions from the punditocracy. It’s the easy way out to agree. To cut and paste reasons for something like The Great Resignation into a post or weekly meeting deck. Is this really a great resignation or is it a shift in the way businesses work and how that shift impacts the employee? How many of the resignations were “resign or be let go”?

Think about it, share your comments and look to Part 2 on Tuesday.