The Great Resignation Continues- A Reflection
A lot has been said and written about ‘The Great Resignation’, which was one of the biggest trends or shall we say pivots of the year 2021. A year which will go down in history as a year of the raging pandemic and a year of ‘The Great Resignation’. Many of us have either participated/ leveraged the event first hand in an endeavor to give our careers a better trajectory or were impacted directly or indirectly by many of our team-mates and colleagues venturing out for greener pastures.
Several prominent Sociologists, Economists, HR professionals, Trend spotters have elaborated at length on the Why’s and the How’s behind this tectonic social phenomena, which was first given the name, ‘The Great Resignation’ by Anthony Klotz, a professor at Texas A&M University. The more I read about and experienced the phenomena as it played out around me, the following factors stood out among several that have been attributed:
There’s ‘s more to life than work- There can not be a bigger dichotomy that modern day living is much easier today than it has ever been and at the same time our health concerns have increased significantly, than ever in the past. If the exponentially increased incidence of lifestyle diseases in the last two decades wasn’t proof enough of the uncertainty of life, The Covid pandemic, coming out of the blue has shaken the entire humanity and made us realize the mortality of our lives and the fact that we are not here for eternity! Having lost our dear friends, colleagues, loved ones many of them in the prime of their lives, in such a short time span has been an eye opener to everyone that there is nothing more important than people, our relationships and our health.
The realization that life is a lot more than work has jolted a lot of us who looked at their jobs and their careers as the most important avenue of their self worth, bringing meaning in their lives. Yes there’s no denying the fact that a well paying job and a career goes a long way in enriching our lives, but equally important or some will say far more important is having friends and family around and being in good health to be able to enjoy what life has to offer! If we look carefully, we will see that’s it’s not just the Gen X but even the millennials who are getting affected by stress and its side effects. Ambitious and talented people having mental health issues and suffering burn outs within a few years of starting working is not uncommon or unheard of. Seventy hour work weeks, which were once considered glamorous and de-facto paths to rapid career progression are no longer welcome. People across career stages, life stages and across all Industries are giving a far greater importance to a sustainable work life balance and Organizations not meeting the expectations of their employees are feeling the heat.
The old order Changeth- While the year gone by caused so much pain and havoc for humankind, which will not be forgotten for centuries, the year also gave us a few positives and has been a true game changer in reshaping several aspects of our lives. Being locked down and working from home gave the people, much needed time to reflect on their lives. A lot of myths were shattered with respect to what could or couldn’t be done remotely and the world calibrated to a new, previously unimaginable equilibrium. Large parts of Global Economy ranging from IT services, to Financial Services, to Education and Entertainment pivoted to a digital operating mode without any significant disruption. Employees in these sectors and a lot more soon became comfortable, overcoming their initial hesitation and apprehensions around working remotely and Managements soon realized the benefits from this new operating model, which gave so much time back to the employees, provided you got your time management basics right. While an obituary of the physical office is unlikely to happen anytime soon, people realized that things that mattered to them earlier such as predictable routines, great office space, short commute to work, amiable colleagues no longer mattered in this new reality. As a result the world became their Oyster and out they went, riding the wave of great Resignation, which by now was turning out to be a Tsunami, than a great tidal wave.
The Digital Advantage- As if the first two factors weren’t enough to drive ‘The Great Resignation’, the acceleration in digital adoption across industries opened the floodgates for those who had the experience in this space. Whether you were in the IT services space or a bank or a hotel or an insurance company with even the most basic digital skills suddenly there were a lot more roles available. I you happened to be one of the highly skilled ones with proven experience in driving digital transformations the sky is the limit. With the physical world shutting down amidst a raging pandemic, every company in every sector wanted to embrace digital, disrupting the traditional ways of doing business. For some it was about survival and for others who were early in the game or a digital native, this was a once in a lifetime opportunity to consolidate and scale their operations and thereby gain an unmatchable competitive advantage which would not be easy to match by any traditional player or a new comer. This proved to be the icing on the cake for the digital professionals across all industries from Programmers and web developers to data engineers and data scientists to Agile professionals and functional experts. If you have the talent, they have the price!
So we see the combination of the three factors turned out to be a fertile breeding ground for the employed to venture out like never before. According to one of the surveys by a top tier organization as many as 65% of people are seeking better opportunities and the even though the year has moved on, but the Tsunami of the great Resignation, continues unabated.
In the Next part, we will examine some of the factors to keep in mind as you seek out new frontiers and if there are any levers still available to organizations to stem the tide!
