The Aftermath of the so-Called “Great Resignation”

Eastern Workforce Innovation Board

Following the spring of 2021, people have been quitting their jobs by the millions, breaking records that haven’t been broken in two decades.

This phenomenon has been dubbed as The Great Resignation by Dr. Anthony Klotz of Texas A&M University, who believes that as the pandemic comes to an end, and job insecurity starts to become less and less common, workers have started reconsidering their careers, and what they really want out of them. 

Dr. Klotz expanded on this in a statement of his, adding that, “The pandemic forced [people] to take stock of their lives and gave them the opportunity to reimagine it.” 

As a result, more and more people are leaving their jobs, and seeking different priorities as life is finally turning back to “normal”. Last year in the United States alone, approximately 3.95 million workers quit their jobs each month, making 2021 the highest recorded average of job quitting, topping the 2019 average of 3.5 million. 

However, in Canada, it is still being disputed as to whether or not the country is having their own Great Resignation. To put it simply, although we have definitely had an increase in the amount of people leaving their jobs, it is just not enough to count as record breaking. 

As Brendon Bernard, senior economist of Indeed Canada put it, “It doesn’t look like we’ve seen a huge wave of resignations. We don’t have any hard data in Canada to really show that there’s a sustained upswing in employed workers voluntarily leaving their jobs – at least more so than normal times.”

So, although Canada hasn’t been hit as hard by this peculiar situation, the United States surely has, leaving employers and economists alike wondering when this large-scale, record breaking quitting will come to an end? 

According to an article published in the MIT Sloan Management Review, it was revealed that after analyzing large amounts of data, the biggest reason why workers ultimately quit their jobs is because their workplace had a toxic corporate work environment. 

The other top five reasons why people quit working at different companies were if a company had constant job insecurity and frequent layoffs, high levels of innovation, failure to recognize worker performance, and a poor response to COVID-19. 

In close relation, some of the top four types of jobs that were most affected by The Great Resignation itself were nurses, health care workers, and hospital employees, child care and residential facility workers, retail workers, and hotel and restaurant workers. Some common similarities these jobs could have is that they require hard demand, and very strenuous work.

Most experts agree that the only way this high quitting trend will end is if workplaces re-evaluate, address, and change the way they treat their employees for the better. Only after a large reconstruction, one could even say The Great Reconstruction, of the average workplace, will workers feel content in their once mundane and stressful jobs. 

To be specific, this Great Reconstruction would have to change the way that employers think and treat their employees. For example, employers could start trying out four day workweeks, instead of the customary five day weeks. Many believe that this would lower productivity and cause less work to get done, when the very opposite is the case. It actually boosts productivity in workers, as well as causes reduced stress, and less burnout in employees. 

The four day workweek is an example of how an employer could  re-construct their thoughts on what they’re employees schedule should be. And rather than be tough on them, the employer could decide  to be empathetic to their employee, which will most likely make the work quality of said employee much greater. 

The point is, to end The Great Resignation, a “Great Re-construction” of the general workplace must take place. In this Great Reconstruction, employers need to take into consideration their employees’ needs and concerns, instead of simply doing what has always been done. 

Because as this record breaking quitting as shown, what has been currently happening so far is not working. But what would happen to employers who refused to change? Would their employees be forced to go back to their quote on quote “miserable desk jobs” and “work like dogs until they’re last dying breath?”

For stubborn employers who refuse to change their toxic work environments, it is best to assume that most of their employees would stand by their decision to quit their jobs. If this is so, then those same employees would go find work elsewhere.  This would eventually leave stubborn employers with too much work and too little people to do it. While lenient, flexible employers who choose to change with The Great Reconstruction would take in the extra helping hands. 

The Great Resignation was, and perhaps still is, here. Workers were, and possibly still are, leaving their jobs in droves, and the average workplace might never be the same again because of it. Employers must reconstruct their workplaces to fit with this newfound strength their employees have gained, if only to mark the official end of The Great Resignation.