It is amazing what social disruption and uncertainty does to human populations. For Americans, it can make them realize how much they may hate their jobs.
As described by Amanda Hetler of Tech Target, employees across multiple sectors came to the recent ‘realization that they weren’t satisfied with their work environment, the industry they were in or their work-life balance and left their jobs.’
Exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, employee dissatisfaction and overall unhappiness has taken the economy by storm and severely hit businesses harder than it had in previous years. It has been translated into being an ongoing economic trend known as the Great Resignation Era.
Explaining the ‘Great Resignation Era’
Image by Wikimedia Commons CC BY 2.0.
The trend of the mass voluntary exit of employees from their employment obligations. The term was brilliantly coined by Anthony Klotz, a management professor. Many believe that this trend of workers voluntarily quitting their jobs began in early 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but in actuality, the pandemic may have simply exacerbated an already occurring, if not yet overwhelmingly pervasive problem.
Many have cited their most compelling reasons for quitting being the standstill wages amid rising costs of living and healthcare, lack of full health benefits, hostile management practices, and much more.
The stats behind it
According to Greg Iacurci of CNBC, as of March, the U.S. Department of Labor said almost 4.4 million Americans quit their jobs in February, which is about 100,000 more people than quit in January, and just shy of the 4.5 million record set in November 2021.
Image ‘Department of Labor Seal’ by DonkeyHotey CC BY 2.0 on Flickr.
To access their full report to the public, click here.
Further, Amy Fontinelle of Investopedia noted how ‘the industries with the highest resignation rates in March 2022 were accommodation and food services (6.1%) and retail trade (4.5%). Accommodation and food services was also the industry with the highest job openings rate at 9.9% in March 2022, though that was down from 12.2% three months earlier. Healthcare and social assistance was next with an openings rate of 9%.’
On that note, Fontinelle pointed out how according to the 2022 Work Trend Index survey by Microsoft Corporation, ‘43% of workers said they were somewhat or extremely likely to consider changing employers in the current year, up from 41% a year earlier. For U.S. Gen Z and millennial workers, the figure stood at 52%, and it rose to 60% for U.S. workers hired during the pandemic.’
This has left businesses across the nation scrambling for more employees, especially younger candidates, by going about trying to increase their employee benefits and incentives to get people to apply. Many shops, restaurants, and other businesses have for several years suffered from low staffing. Frankly put, there are more empty work positions than people willing to fill them. But don’t entirely blame COVID.
Wait… it’s not the pandemic’s fault??
As said by Joseph Fuller and William Kerr of Harvard Business Review, the Great Resignation Era has been going on for over a decade before COVID-19 took the world by storm. They analyzed multiple reports by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, between 2009 and 2019, and found that ‘the average monthly quit rate increased by 0.10 percentage points each year.’ And once COVID hit, it drastically exacerbated several factors that have already been impacting employees and their overall work balance and satisfaction for a long time. They said:
We call these factors the Five Rs: retirement, relocation, reconsideration, reshuffling, and reluctance. Workers are retiring in greater numbers but aren’t relocating in large numbers; they’re reconsidering their work-life balance and care roles; they’re making localized switches among industries, or reshuffling, rather than exiting the labor market entirely; and, because of pandemic-related fears, they’re demonstrating a reluctance to return to in-person jobs.
It is without a shadow of a doubt that the Great Resignation Era is still in full swing, and employees as well as employers need to know more about it. In the workplace particularly, people have been experiencing and even enacting certain business practices and phenomena that subtly instigate employee dissatisfaction and leaving. So stay tuned to find out more about these and what they mean for you or your business! Also feel free to reach out to me personally via the Contact Me tab up above!
Business Wellness 
