As the name suggests, the great resignation is a massive resignation movement that is currently in observation worldwide; people around the globe today are on a job quitting spree. As worrying as it sounds, you will be interested in knowing why people across the world are suddenly taking their jobs lightly and impulsively leaving their careers for the better.
THE COVID EFFECT –
Besides negatively impacting our lives in some way or the other, it is undeniable that the COVID-19 pandemic has taught us some great lessons. It has even radically changed our perspectives on a lot of matters. After taking away so many lives in the blink of an eye, we have learned from the pandemic to no longer keep our families secondary to our professions. It has reminded us that life is unpredictable and that any fleeting moment can be the last one with our loved ones. This has resurfaced the decaying concept of work-life balance, and people are no more interested in compromising it- hence the great resignation.
THE BEGINNING AND ENDING OF THE PANDEMIC –
The attrition rate in companies worldwide is at an all-time high, and if you think this is simply because of the fear of the Covid-19 virus, you are mistaken. If we zoom out and go back to the beginning of the pandemic, the employment dynamics were quite the opposite. Companies unable to pay their employees were resorting to downsizing, dismissing people. Employees feared job security, and a lot of them even became unemployed for an extended period. But now, as the world is approaching recovery from the pandemic, employees are seemingly less interested in returning to their jobs at their offices. They are switching careers and even leaving their careers altogether to pursue their hobbies full-time.
THE EPIPHANY –
What has happened is that professionals all over the world have, during the pandemic, realized the gravity of prioritizing personal lives and the importance of flexibility in their professional lives. They are beginning to become less and lesser interested in managing their personal lives as per their professional calendars. So, if a job today has no room for flexibility and does not allow the employee enough space for private time, or is not in line with the employee’s career aspirations, the chances of the employee resigning, switching company, or pursuing an entirely new field of career altogether is incredibly high. And this is so because the pandemic has mirrored the uncertainty and unpredictability of life- people today are aware that this is the only life they have and are unwilling to wait until retirement to live their life because why? Why live life to relax in a distant future when even the upcoming second is not guaranteed?
THE NEW WAY AHEAD –
- Freelancing, upskilling, switching careers at any point in life, pursuing hobbies are all the ripple effects of the pandemic and are dramatically impacting companies globally.
- According to a survey conducted by Microsoft, 41% of employees worldwide are interested in quitting their jobs this year.
- 4.3 million people in the US have already quit their jobs.
- India is not shielded from the effects of the Great Resignation either – the attrition rate in India’s Tech sector has risen by a concerning 23%.
- Even China is currently facing a shortage of workers in the tech sector.
Easy accession of jobs through social media and remote working opportunities are furthermore increasing these attrition rates with the exponential reduction in transition costs that employees otherwise incurred while switching jobs. Thus, the tables have turned, and companies are now resorting to various creative employee retention strategies to minimize the potential effects of the Great Resignation.
WHAT CAN BE DONE TO MINIMIZE THE EFFECTS OF THE GREAT RESIGNATION?
By acknowledging the importance of work-life balance and mental well-being along with physical health, ensuring flexibility, not overburdening employees with work, and not expecting the lives of their employees to revolve around their professions, employers can, to a great extent, retain employees because an enticing paycheck is no longer doing the trick.
Shorter workdays, shorter working weeks, remote working opportunities are the new and crucial pointers in the checklist of employees worldwide today – because after surviving the COVID-19 virus, people have begun to value their lives more than ever and are interested in working with companies that now respect their shifted priorities.