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Ask HN: Are you part of the Great Resignation, if so what's your story?

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Re: Ask HN: Are you part of the Great Resignation, if so what's your story?

#41

Post by tymerry »

Yes, the pandemic motivated me to take an earlier retirement that switched into part time work, and perhaps a career change.

Wife and I had worked toward FIRE for a while. In 2021 it became financial viable. We have been transient in North America and Europe since October 2021. Our plan was to never work again, but some friends convinced me to take a contract job that is ~25 hours a week.

My motivations for leaving: New manager due to re-org, company's goals changed, non-necessity of work for survival, identity issues around career, pressure from family because I wasn't happy. All those motivations lead to suicidal thoughts. I have always done ux, design, and front end development. I think I am going to start a more traditional computer science education path because I find it enjoyable and could be fun for a second career.

Re: Ask HN: Are you part of the Great Resignation, if so what's your story?

#42

Post by scarface74 »

Not really a career change. But I got a job that allowed me to permanently work remotely. My increase in pay allowed me to “retire my wife” so she could pursue her passions and we decided to rent out our house, sell our cars, and be “digital nomads” staying in hotels across the US and flying everywhere while I work.

Re: Ask HN: Are you part of the Great Resignation, if so what's your story?

#43

Post by Mezzie »

ak_111 wrote: post #32
leifross wrote: post #25

My partner and I are both sick and tired of feeling like our purpose in life is to make rich people richer, and we reached the age where we realized there is no glory in corporate life, only a endless hamster wheel. So we quit our jobs, sold our house, and bought a sailboat that we are working on making fully independent with solar and a watermaker. We still need money though. In the short term we have a cash buffer,…

^ This is textbook Great Resignation. Wild to imagine the consequences to society if 20-30% embrace this for a prolonged period. Curious what is it about the pandemic that triggered this?

My hypothesis is that a lot of people were willing to work for the system when they believed the system could protect them from bad things. Covid upended this sense of security, since the system was not capable of handling it and/or guaranteeing protection, so people re-evaluated the social contract and whether promises to them were being met.

I also think that it kicked people in the pants and made them realize they had no idea how much time they had left. Confronting their own mortality made them realize what they actually wanted out of life.

It was weird for me to watch, because I was diagnosed with MS in 2016 and went through a personal version of that, just to come out the other side and watch everybody else have the same crisis.

Re: Ask HN: Are you part of the Great Resignation, if so what's your story?

#44

Post by Mezzie »

jollyllama wrote: post #4

I hear all these stories about people quitting like that, but how are they paying/how did they think they would pay the bills? I'm very curious.

I quit my salaried job and now I work at a lingerie store.

The staffing issues at the lower level of society mean that the wages are actually going up - I make 15/hr and could ask for more. (I don't plan on staying long term so I probably WON'T, but I'd get it). Which is around 31k/yr compared to the 50k I was making (unlike most people here, I don't work in tech - I might change that, I don't know). It's doable short-term with some savings as a cushion while I mentally recuperate and lets me be picky about what I jump into next.

The types of jobs that are hemorrhaging people are office jobs paying in the mid 5 figures in my experience, and one component is that now those people can walk and pick up a job in the service industry and not completely lose everything. A 20% paycut is easier to swallow than a 60-70% one.

We've also gotten good at reducing our expenses.

Re: Ask HN: Are you part of the Great Resignation, if so what's your story?

#45

Post by clpm4j »

randomopining wrote: post #26
clpm4j wrote: post #21

I've had a few close friends quit and essentially retire at the age of 30, and it's only possible because they have wealthy families who gave them early inheritances - it's really quite amazing how rich some people are.

How much money do they have? Yeah it's crazy. But tbh are they even enjoying life without anything hard to occupy their time?

No clue in terms of dollar amount, but enough to buy nice houses in San Francisco, drive nice cars, and no worries about eventually having kids and sending them to private schools. They seem pretty satisfied but who knows behind closed doors.

Re: Ask HN: Are you part of the Great Resignation, if so what's your story?

#46

Post by badpun »

mxuribe wrote: post #29
badpun wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I dislike software jobs and am biding my time in the industry. I though I have enough money to retire early, but now, in the new reality, came back to save a bit more before I leave for good.

I'm always curious to hear what industry/focus area you are/were considering to go to? I often half-joke with my partner, that maybe i will stop working as a technologist and become a motorcycle mechanic. So, what direction are/were you thinking of going to? EDIT: I should clarify that a job like motorcycle mechanic shoud not be perceived as a demaning job as compared to a technologist role...Rather, this is one job…

I didn’t have a clear direction. That was partially the reason I came back - it’s easy to listen to siren call of money when there’s little else pulling in the opposite direction. I currently have enough money to do nothing till I die (assuming I die before 90), but that doesn’t sound very satisfying either.

Re: Ask HN: Are you part of the Great Resignation, if so what's your story?

#47

Post by jollyllama »

Mezzie wrote: post #44
jollyllama wrote: post #4

I hear all these stories about people quitting like that, but how are they paying/how did they think they would pay the bills? I'm very curious.

I quit my salaried job and now I work at a lingerie store. The staffing issues at the lower level of society mean that the wages are actually going up - I make 15/hr and could ask for more. (I don't plan on staying long term so I probably WON'T, but I'd get it). Which is around 31k/yr compared to the 50k I was making (unlike most people here, I don't work in tech - I might change that, I don't know). It's doable shor…

Cool. Less stress, less hours?

Re: Ask HN: Are you part of the Great Resignation, if so what's your story?

#48

Post by mikewarot »

I'm likely counted as one of them, though it wasn't by choice, it was Long Covid.

At this point I can do about 4 stints of 15 minutes of physical labor per day, if I'm careful about it. I'm 1/12 as useful as I used to be, which is barely enough to avoid ending up in a nursing home bed.

Re: Ask HN: Are you part of the Great Resignation, if so what's your story?

#49

Post by clusterhacks »

bluedino wrote: post #31
nonameiguess wrote: post #27

I'm not sure there's much of a phenomenon begging for explanation. As the article itself says, this is a more of a great reshuffling than people just deciding not to work any more and mysteriously managing to not go broke. US labor force participation was 63.4% immediately before the pandemic shut down and it's 62.1% right now. That isn't a drastic difference and roughly in line with long-term downward trends. Whatev…

> labor force participation was 63.4% immediately before the pandemic shut down and it's 62.1% right now. How is that possible when it seems like every place is hiring? It's obvious that retail/restaurants are short-handed, but every manufacturing company in town is hiring. Every week there are articles in the news talking with business owners about how hard it is to find people, people accept the job and don't start…

In my area of the US, I have a suspicion that undocumented workers left the area during the pandemic. But it is just anecdotal observation - I don't have an special source of data to support that. Lots of "heard a story from a friend" and just noticing how easy it is for high school students to get jobs almost immediately versus 2018-2019. Around here, 16-year olds are walking into food service/retail and working the next day . . .

A few years prior to the pandemic, my brother shared a story from the medium-sized manufacturing company he worked at. A rumor started that an "ICE raid" was going to occur sometime during the week. Something like 1/2 to 2/3 of the factory workers didn't show for work over the next couple of days. Even assuming it was less impact than that, it seems to say that a significant number of factory floor workers were in some kind of position that caused them to fear ICE.

I am . . . bearish . . . on trusting news articles about this topic. There are just so many incentives to shape articles to get clicks . . .

Re: Ask HN: Are you part of the Great Resignation, if so what's your story?

#50

Post by baremetal »

ak_111 wrote: post #11
baremetal wrote: post #8

i changed careers and leveraged it into a business.

Changing career from desk job to desk job and working full-time is strictly speaking not part of the GR, your macro impact isn't the same.

you presume that i changed to a desk job.
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