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As the Pandemic Recedes, Millions of Workers Are Saying 'I Quit'

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Re: As the Pandemic Recedes, Millions of Workers Are Saying 'I Quit'

#131

Post by mkr-hn »

alecst wrote: post #125
mkr-hn wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being able to save, especially for years, is a special circumstance. At least in the US where wages have been flat for quite a while even as cost of living skyrocketed.

I don’t want to sound like a know it all, but I managed to save a lot of money living in a big city in a grad student stipend, which is about $25k. It can be done. I spent very little biking, cooking from home, buying used, having roommates, not drinking, not buying much. There are exceptions like kids and chronic health issues but most people could save a lot more money if they wanted. I say this without judgment, p…

This really needs a time frame. $25k in a big city means different things depending on era. The curves of wage growth, cost of living, and wealth disparity didn't start to diverge so wildly until the 2000s. This took a lot of people by surprise and people whose experiences diverge by era aren't always aware of how quickly things changed for other people.

Someone who graduated in 2005 will often have a completely different experience from someone who graduated in 2008 or 2009. People who haven't had to look for a job since the '80s are especially befuddled to learn "ask for the manager" leads to "there's an online application kiosk by the door, go there." Usually along with "we don't have any openings, but we keep it on file for 6 months!"

Re: As the Pandemic Recedes, Millions of Workers Are Saying 'I Quit'

#132

Post by paulcole »

dougmwne wrote: post #102
bamboozled wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nice you have the option

I had no special circumstances, I just made a choice to put years of savings to work for myself immediately instead of in the uncertain future. I sold everything and lived simply. Not everyone could do it, but many could who think they can't.

> I just made a choice to put years of savings

In America (and much of the world) this is the ultimate special circumstance. The idea of being able to consistently save significant amounts of money for YEARS is foreign to billions of people.

Re: As the Pandemic Recedes, Millions of Workers Are Saying 'I Quit'

#133

Post by haskellandchill »

alecst wrote: post #125
mkr-hn wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being able to save, especially for years, is a special circumstance. At least in the US where wages have been flat for quite a while even as cost of living skyrocketed.

I don’t want to sound like a know it all, but I managed to save a lot of money living in a big city in a grad student stipend, which is about $25k. It can be done. I spent very little biking, cooking from home, buying used, having roommates, not drinking, not buying much. There are exceptions like kids and chronic health issues but most people could save a lot more money if they wanted. I say this without judgment, p…

You got lucky with the roommates, that's one thing outside of your control that can go very badly.

Re: As the Pandemic Recedes, Millions of Workers Are Saying 'I Quit'

#134

Post by srackey »

dougmwne wrote: post #11

5 years ago I hit a burnout point and took a year off work. It was a huge perspective shift. I realized that my day-to-day of a rushed commute to work, a stressful and distracting office, thimble-deep coworker relationships and a life completely orientated around doing the above was an insane waste of my short time on Planet Earth. I reoriented my life around family, remote work, flexibility and balance. My quality o…

And also anecdotally, every professional office worker under ~30 I know has been absolutely miserable during this remote work experience, and is yearning to get back to the office - most for a full 5 days a week.

Re: As the Pandemic Recedes, Millions of Workers Are Saying 'I Quit'

#135

Post by jason0597 »

nickpp wrote: post #104
hypertele-Xii wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imagine living in a society where basic income is guaranteed no matter what, and even its worst places - its prison cells - compare favorably to the finest hotels of other countries. You have so many options you feel constantly overwhelmed, stressing about making bad choices because everything your primitive heart could ever desire is not merely available, but plentiful and cheap. And it'll recruit you if you're not…

Exactly 3 things: smoke weed, jerk off and play games on my Xbox. In that exact order. Sorry for my honesty, I have no filter.

That gets boring pretty damn quickly. You'd feel sick of yourself in a couple of weeks. Humans surprisingly want to feel meaningful. Tickling your pleasure neurons for day after day just doesn't feel good, it doesn't make you happy. Pleasure != happiness.

It reminds me of this meme: https://i.imgur.com/dRvwSsI.jpg

Re: As the Pandemic Recedes, Millions of Workers Are Saying 'I Quit'

#136

Post by haskellandchill »

kingsuper20 wrote: post #99
hypertele-Xii wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imagine living in a society where basic income is guaranteed no matter what, and even its worst places - its prison cells - compare favorably to the finest hotels of other countries. You have so many options you feel constantly overwhelmed, stressing about making bad choices because everything your primitive heart could ever desire is not merely available, but plentiful and cheap. And it'll recruit you if you're not…

"Imagine living in a society where basic income is guaranteed no matter what, and even its worst places - its prison cells - compare favorably to the finest hotels of other countries." What I see are bored young males hanging out and getting in fights, not a whole generation of people learning cuneiform in their newfound free time.

I disagree, I've been learning Krav Maga in my newfound free time. Want to fight about it?

Re: As the Pandemic Recedes, Millions of Workers Are Saying 'I Quit'

#137

Post by baggachipz »

_dibly wrote: post #15

The first thing I said when the $600/week unemployment started rolling out was that people were going to realize how little they were being paid to work, and here we are. It's almost like they didn't know any better. I'm sure the landscape is different for people already set in their careers or making some decent money, but everyone making minimum wage got to see how little $10/hr actually is.

I'm no economist, but I think we're due for a rude awakening once that gravy train stops.

Re: As the Pandemic Recedes, Millions of Workers Are Saying 'I Quit'

#138

Post by nickpp »

jason0597 wrote: post #135
nickpp wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly 3 things: smoke weed, jerk off and play games on my Xbox. In that exact order. Sorry for my honesty, I have no filter.

That gets boring pretty damn quickly. You'd feel sick of yourself in a couple of weeks. Humans surprisingly want to feel meaningful. Tickling your pleasure neurons for day after day just doesn't feel good, it doesn't make you happy. Pleasure != happiness. It reminds me of this meme: https://i.imgur.com/dRvwSsI.jpg

I don't know, I did it for a whole sabbatical once and some stretches in the Pandemic - it did not make returning to work any easier.

Now I agree about needing some variety, so I would probably get a PlayStation too.

Re: As the Pandemic Recedes, Millions of Workers Are Saying 'I Quit'

#139

Post by changingtalk »

haswell wrote: post #124
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I figured it was just a matter of time before the resignations started flooding in The headline and the anecdote in the opening paragraph of the article are somewhat misleading. The statistics about millions of people resigning aren’t from people choosing to leave the workforce or take sabbaticals. It’s mostly people who are simply changing jobs due to the booming economy creating new opportunities and hiring press…

Two thoughts: 1. Even though the economy may be booming, that doesn't have to mean job changes aren't also driven by re-evaluation of priorities. The two may be complementary. 2. I think we've only seen the tip of the iceberg. I work with multiple people all in the process of looking for new roles. People that I would not have expected to leave - "heart of the team" kinds of people. This is after 4-5 devs (in a depar…

> I work with multiple people all in the process of looking for new roles.

I also am noticing this around me.

Years ago I did the startup thing for 5 years, grinding really hard for someone else (mainly investors) to make a ton of money. Burned myself out, quit with no plans, and ended up consulting as a freelance dev from then on. Realized I'm much happier with this arrangement, with the ability to take months off and travel if I want. I could make more money at a large corporation, or if I didn't take so much time off, but honestly I'm much happier.

That's all to say, today I have two separate coffee dates with engineers at my client's company, both wanting to ask me about how they can do the same thing as me. One is a senior engineer that leads a department. The other is a very talented engineer. These are not the only people that have approached me wanting to setup time to talk about the same thing. This is at an SF based company that seems to really respect their engineer's time, provides high salaries, interesting work, etc.

I get the sense that at least for this niche of highly skilled, highly paid, in demand roles people are wanting to trade for more free time in their lives. I totally don't blame them, as it's what I found myself moving to 7 or so years ago.

Re: As the Pandemic Recedes, Millions of Workers Are Saying 'I Quit'

#140

Post by Cthulhu_ »

School-Cotton wrote: post #97
dougmwne wrote: post #11

5 years ago I hit a burnout point and took a year off work. It was a huge perspective shift. I realized that my day-to-day of a rushed commute to work, a stressful and distracting office, thimble-deep coworker relationships and a life completely orientated around doing the above was an insane waste of my short time on Planet Earth. I reoriented my life around family, remote work, flexibility and balance. My quality o…

Cool, so how do you pay for food and rent?

> remote work
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