Who Is Driving the Great Resignation?

Is it? Is there information that indicates that?

Someone on YouTube made an interesting point that what we’re seeing is people quitting jobs they would have left much earlier, but couldn’t because of the pandemic. Basically a lot of people deferred quitting in 2020 and now the 2020 batch is quitting with the 2021 batch.

Small anecdotes if it helps anyone.

- a lot of (most?) people are really stressed out by the pandemic, and suffering from some kind of mental health crisis or discomfort. This can push someone to finally resign a borderline job, or switch careers if they were struggling already with burnout. I also know several friends who had marriages blow up during this time that otherwise would have kept going indefinitely, and that often leads to rethinking many other life decisions.

- the constant ‘work from home’ has also allowed many people flexibility to pursue side projects, invest in other parts of their lives, and try things they otherwise wouldn’t because of the lack of flexibility. This opens up new lines of thinking other than ‘keep turning the crank at this specific job as hard as I can’

- stock market valuations have skyrocketed. For folks with large stock portfolios, many went from ‘doing ok, maybe retire in 5-10 years if I keep doing this’ to ‘fuck you money’ in the space of a year and a half.

- for everyone else, there is a severe crunch of staffing in many companies, and some are willing to pay people based on that, leading to shaking up a stagnant wage pool in many markets. Many of the stagnant wage pools were at companies that were already not very good at showing caring and empathy for their workers, or outright abusive. A lot of people are switching because of one or more of these factors, and enjoying massive raises and better working conditions because of it.

- as more folks resign and/or switch, and when it actually works out well for them, others notice and are more willing to do the same.

I haven't seen an exodus from my company, but there must be a larger one - as I've had a huge pipeline of new candidates lately that is great.

Others have mentioned a few things you can do and they seem to match with what my company has done:

1. Review salaries, pay more fast, retain who you have, there's a razor's edge and although money isn't everything it will definitely help in the very near term while you figure out other retention approaches.

2. Go fully remote. A lot of people want to be in offices, but very few will actually go given the option _right now_ - our office is empty, even when it's optionally allowed open. Pay consistent salaries. Let someone else figure out that regional salary stuff when the dust settles.

Another thing that seems important, but may just be a trend at my company: get specific with career development.

People joining your company now want to know how you will care for them long term. A large reason in my opinion for the exits is that folks are not willing to accept a company treating them like a contractor perpetually. They want to be invested in, see concrete growth and advancement. This is harder to do at small startups, but it's important for people to feel safe/stable during a weird criss.

Asking why they leave is risky. You might learn things you don't want to learn.