Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 56 posts

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

#31

Post by bluedino »

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, they quit after two days...

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

#32

Post by ak_111 »

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?

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

#33

Post by WWLink »

giantg2 wrote: post #18
ak_111 wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is indeed expected that if asset prices collapse, the Great Unresignation might become a thing and in a very ugly way. An alternative more rosy scenario is that the Great Resignation becomes even more entrenched leading to a radical change in society such as 4-days week becoming normalised or mass support for UBI.

Why would 4 day weeks become a thing? Why would UBI? I see the trend snapping in the "unresignation" direction before employers or society start the UBI or 4-day path.

Yea some employers are already getting uppity like they expect the unresignation to happen lol.

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

#34

Post by ak_111 »

giantg2 wrote: post #18
ak_111 wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is indeed expected that if asset prices collapse, the Great Unresignation might become a thing and in a very ugly way. An alternative more rosy scenario is that the Great Resignation becomes even more entrenched leading to a radical change in society such as 4-days week becoming normalised or mass support for UBI.

Why would 4 day weeks become a thing? Why would UBI? I see the trend snapping in the "unresignation" direction before employers or society start the UBI or 4-day path.

4-day week would be a thing for example when employers out of desperation for not being able to find workers start enticing borderline great resigners by 4-day week (so you get all the benefits of full time employment: health insurance, pensions,...). But this is assuming workers continue to have the upper hand.

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

#35

Post by mxuribe »

kamranjon wrote: post #28

Pandemic hit, I had been working at an online education company as a senior engineer. New CEO begins to implement dark patterns- launches “free” degree programs to “help those impacted by the pandemic” that starts charging you after first free month, but at same time makes it impossible to cancel your subscription through website, even sets up a whole call center system to shuttle people into. Become incredibly demot…

My condolensces for your Mom. Plus, sorry about those other pretty difficult situations. My partner and i often wish to quit the "Rat race", but have a teen kid...so want to wait until they head to college. Of course, although we have a loose plan, i am fearful that we head off to some sort of cheaper living state in the U.S., work less...and then end up through some set of whacky circumstyances back to needing to find work that pays more...and by then we'd have aged a little more. Clearly, i'm just a nervous nellie...but its so tough and expensive in the U.S....at this point, i would settle for a cheap, modest home...where my partner can manage the smallest of gardens, where i don't have tio kill myself at a job to pay a mortgage, and a place that isn't too extreme in any way (don't want politically extreme people, don't want racists, don't want too many rich folks, no/low crime, etc.). When i talk to friends, i sometimes hear the suggestion of my partner and i heading off to live on our own farm in the middle of nowhere...but honestly, wqhile my partner loves gardening, we both also love pavement...Yes, having a walkable town is so important and so very fulfilling! Plus, we actually like to interact with other humans to a degree...so i think we may not be able to tolerate too much isolation, at least for too long.

Sorry, i didn't mean to make this somr sort of streaming conciousness message...Just watned to say sorry about your Mom, and kudos to you trying something different! And, of coiurse, i hope things work out for you, and wishing you the best of luck and opportunity!!

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

#36

Post by soared »

I was on a (unofficial but agreed upon w leadership) sabbatical at the end of 2019/start of 2020 and was no longer there for me when I returned. I took a new role with a 40k pay cut so I could pay the bills. I resigned near the end-ish of Covid when I was able to find employment back on a more accurate career path (50k raise).

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

#37

Post by giantg2 »

ak_111 wrote: post #34
giantg2 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would 4 day weeks become a thing? Why would UBI? I see the trend snapping in the "unresignation" direction before employers or society start the UBI or 4-day path.

4-day week would be a thing for example when employers out of desperation for not being able to find workers start enticing borderline great resigners by 4-day week (so you get all the benefits of full time employment: health insurance, pensions,...). But this is assuming workers continue to have the upper hand.

Maybe, but it seems most industries couldn't do it without a massive increase in workforce, but worker shortage is what they're trying to fight. Unless the entire industry switched to a 4 day week, I don't see it working out for most. I'm mostly thinking about places ties to central things like the stock exchange for banks, or that need 24/7 support like police and nursing, or where manufacturing wants the machines to run close to 24/7 to be economical efficient (since we struggle to compete already with LCOL abroad).

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

#38

Post by [deleted] »

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,…

[deleted]

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

#39

Post by logic_beats_pro »

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 absolutely glorious. I'm rooting for you two.

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

#40

Post by ak_111 »

giantg2 wrote: post #37
ak_111 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

4-day week would be a thing for example when employers out of desperation for not being able to find workers start enticing borderline great resigners by 4-day week (so you get all the benefits of full time employment: health insurance, pensions,...). But this is assuming workers continue to have the upper hand.

Maybe, but it seems most industries couldn't do it without a massive increase in workforce, but worker shortage is what they're trying to fight. Unless the entire industry switched to a 4 day week, I don't see it working out for most. I'm mostly thinking about places ties to central things like the stock exchange for banks, or that need 24/7 support like police and nursing, or where manufacturing wants the machines t…

Even if all your employees worked 4-days week doesn't mean your business opens only 4-days week. You simply ensure the amount of workers who are off on Monday is the same as the number of workers that are off on Friday. You only need to increase headcount by 20% if you make all your employees 4-days week. Which is a lot but not a "massive increase", especially you will be paying them 20% less each.
Post reply on HN