"Great resignation" wave coming for companies - Upwards Of 40% Of Workers Are Thinking About Quitting Their Jobs

“The great resignation”: Upwards of 40% of workers are thinking about quitting their jobs

Workers have had more than a year to reconsider work-life balance or career paths.

www.axios.com

Companies that made it through the pandemic in one piece now have a major new problem: more than a quarter of their employees may leave.
What's happening: Workers have had more than a year to reconsider work-life balance or career paths, and as the world opens back up, many of them will give their two weeks' notice and make those changes they’ve been dreaming about.
“The great resignation” is what economists are dubbing it.

• Surveys show anywhere from 25% to upwards of 40% of workers are thinking about quitting their jobs.
• "I don't envy the challenge that human resources faces right now," says Anthony Klotz, an associate professor of management at Texas A&M University.

A number of colliding trends are driving the resignation boom, experts say.

• University of Michigan economist Betsey Stevenson tells Axios, "People have had a little more space to ask themselves, 'Is this really what I want to be doing?'" So some are deciding they want to work fewer hours or with more flexibility to create more time for family or hobbies.
• Others are considering switching careers entirely.
  • A cruise ship staffer trained and pivoted to work in a data center because the pandemic showed her the volatility of her industry.
  • An insurance broker and her restaurant manager husband both left their jobs to start a landscaping company because they realized during the pandemic that they wanted to spend more time outside.
• Some are quitting because their bosses won't let them work from home post-pandemic. Others are leaving because they miss their offices, but their companies are now hybrid or all-remote.
• "A lot of people who want to go back are finding that the office that they come back to is not the office they left behind," Klotz says.

There's not much firms can do to hold onto employees who want to switch fields. But human resources may be able to retain some workers by offering as much flexibility as possible, says Cathy Moy, chief people officer at BDO USA, a financial services company.
But, but, but: The big churn could ultimately be good for workers and employers.

• There are now a record 9.3 million open jobs in America, Axios' Felix Salmon reports. And people can still rely on unemployment insurance so they're not desperate to nab the first job offer that comes along, Stevenson says.
• "Hopefully we’ll see a lot more people in 2022 employed and stable because they're in jobs they actually like," she says.

 

[Dr. Ricearoni]

>treat employees like shit
>gubmint gives mass gibes
>wagies leave their cagies
lol

 

[Kheapathic]

White-Pill: Hoping I'll get a raise since I'm not planning on quitting and in a position that needs me.

Black-Pill: Here comes forced UBI and inflation. My position as working poor is guaranteed.

Doom-Pill: These quitters are the five-billion unnecessary eaters the Kaghleri Plan is talking about.

 

[Screw Danlon]

Yep. I’m on permanent WFH, and I hate it so much that I’m thinking of getting my CDL.

If anyone has one and is willing to tell me if it’s reasonably easy to go into after 10 years in finance, I’m all ears.

 

[Chicken Neck Nelly]

Yep. I’m on permanent WFH, and I hate it so much that I’m thinking of getting my CDL.

If anyone has one and is willing to tell me if it’s reasonably easy to go into after 10 years in finance, I’m all ears.

Dude if you are feeling trapped or need a change of scenery, move to a cheap country that isn't full of crime, buy a house near a beach somewhere, and just travel in your spare time. I don't think being cooped up in a truck for the vast majority of your time, being pressured by your bosses to drive when you shouldn't or be fired, and being pressured by the trucker cops to not drive or be fined is the way to go if you clearly have much better options.

 

[I (Don't) Have A Gun]

My job decided to fuck the employees out of a pay increase in 2020 and gave us a shit increase in 2021, so my CV is already doing the rounds. Also I'm sick of working from my home.

 

[SBG]

It's not going to happen since the government gibs are ending.

But there are going to be a ton of pissed off people realizing how good they could be living and that a lot of this stuff like having to go in the office is just for show. Sad thing is they're also going to go through the same realization many others have gone through before them that bosses and coworkers don't care how good your work is if you're not in the office with them.

Then with retail or the restaurant industry you have everything that'll likely go back to normal because a fuck ton of people don't give a shit about what causes the low wages they suffer from. Just takes a slew of illegals in to drive down the value of labor and the nicer wages they're enjoying right now will go the way of the dodo.

 

[Wingnut]

It's almost like you can make more money living off the unemployment system than actually working 40 hours a week. When I was laid off I was making twice as much on gibs compared to my old hourly rate, and it was untaxed.

Of course people are going to live off the system when they make it incredibly easy to.

 

[Fek]

Some are quitting because their bosses won't let them work from home post-pandemic. Others are leaving because they miss their offices, but their companies are now hybrid or all-remote.

So all I see coming from this is more jobs shifting into a work-from-home atmosphere in order to react to this..which..concerns me.

I worry for the longer term ramifications of turning one's home into one's workspace catching up with us. I fear it'll make everyone wish they could go back to an office setting. Just think like an evil corporate overlord for a moment: Imagine what's going to happen to your personal time when we hit a point where you no longer have an option (or so few that they're constantly fought over) to take a job in your field that isn't work-from-home. Imagine being on call all the time, or being expected to work at odd hours, or any number of invasive bullshit job expectations simply because you're now stuck in this trap.

All of that might be fine if you're making bank off of what you do and have appropriate responsibilities for it, but what if you just end up turning your home into your wage cage? I worry that people really aren't thinking this shit through as well as they should.

 

[MasterDisaster]

Some of these are making the decision simply because mass shutdowns gave them a new perspective on life. When the typical '9 to 5' slog is thrown for a loop some people took it as a chance to explore new avenues of making money.

I'm looking to become my own boss by pursuing my dream of being a voice actor.

 

[Kermit Jizz]

So all I see coming from this is more jobs shifting into a work-from-home atmosphere in order to react to this..which..concerns me.

I worry for the longer term ramifications of turning one's home into one's workspace catching up with us. I fear it'll make everyone wish they could go back to an office setting. Just think like an evil corporate overlord for a moment: Imagine what's going to happen to your personal time when we hit a point where you no longer have an option (or so few that they're constantly fought over) to take a job in your field that isn't work-from-home. Imagine being on call all the time, or being expected to work at odd hours, or any number of invasive bullshit job expectations simply because you're now stuck in this trap.

All of that might be fine if you're making bank off of what you do and have appropriate responsibilities for it, but what if you just end up turning your home into your wage cage? I worry that people really aren't thinking this shit through as well as they should.

I definitely see the concern here, but strangely I have not seen any evidence of this happening. If anything I've heard the opposite, people are becoming less productive.

 

[Fek]

I definitely see the concern here, but strangely I have not seen any evidence of this happening. If anything I've heard the opposite, people are becoming less productive.

Yeah - the productive people seem to just become more productive while the majority who don't care just care even less, from what I've seen.

It reminds me of my first job out of college: soul-sucking tech support (cube farm) for a big business. Most people working that job didn't even begin to care, so what did the powers that be do about it? Why, force you to log every minute of your day, of course! You took a little too much time on that last call, so you're docked points from your compliance score. You took 2 extra minutes on your break, so your compliance score gets kicked in the balls yet again. Etc, etc.

Now people are increasingly entering a setting where you can't even have a supervisor lean over your shoulder to see what you're doing physically, and most people in any given workplace are lazy sacks of shit. You are not..tangibly accountable, let's call it, if you're working from home. How to make sure lazy wage slave #4221 is doing his job? Well..you get where I'm going with this, I'm sure. I think an awful lot of people are in for a very rude awakening not too far down the road.

 

[Ebonic Tutor]

Now people are increasingly entering a setting where you can't even have a supervisor lean over your shoulder to see what you're doing physically, and most people in any given workplace are lazy sacks of shit. You are not..tangibly accountable, let's call it, if you're working from home. How to make sure lazy wage slave #4221 is doing his job? Well..you get where I'm going with this, I'm sure. I think an awful lot of people are in for a very rude awakening not too far down the road.

For the dumbasses not following where you are going with this.

Wi-Fi devices set to become object sensors by 2024 under planned 802.11bf standard

Security and privacy still left to fix, preferably before launch

www.theregister.com

 

[Takayuki Yagami]

So all I see coming from this is more jobs shifting into a work-from-home atmosphere in order to react to this..which..concerns me.

I worry for the longer term ramifications of turning one's home into one's workspace catching up with us. I fear it'll make everyone wish they could go back to an office setting. Just think like an evil corporate overlord for a moment: Imagine what's going to happen to your personal time when we hit a point where you no longer have an option (or so few that they're constantly fought over) to take a job in your field that isn't work-from-home. Imagine being on call all the time, or being expected to work at odd hours, or any number of invasive bullshit job expectations simply because you're now stuck in this trap.

All of that might be fine if you're making bank off of what you do and have appropriate responsibilities for it, but what if you just end up turning your home into your wage cage? I worry that people really aren't thinking this shit through as well as they should.

Those’ve been my thoughts about it too. Most people really need that delineation on both sides and things are going to get weird when the rona measures burn out.

 

[lolwut]

So all I see coming from this is more jobs shifting into a work-from-home atmosphere in order to react to this..which..concerns me.

I worry for the longer term ramifications of turning one's home into one's workspace catching up with us. I fear it'll make everyone wish they could go back to an office setting. Just think like an evil corporate overlord for a moment: Imagine what's going to happen to your personal time when we hit a point where you no longer have an option (or so few that they're constantly fought over) to take a job in your field that isn't work-from-home. Imagine being on call all the time, or being expected to work at odd hours, or any number of invasive bullshit job expectations simply because you're now stuck in this trap.

All of that might be fine if you're making bank off of what you do and have appropriate responsibilities for it, but what if you just end up turning your home into your wage cage? I worry that people really aren't thinking this shit through as well as they should.

This should really be more in the public consciousness. I recently had to unlink my company email from my email app on my phone because they made a new policy that would've required me to download a new corporate app that would take control of my phone's security and privacy settings in the name of "safety". If one company is doing that for reading emails on a phone, I can only imagine what some companies must be doing to intrude on the personal devices of those who work from home.

 

[Vic Viper T301]

I definitely see the concern here, but strangely I have not seen any evidence of this happening. If anything I've heard the opposite, people are becoming less productive.

Anecdotal, but when my office switched to mostly work from home, my productivity metrics shot up to the top compared to my coworkers and have stayed there pretty consistently. Not sure if I became more productive or if others got super lazy, or both. I'm definitely more relaxed working from home, it's a bit lonely but I'll take that over being annoyed by some of my stupid coworkers. And when I have to sit through a pointless meeting covering things I already know, I can just pretend to pay attention while I read a book. It's pretty nice.

 

[Dagobert]

Where the fuck are people finding all these nicer jobs, I've been stuck with little options for employment ever since Governor Brown suicided the state economy.

Lucky fuckers, don't know how good they got it.

 

[Kermit Jizz]

This should really be more in the public consciousness. I recently had to unlink my company email from my email app on my phone because they made a new policy that would've required me to download a new corporate app that would take control of my phone's security and privacy settings in the name of "safety". If one company is doing that for reading emails on a phone, I can only imagine what some companies must be doing to intrude on the personal devices of those who work from home.

Wait, some companies let you do corporate shit on private devices? Man fuck that, I ain't working on the same computer I keep my porn on. That's just begging for disaster.

 

[Zig-Zag the Grand Vizier]

Please stop pursuing your life goals and chain yourself to a corporate entity that will chew you up and spit you out at the nearest opportunity. PLEASE. THINK OF THE ECONOMY.

 

[Zero Day Defense]

So all I see coming from this is more jobs shifting into a work-from-home atmosphere in order to react to this..which..concerns me.

I worry for the longer term ramifications of turning one's home into one's workspace catching up with us. I fear it'll make everyone wish they could go back to an office setting. Just think like an evil corporate overlord for a moment: Imagine what's going to happen to your personal time when we hit a point where you no longer have an option (or so few that they're constantly fought over) to take a job in your field that isn't work-from-home. Imagine being on call all the time, or being expected to work at odd hours, or any number of invasive bullshit job expectations simply because you're now stuck in this trap.

All of that might be fine if you're making bank off of what you do and have appropriate responsibilities for it, but what if you just end up turning your home into your wage cage? I worry that people really aren't thinking this shit through as well as they should.

As a software engineer, I already have to work odd hours just to get the job done before the end of a sprint, if need be. There's been a few times already since starting my remote job where I've had to work ~14 hours total, and on one occasion I spent at least 20 hours (which included a total of 6 hours with a senior dev) just to work out a bug that was essentially caused by me following the advice of senior senior dev months ago and only months later hitting the roadblock that advice caused.

For my last job (which wasn't remote and only begrudgingly became remote when protocols were changing due to COVID), they were requesting (read: demanding) that we come in on a Sunday in order to get some more development done ahead of a deadline.

Some industries just do not give a fuck-- they just want the work done, and the executives only think to scale to increase productivity rather than help the worker. At least a fully remote job helps me fulfill that obligation.

You know, as opposed to:

• Needing to wake up extra early to beat traffic and still get to work super early because your maximum worktime is bound by whenever the person responsible for closing decides to clock out,
• working in a drab, silent, and stale environment with hardly any communication you don't have to wander for (at the cost of productivity),
• driving from the head of one county to the butt of another, often in heavy traffic in dangerous highways, and
• getting caught in a cycle of fatigue because you get home late and can't go to sleep early but still have to wake up early.