Is it the great resignation...or the great reset?
Dr. Raghu Krishnamoorthy
Educator, speaker, and researcher in the field of human-centered leadership and workplaces.
By now, we have all heard of "The Great Resignation." It is a prediction that there is likely to be an avalanche of resignations from organizations over the next few months. Attrition rates have shown a substantive increase. Annualized, in the USA, we could potentially see a countrywide attrition number of 30% attrition for 2021, which I am told, will be the highest ever recorded. Monster.com claims that?95% percent of employees?are looking for a new job. Other surveys point to numbers between 30% and 50% of employees looking for new jobs. Unimaginable during regular times!?
The most significant numbers of people leaving are in the age groups 30-45 (30-35 years: 21.5%; 35-40 years: 19.6%; 40-45:25.1%; Source: Forbes, July 7, 2021). Other than the usual reasons behind the attrition numbers appearing in the press, such as burnout, low pay, higher mobility, in my opinion, there are two additional reasons for this trend: firstly, this age group (30-45 years) has children of school-going age, and unless the vaccine is available and feasible to young children, as parents, people are going to be mindful of putting their children at risk, as the new Delta variant seems to affect younger age groups disproportionately. One parent told me, "It is as if I am sending my son off to school to get COVID; if that happens, I will never forgive myself." Secondly, this is also the age group where you have working mothers. Many working moms are now looking for full-time remote work that will allow them to manage their home responsibilities equally effectively, especially if they have caregiving and childcare issues and, yes, suffer from low partner support.?
It is also surprising to see the rising attrition trend even after many organizations have accepted that hybrid work is here to stay and adjusted accordingly. For instance, Apple's employees are pushing back on its new mandated return to work policy that asks them back to work for three days a week, claiming they want even more flexibility. I am sure HRMs worldwide are scratching their head at what they thought was a perfectly reasonable flexible hybrid work arrangement- a 2:3:2 arrangement.?
I think the real reasons people want to leave their organizations are more profound than what experts make. I suspect that, in reality, people are?not looking just to resign; they are looking for a?reset.?A reset is a fundamental reconfiguration of one's life, a change in one's life schema. It is a sign of how profoundly the pandemic has affected each of us.??
These reasons for people wanting to leave, therefore, are more intrinsic. Here is how I would explain them:
a) Quality of life. The pandemic created an awakening among people about what and who is important in our lives. It resulted in them redrawing the boundaries of their lives- prioritizing family and social relationships over official/ collegial ones. Also, health and well-being have come to the forefront. Well-being is more than preventing disease or maintaining good physical health; it is finding meaning, joy, and fulfillment in life. I find even the way we bid 'goodbye' has changed- I see more people signing off with, "goodbye and stay safe!" People are redefining success, and it is not just about the dollar bill! They are looking for life-work balance, not work-life balance...life comes first.
b) Quality of work.?As people grew distant from the workplace over the last 15-16 months, many have also grown disenchanted with their work. At least, when people were together physically, collegial relationships gave us some reason to like the work. During the pandemic, while working from home, work remained, and the relationships vanished. Yes, the occasional happy hour helped, but it did not take away the fact that the work got, let's admit it, pretty dull. As one person put it, her life is a "rinse, repeat, rinse cycle of work." And after 15 months of this relentless cycle of working, we have had enough. We need a change, and anything will do. A new job, a new place, a new set of relationships. Something 'different' to look forward to. Something that makes us feel "alive" again. To many, the normal before the pandemic was at best tolerable and, at worst, terrible. Now to get back to that same environment when the workplace opens up just is not appealing anymore. Why not seek something different??
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c) Renegotiation of how you work.?What is easier? To renegotiate that you prefer to work remotely full time? Or, is it simply easier to apply to a new job that is advertised as remote-friendly? Many people want to make home the anchor of their work, not the office, while many CEOs still want offices to be the primary place of work, not the home. So when people talk about 'hybrid work,' they talk about the?option?of working from the office for a couple of days. But when organizations talk about 'hybrid work,' they talk about the?option of working from home?for a couple of days a week.?
So how do organizations address the dichotomy? Organizations need to do three things. Firstly, they should be careful in?mandating?the return to office decision (and for heaven's sake- do not call it 'return to work'....people have been working hard, from their homes). They should make it entirely voluntary for people to attend the office, especially since the vaccines for younger age groups, the school, and childcare situations are still fluid. This will lift a burden off the people, especially women.?If we provide that flexibility for a few more months, I believe that it will make it easier to bring people back to the workplace in the medium term.
Second, organizations should assume that many of their employees are looking out for other jobs. We need new retention strategies. For instance, should you open a childcare facility or cut a deal with an existing one? Should you double down investment in training and learning opportunities so that people feel they are growing? Should you introduce sabbaticals and be more generous in terms of parental leave? Should you scrap open offices and come up with better, more comfortable, less distracting designs? If organizations are not considering new ways of retaining their employees, they are in trouble. People need to feel that they are learning, collaborating, socializing, growing, feeling stretched once again as these aspects dulled over the last 15 months.?
Thirdly, organizations need to have?honest conversations?with the people, not surveys. Surveys may get you numbers, but rarely can you understand the lived experiences of what people are going through. Having regular dialogues will allow organizations to know deeper issues they confront every day at their new workplace- the home.
Bottom line, unless organizations also?reset?their workplaces, retention strategies, and work cultures, they will be out of sync with their people's needs. If not, for all you know, the 95% attrition figures from Monster.com may suddenly be believable.
Do you agree that what we are seeing is more than just the great resignation? Is it a great reset???
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3 年I literally wrote a post yesterday evening about this, without knowing about this... If that makes any sense?! Such a well thought out article.
it is very refreshing to read and more important acknowledge that we do have a problem and that we sometimes feel that 'this is not happening within my team, or in my organisation' because I believe that every team, group, community and function is indeed being impacted - some with smaller attrition rates and some with very big numbers. The importance of this RESET is to (i) start NOW and spend time to connect and understand, (ii) listen, listen and listen, (iii) define what the 'new hybrid' means to different people and avoid the 'command and control' approach because we have different needs, and (iv) do address the big elephants in the room - every time - because otherwise a zoo will form and become too wild to manage.
Sales Manager, Federal Government | Unisys | "Inspired by Possibility, Driven by Performance".
3 年yes, Agreed to the "great re-set', but NO do not agree that most people want to work from home all the time or most of the time. Most people prefer the gregariousness of the office space, but they DO want flexibility to pick up their kids, let a tradesman visit home etc. BTW, if you want to REALLY piss-off your readers, then exclude the 45-50's, 50-60's and the 60 - 70's!
Marketing and Communication (incl. CSR)
3 年This is a great insight. On a more personal note I would like to share - I am reading this article while sipping my coffee near the beach. My point in saying this- we are not separated from our work, its not one person from 9-5, and than we switch to someone else. This pandemic separated us from each other, but also gave us time and space to reflect within ourselves and admit to ourselves:"Life is short. What is it you truly want?" I hope we all found the answer to that question.
Confidant, Counsel & Partner to Organization Leaders of Family Owned Businesses, for People & Brand Matters
3 年Sounds like a whole lot of people have discovered a lack of meaning or fulfillment in their lives or then discovered that there is an emerging opportunity for a better lifestyle and are going on a search. The pandemic may well have something to do with this 'confrontation' with ones values and 'inner' needs. But that it has been so dramatic and caused such a shift toward a more heroic stance, in so many people, makes me wonder if there aren't also more mundane and inimical (and less romantic) factors at play. For instance I don't find the subject of the all pervasive presence of screen time monitoring software , during the pandemic times, get any press, even on Linkedin. From what I have heard, its a 'kill joy' experience to be constantly under scrutiny and give an account of every moment one has spent at work ( or is it it it home?). Such an experience would cause, I imagine the strongest bonds and psychological contracts to wither and perish. That they are leaving is irrefutable. I suspect they don't where to.