Is Quitting Becoming Too 'Cool'?

Millions of workers have quit throughout the past several years. In ways, resigning has become glamorous – though that’s not necessarily a good thing.

Why handing in your resignation is becoming trendy

When organisational behaviour professor Anthony Klotz coined the term “the Great Resignation” in 2021, he only meant to comment on a trend. Now Klotz wonders if he created, to some extent, a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Quitting has gone viral – both online and in real life. In the US, for instance, January data form the US Bureau of Labour Statistics showed nearly 49 million workers quit their jobs in 2021, and more than 50 million workers resigned in 2022.

And some surveys show many of those who didn’t quit their jobs are still thinking about it: according to LinkedIn data from a poll of 2,000 workers, nearly three-quarters of Gen Zers and two-thirds or millennials are thinking about quitting this year. Older generations are also contemplating resignations, including 55% of Gen Xers and a third of Baby Boomers.

And while departing workers cite lots of reasons for turning in papers – a desire for more flexibility, money or benefits, or to leave bad company culture – there’s also the idea that quitting begets quitting. Researchers coined an effect called turnover contagion to describe a phenomenon in which once one person resigns, the probability of their colleagues following suit increases – according to one report, as many as 25%. With resignation numbers dominating headlines, says Klotz, the effect has spread rapidly through the working world.

In some ways, says Klotz, the “coolness factor” of leaving a job can be empowering for workers. “Many of us felt a bit powerless over the years of the pandemic, and even the years prior to it,” he says. “Resigning from your job can be an empowering moment.”

He continues, “During our relationship with our employer, the employer has the power. We need a pay cheque, so we put up with things that the employer wants us to do, even if we don’t want to. Once you start to think about quitting, that power dynamic starts to shift. And that’s really intoxicating and appealing. When you start to think, ‘I don’t need this anymore. I could do what my co-worker did and go work at this other organisation,’ it’s a surge of power.”

That’s tempting, says Klotz, because “it feels liberating. It feels freeing”. And when workers are constantly reading news stories about people quitting, or even seeing viral videos of them doing it, he says, “it can be difficult to resist following in that”.

Prior to its virality, says Klotz, “quitting has been sort of a taboo topic, something you navigate in isolation. It was kind of a secretive process. The past few years there’s been this wave of people feeling more comfortable talking about it”.

But it’s not all bright side. The trendiness of quitting can overshadow the fact that leaving a job is hard for many people.

Read more from Kate Morgan on why quitting has become a high-profile trend.

Why some Gen Z workers are starting on the back foot

In some ways, Gen Z employees are thriving in the new world of work. They’ve entered the workforce at a time when flexibility is commonplace, digital communication is ubiquitous and employees have the leverage to ask companies for what they want.

At the same time, however, some experts are concerned that remote and hybrid work arrangements are already leaving some early-career workers behind. Many of these worries revolve around the absence of workplace intangibles: a lack of the casual conversations and informal observations that traditionally teach young employees how to act. Amid virtual settings, some experts believe entry-level workers are missing out on picking up vital cues that guide behaviour, collaboration and networking.

“It’s particularly centred around communication,” explains Helen Hughes, associate professor at Leeds University Business School, UK. “It’s things like understanding norms, values and etiquette: Who should you call? How should they be contacted? Are some people out of bounds?”

These sorts of questions were once promptly answered in face-to-face settings – a desk drop-by, or quick tag in the office kitchen. Navigating office politics would also be intuitive, based on subtle but tangible cues: fixed seating arrangements tend to indicate hierarchy; body language suggests when colleagues are most approachable. “Social comparison is harder in a remote or hybrid environment – you can’t see everyone around you and get a sense of how you’re doing,” says Hughes.?

But with so many young employees now working either remotely or hybrid, a once-natural encounter has now been replaced by an additional layer of outreach, which is inherently more complicated.??

Read more from Alex Christian on why some Gen Zers are struggling at work.

That’s it for this week’s edition. Please visit BBC Worklife ?and?BBC Business for the latest news and features.

–Meredith Turits, Editor, BBC Worklife