The “great resignation” describes a unique phenomenon that started during the pandemic and continues to date. Millions and millions of Americans quit their jobs in search of a better life, leaving an unprecedented labor shortage in many industries, especially hospitality, retail, construction, transportation, but not only. Only in November 2021, 4,5 million people in the United States decided to resign or change their jobs, following several millions making the same choice in the months before.
While specialists are analyzing this phenomenon and trying to identify its causes and predict its impact, one thing appears to be certain. Adjusting our lives through the pandemic revealed an unexpected outcome: that something else is possible. The conventional thinking about work has been challenged. Long embedded work practices became ineffective, old ways of top-down task-oriented management are obsolete, and dysfunctional relationships between employers, managers, and employees make the work environment disempowering, which results in lower productivity. Some of these tendencies are not completely new, but they were accelerated during the pandemic.
People, who were interviewed by media and research companies, discovered that having a job doesn’t have to look a certain way; that longer hours and overwork don’t lead to better results, on the contrary; that health, both physical and mental, is more important than money; and doing what they love gives them peace of mind and does matter. Life is more than a long to-do list and, it’s just not worth it to waste their energy and effort in a place where they don’t experience being respected, appreciated, and empowered. So, they quit.
While you still need a job, you actually don’t have to tolerate unworkability.
There may be a combination of reasons behind the “great resignation”, but they can’t be separated from the pursuit of creating one’s life. People want to be empowered and be owners of their own lives, not to be faced with painful choices like either family or job, either health or money, either good relationships, or good results.
I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the same word – “resignation” – can be used to describe both the act of leaving a position and the experience of being resigned, of accepting something undesirable, yet seen as unavoidable.
I see the “great resignation” as a wake-up from resignation and numbness many employees were experiencing, and as a wake-up call for employers, CEOs, managers, and anyone in leadership positions working with teams of people.
The companies, big or small, facing labor shortages, have an opportunity to innovate, not in terms of processes and technologies, but in terms of people, relationships, and communication.
Our consulting offerings are designed to turn the “great resignation” into a “great empowerment”.
We are here to empower companies and organizations facing the impact of this phenomenon, to create an environment where people want to stay. Not because they have to, or to get their paycheck, but because they are empowered and freed up to communicate.
We are committed to working with individuals, who chose to leave their previous jobs, to create another professional pathway or start their own businesses. But mostly we have the tools to empower anyone who wants to get away from old practices and take on the next level of performance.
There is a caveat though. For this to happen, both companies, organizations, and individuals need to be willing to transform, to deal with uncomfortable conversations, and go beyond what they think they already know. This is where the magic happens.