The Great Resignation

[delta0]

Many will have seen this coming up in the news recently. It was predicted that due to the pandemic that people would start to reassess what they are doing in their lives and this includes work. The expectation was that a large number of people would resign for a fresh start, a completely different role, work less or not at all. I work in the tech sector and in the last few weeks I’ve noticed this is just starting to gain momentum. Resignations are running at around twice as many as they usually do and the rate is increasing. They expect 41% in the US and other countries predicting similar or higher numbers are going to resign.

For me the pandemic did have an effect on what I did at work. In the middle of the pandemic I did ask to change roles to an area I am much more interested in doing and the idea of not working to old age really started to grow on me. I have even dabbled with the idea of moving to another company and that’s still on the cards depending on how I feel about things over the coming months.

Anyone else noticed the impacts of the great resignation on their industries or have possibly considered it themselves?

 

[whitecrook]

How are people affording it

 

[Dolph]

It's a seller's market for labour at the moment if you've got the right skills or in the right sector.

 

[nine_tails]

IT - nearly all the developers from my company have resigned and taken up new roles. Reasons varying form better pay to stagnation.

 

[Throrik]

We're averaging over 150+ new starters a week in the Technology department, it's crazy at the moment.

 

[Shoza]

Have seen loads of surprising resignations at my place - it’s a nice place to work with good pay. I suppose the IT is a bit dated and the senior mangers aren’t very inspirational but nothing major.

All the resignations started beginning of September and don’t think it will let up anything soon.

I’ve thought about going as well. Similar money but better working from home benefits are the draw for me.

 

[peterwalkley]

Seeing a lot of turnover in our India development centres and its across the whole industry. Developers there are getting 30%+ pay bumps each time they move. It will calm down, there's no way that's affordable to the employers after a while.

I'll be part of an interview panel in the next few weeks for the first time in well over 20 years !

 

[RobHu]

Companies, especially in tech, that don't adapt to how people now want to work are going to struggle to recruit and retain talent. At least in the short term anyway, who knows how things will look in 5-10 years.

Edit: Actually OP didn't you post the other day that your company is dead set against remote work? If so are you really surprised that people are looking for opportunities that will give them more freedom to live their lives?

 

[delta0]

Companies, especially in tech, that don't adapt to how people now want to work are going to struggle to recruit and retain talent. At least in the short term anyway, who knows how things will look in 5-10 years.

Edit: Actually OP didn't you post the other day that your company is dead set against remote work? If so are you really surprised that people are looking for opportunities that will give them more freedom to live their lives?

Generally tech has moved against remote work. Mine isn’t set on that yet. They have moved significantly towards that recently but until the offices have moved back to full capacity they aren’t forcing it yet but that time will come. Tech may allow the turnover to happen if it’s not in their interest to have people working from home for example. This could be one thing that causes people to move on but really the great resignation is about much bigger things than that. It’s about people thinking more about what they want in life and the realisation of ones mortality is a factor in that. That little startup idea or that travelling you always wanted to do is one of many things that will drive this.

 

[Trifid]

Business need to be careful here, and we are seeing it. No one wants to work for us as we had one thing going for us; a local job. Our pay structure can't compete with London wages and our work/life balance can't compete with working from home. Vacant roles are going out several times with unqualified, inexperienced or even no one applying. The only positive is, no one mentioned the return to the office for quite a long time now.

 

[The_Arbiter]

I'm surprised that people are rethinking things now, the "all work no play" saying has been around before my time i expect. Commuting several hours each day, 60+ hours, loads of pressure, for what? A detached house, new car and big pension by the time you get to almost dead age to fully enjoy it. Quite a pessimistic exaggerated POV however as it's not always that clear cut.

Since my late 20s i already had enough of businesses, it always felt incredibly difficult to just go to work every day, do a good job, and take pride in it (and the employer have respect for their staff), solely because many companies just don't seem to actually want that (at least at the bottom line of the working class jobs). I can't help but make the effort at work, it's how i'm wired, but i often take a step back and make the effort to not care so much to keep my own sanity intact.

I find there's more challenge and reward in sports and hobbies, and it helps with mental health than wasting my time with work. I don't think i could ever work more than 40hrs a week ever again, unless i went self employed, but i know i would literally work my whole life away if that was the case.

 

[HangTime]

Seeing a lot of turnover in our India development centres and its across the whole industry. Developers there are getting 30%+ pay bumps each time they move

Same thing happening on our programme across multiple vendors, it seems there are Indians resigning every week with wage escalation. I think it's natural equilibrium balancing, there is a large demand for the skills so in a world where remote work is more common, the penalty from having offshore resources is reduced and hence upwards pressure on wages there. There's quite a bit of room to manoeuvre on the finances, historically these offshore resources probably cost about the third of a UK based resource, maybe now it's half price I'm not sure as I'm no longer in a position where I deal with it.

I resigned last year due to stagnation, burnout and feeling undervalued in money terms but it wasn't really pandemic driven, at least not consciously. At the time my employer was regarded as an extremely good place to work based on Glassdoor. At least 5 of my former team have resigned this year plus a couple of my peers on the leadership team.

How are people affording it

Savings. It's been a long time since I've worked because I've needed money today, I work because I know I'll need money in the future. I'm perhaps a bit unusual in that I haven't scaled my home with earnings; when I resigned I was earning over 3x what I was when we bought this house which meant I was obviously free of debt and building up savings. Most people tend to 'climb the property ladder' as their earnings rise. I remember a guy who was two layers lower than me in the hierarchy (his manager reported to me) buying a house costing more than double the price of mine. He's got a massive mortgage so probably can't afford to just be unemployed for a bit.

I find there's more challenge and reward in sports and hobbies, and it helps with mental health than wasting my time with work

Definitely in my case, I feel I contribute more in my hobbies than I do in the work place and even the 'work elements' of my main hobby I find motivating and enjoyable. If it was something that paid a living wage I'd seriously consider giving up 'proper' work. This is going slightly off topic but one of the problems is, you have to work quite a long time to build up the financial security in order to pursue something more vocational, but the problem is by that point you are likely already quite heavily invested in a career so changing course carries a higher cost. In other words, when it's easier to change course you can't afford to do so; by the time you can afford it, you are too far down the other path.

 

[RobHu]

Generally tech has moved against remote work. Mine isn’t set on that yet. They have moved significantly towards that recently but until the offices have moved back to full capacity they aren’t forcing it yet but that time will come. Tech may allow the turnover to happen if it’s not in their interest to have people working from home for example. This could be one thing that causes people to move on but really the great resignation is about much bigger things than that. It’s about people thinking more about what they want in life and the realisation of ones mortality is a factor in that. That little startup idea or that travelling you always wanted to do is one of many things that will drive this.

I don't think it has. A few companies maybe but I'm a software engineer as are a lot of my friends and acquaintances and I only know of one who is being forced back into the office full time. The rest of us, including people working at companies like Facebook and Amazon, are somewhere between fully remote and 50:50 hybrid and will likely be that way forever. Certainly at my company the policy moving forward is to work where you want as long as you keep UK hours.

 

[delta0]

I don't think it has. A few companies maybe but I'm a software engineer as are a lot of my friends and acquaintances and I only know of one who is being forced back into the office full time. The rest of us, including people working at companies like Facebook and Amazon, are somewhere between fully remote and 50:50 hybrid and will likely be that way forever. Certainly at my company the policy moving forward is to work where you want as long as you keep UK hours.

That’s definitely strange. Amazon are an office centric company and quite openly so. There are situations where the tech company are just waiting while things settle down but the shift I’ve seen recently has been to go back towards office working. However as mentioned the great resignation is much bigger than this.

 

[malachi]

My girlfriend quit her job last month, plus another six people in her company did aswell. The pandemic proved she wasn't valued and doesn't want to work in Event Management anymore. So currently looking for roles in the crypto banking industry while studying full time to complete her degree.

Im looking to leave my job as I can get more money for my skillset elsewhere and I dont want to travel to the office 5 days a week when or if things return back to normal. My HR department said they will work something out but the past 18 months have proved I dont need to be in the office to do my job.

Got a few interviews coming up next week, so lets see how they go!

 

[Haggisman]

We've had several "long-termers" leave over the past couple of months, at least 3 of whom are because they've found positions with guaranteed full time (or at least vast majority) remote working. Meanwhile, we've had not even a hint of any kind of salary review for the past 2 years, along with talk of wanting us back in the office full time...

Can't say I blame them to be honest, and I'll certainly be looking if that "talk" becomes reality.

 

[randomshenans]

Yea, with other companies offering better (non regional) salaries and 100% remote working, why wouldn't you want a bit of that? Companies will have to adapt or suffer though.

 

[malachi]

Yea, with other companies offering better (non regional) salaries and 100% remote working, why wouldn't you want a bit of that? Companies will have to adapt or suffer though.

Yep.

I listened to an podcast about people turning to work and its always upper management fighting to get everyone back into the office. Reason was, if everyone is working from home then who are they going to manage!?!?! When they spend most of their time in meetings and looking over peoples shoulder to see if they are working or not. Therefore many manager roles are at risk or being cut.

 

[Minstadave]

Seeing this wholesale in healthcare. Lots of colleagues moving out of acute roles, retiring or cutting hours to avoid the winter stress. It just snowballs, as people leave those remaining are under more pressure. Not sure where it will end.

 

[Ayahuasca]

Remote working seems to be one of the biggest motivators. People got a sniff of it during the pandemic and have realised that despite the lack of direct social interaction it saves you time and money. It can be better for your mental health if your work involves peaks and troughs in workload. Being forced to sit at a desk and pretend you're doing something productive is the worst in lower level office roles.

Turnover here is at its highest in years.