If “a picture is worth a thousand words” then how much is a trendy workplace catchphrase worth?
Judging from TikTok posts and Google searches, these proliferating pithy slogans – from “The Great Resignation” to “Quiet Quitting” to “The Great Regret” to “Quiet Firing” – are worth millions and millions of words!
The Great Resignation may be losing steam, but the number of Americans leaving their jobs, as well as total job openings, remains at historic highs, making the recruitment of Gen Z workers by employers more important than ever.
In the two years since the sudden start to the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic no industry has been left unscathed as business leaders have had to navigate a tumultuous economic and social climate unlike anything witnessed since World War II.
For almost a year now Americans have channeled their inner Johnny Paycheck, telling employers to “Take This Job and Shove It” as more than 4 million workers a month since June 2021 have voluntarily left their jobs.
“The pandemic-era trend known as the “Great Resignation” remains a prominent feature of the labor market, as favorable conditions lead workers to quit their jobs at near-record levels in search of better (and ample) opportunities,” reported CNBC.
Business owners are facing an issue many have not experienced in their lifetime as inflation reached its highest level since 1982 with consumer prices jumping 7 percent last year.
“The last time inflation was this high, Ronald Reagan was in the White House, Olivia Newton-John was all over the radio, and the cool new computer was the Commodore 64, named for its 64 kilobytes of memory. Oh, and there was a new soft drink about to hit the shelves,” NPR’s Kelsey Snell said of a time before Diet Coke was an option.
Part of the enigma of U.S. history is the apparently opposing dynamic forces of American “Rugged Individualism” vs. teamwork.
The authors of “Rugged Individualism: Dead or Alive?” wrote, “Reaching back to the founding, rugged individualism has defined American character and uniqueness. It has been described as the “master assumption” of American political and economic thought. The combination of individual liberty in America’s founding and the frontier spirit provided the rich soil in which it has grown and developed.”
Nearly two years of a global pandemic has wrought economic and emotional turmoil on the average employee, but businesses that focus on improving their workplace culture can counter “The Great Resignation” while boosting overall productivity.
“Corporate culture may be the most important aspect of employee satisfaction. A strong corporate culture can be the differentiator in helping a company barely survive to actively thrive, especially in challenging times.” Matthew Rolnick, vice president of sales at Yaymaker, wrote in Forbes.
And these have been some of the most challenging times for managers in memory with an average of four million Americans resigning each month last year in what has been called “The Great Resignation”.
It is incredibly hard to envision just how historic “The Great Resignation” has been with a record number of American workers voluntarily quitting their jobs month after month.
Consider this: the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has been tracking the number of U.S. workers who quit their jobs each month, and prior to last year, the record for quits in a single month was 3.6 million in July 2019.
Last year, nearly 4 million U.S. workers quit their jobs in April and the number of quits stayed above that 3.6 million high-water mark for each of the next eight months.
Employee engagement, which surged in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, is being put to the test as employers look to stem the tide of the “Great Resignation” while battling a tight labor market and worldwide supply chain bottlenecks.
“As the world stumbles toward a COVID-19 recovery, experts warn of a surge of voluntary employee departures, dubbed the “Great Resignation.” For instance, one study estimates that 55 percent of people in the workforce in August 2021 intend to look for a new job in the next 12 months,” reports the Harvard Business Review. “To counteract the incoming wave of employee turnover, organizations — more than ever — need to focus on cultivating employee engagement.”
The “Great Resignation”, “Turnover Tsunami'', or “Quit-ageddon” … whatever you call the current phenomenon of workers leaving their jobs in droves, it is happening.
“In April, the number of workers who quit their job in a single month broke an all-time U.S. record. Economists called it the “Great Resignation.” But America’s quittin’ spirit was just getting started,” Derek Thompson wrote in The Atlantic is October 2021. “In July, even more people left their jobs. In August, quitters set yet another record. That Great Resignation? It just keeps getting greater.”
