After almost 18 months of living and working through a pandemic, it can sometimes feel as though we’re holding out for some kind of respite that never really arrives. Surely, after continuing at the grind through uncertainty, illness and, in many cases, bereavement, we’ll be rewarded for our loyalty with a break from normal life and its responsibilities?
Of course, we all know this isn’t really coming. Even if we one day reach Covid-zero, there will be no congratulatory Bank Holiday, no ‘Kudos on sticking this out, here’s some free childcare, a rent reduction and a nice holiday to the Bahamas (sans day 2 return PCR test)’.
Many people, having done their job confined to the same small corner of their flat for 18 months (alone, or perhaps worse, around their small children), have had enough. Workers are quitting their jobs en masse, reports The Atantlic, in a phenomenon dubbed ‘The Great Resignation’.
Their report focuses on American stats, pointing out that, during the summer, the number of employees quitting their jobs in the country broke an all-time record.
The trend isn’t unique to the US, though, with research by Microsoftsuggesting that 41 per cent of the global workforce is considering resigning this year. Meanwhile, in the UK, job vacancies reached an all-time high in July (due, in part, to economic recovery post-lockdown), and a study by HR software company Personio found 38 per cent of workers in the UK and Ireland planned on leaving their job in the next 6-12 months.
But for those who have dependents relying on their salary, don’t have savings to fall back on or are living hand-to-mouth each payday to keep up with rent or mortgage payments, quitting or going freelance isn’t a bandwagon they can safely board.
Leaving a job that makes you miserable, reevaluating what makes you happy and shifting your perspective on the role work plays in your life are all things to be celebrated. But it shouldn’t be forgotten that these epiphanies are often only accessible to those with a safety net.
Alongside The Great Resignation, we need to see a great unionisation, a boost in employment rights for ‘casual’ workers, an increase in protections for renters and flexible working offered as standard.
A mass resignation needs to be followed by a sea change in the way the government and businesses treat workers. Otherwise, as always, it will be those trapped in the jobs that others can afford to avoid that will suffer for it.