The Great Resignation: WHY??
Work from Home. Work Life Balance. We’ve all heard these now common expressions. Add to that the cost of living, high gas prices, and the broken supply chain. They relate to the “Great Resignation”, a phrase that has been in the media pretty much since the pandemic started.
My favourite question is WHY? Why are people resigning from their jobs during this chaotic time?
We’ve all read the stories. The media loves publishing negative or at least thought-provoking headlines, which are often based on speculation. This drives advertising revenue and allows their parent companies to maintain their business during this chaotic period. This negativity, I believe, feeds into our souls, creating fear, anxiety, doubt, and other emotions. And they’ve affected how we manage our lives.
My favourite comes from Toronto Life Magazine, which included one family leaving downtown Toronto for a farm west of Woodstock. Their reasoning? Work from home was possible and they really valued their private open space.
But as the article focused on the challenges this family dealt with being in lockdown, their decision to purchase a very rural farm, left them far away from the people and urban services they cherished. Did they regret buying? Likely. Did they understand what they were giving up in order to get open space? Likely not.
Simultaneously, my newsfeed on LinkedIn has been full of people within my network celebrating a change in job. Sometimes, it’s a promotion. Sometimes, it’s to work for a specific company. On a more personal note, as my own company has grown over the last 2 years, I have discovered that many planners favour municipal jobs, which they see as safe and sustainable. As my company has grown over the last 2 years, I've had a few municipal planners turn down lucrative job offers, as they want safety during this time of chaos, which they find in municipalities. But I’ve also seen many planners make the switch to the private sector. Choice is a wonderful thing!
Over two years into the pandemic, these stories aren’t new. During the lockdowns and chaos, our choices have been restricted. To cope, we all read and experienced the challenges of countless strangers alongside one another; their choices have been our choices, feeding our souls with fear, anxiety, doubt, joy, and other emotions and influencing our own desires for change.
So, why are so many people changing jobs at this time?
My theory is that people are restless, unsettled, and looking for at the very least, a change in scenery. When the rest of the world is out of our control, we feel vulnerable, and sometimes we want to escape. One of the coaches I follow notes that one of our biggest gifts is the ability to choose, where taking action leads to positive change. The pandemic has given many of us unexpected time to make choices that we previously did not have time to consider. And changing jobs is something you can control.
Getting a new job feels fresh, provides a new perspective, a change in scenery, and brings new people/environments into the picture. At least for the short term, this satisfies one’s feeling of restlessness. A recent LinkedIn post celebrated a person getting their “dream job!”, which is definitely a reason to celebrate. The “dream” is relative, however, and very likely to change (read: raise the bar) once achieved. Interestingly, the choices made during the pandemic may be emotionally driven, which may look good at the start. Only time will tell if our choices prove to be positive.
As a final thought, the Great Resignation is part demographics (baby boomers retiring), part pandemic (time to look for better opportunities), and part expectations (employers not keeping up with work from home etc). As a planner and geographer, it's thought provoking to read the media stories and watch friends/colleagues making changes.
Having the world stop/slow down for a time gives us all time to think. Often this involves change, which some embrace and others avoid. What I can say as an employer who hired new team members during the pandemic, is that I chose to find candidates using non-traditional means. I found soon-to-be graduates of university and college planning programs using non-traditional means. I found soon-to-be graduates of university and college planning programs. And I deliberately chose not to interview them! Instead, I preferred to have a frank and open chat with them, sometimes over lunch or drinks, to understand what their goals were, and to see how LandPro could be part of that journey. Having myself gone through countless formal interviews, I remember how my nerves spoke louder than I did every time. This, I hope, minimises the emotions involved and makes their experience more comfortable.
I also took the time to provide support to my existing staff. We’ve been identifying ways of supporting the need for "change in scenery" as we’ve promoted our team’s engagement in workshops, conferences, and other professional development opportunities. And we’ve involved the team in strategic decision-making as well.
As we’ve taken on the Great Resignation, my team has proven to be well-chosen, motivated, and solutions-oriented – all very good things for LandPro!
