During the pandemic, we all felt uncertain, stressed, and anxious. Most of us missed our jobs, our routines, and we started appreciating contact with others a lot more. These days businesses are reopening, we now have a vaccine, and people are returning to their old routines. However, some people are quitting their jobs en masse. What’s behind the great resignation? Let’s find out.
The Hunt for Job Stability
As we mentioned earlier, the pandemic made us feel uncertain about the future. There were a lot of discharges, layouts, and unemployment benefits requests. Most people, especially in the hospitality sector, had to look for alternatives to survive.
It worked for some time, but it didn’t provide them with balance and stability. Therefore, this is one of the reasons why people are quitting their jobs. They’re looking for a company or a job that provides them with stability.
The Pandemic Fatigue
The pandemic fatigue is real, and it’s affecting the economy in more than one way. The pandemic has made a huge impact on our mental health, directly affecting our relationship with our work lives. Employees feel burnt out and anxious due to pandemic fatigue, so they quit their jobs to look for other options that offer more flexibility and work-life balance.
Appreciating Life
Although the vaccine prevents COVID-19 effects most of the time, there’s still a slight possibility of severe symptoms. That’s why part of the population is quitting their jobs. Most of them were exposed to the virus while working, and they’re now looking for safer options.
Better Pay
Another highly relevant cause of the great resignation is the need for better pay. The cost of living has increased, and salaries can’t keep up with that change.
Therefore, they should go after higher-paying jobs like best paying jobs in consumer services even if it’s unrelated to their careers. This is forcing companies to increase their offer to the workforce. It’s not only about having a six-figure salary but about improving their quality of life.
Remote Work Options
People realized that remote jobs remained stable during the pandemic despite the quarantine. This provided them with a sense of stability in the middle of a worldwide crisis. That’s why the population started to consider remote work options even more. The State of the Salary report conducted by Hired estimated that most people wanted to remain working remotely or with a hybrid approach.
Rethinking Their Future Career
Some people often call this phenomenon the great reshuffle when referring to the great resignation. This is because many people started to rethink their career paths in the middle of their careers due to the pandemic. It made them want to update their skills to continue being relevant to their industry.
Many people started to consider tech careers because they have a high job outlook and can work remotely. Software developers, data scientists, and web designers continued working, earning a high salary despite the pandemic.
Retraining
Some of the hottest career changes are in the tech and healthcare industries. The demand for medical services also increased their salaries, making people consider a med school for their future. Other careers such as digital marketing, web development, and data science were very in-demand during the pandemic.
Hiring Challenges for Companies
Since many people are quitting their jobs, companies must reconsider their work benefits, salaries, and retraining strategies. They must implement more appealing benefits for their current employees to retain them, but also invest in hiring.
This represents a new challenge for companies because they have to compete to offer the best salaries or benefits. In the end, it’ll be beneficial for the workforce because they’re fighting for better work conditions, work-life balance, stability, and mental health.
Conclusion
Many Americans quit their jobs during and after the pandemic for several reasons. Many were searching for a better work-life balance and were rethinking their careers. If you are thinking of switching careers, carefully consider all of the above factors. Don’t jump into a job you’re not entirely sure you’ll like.
