Thoughts on the Great Resignation from a former job jumper

If this new decade of the 21st century has shown me anything, it’s that the 2020’s are absolutely Petty. The beginning of the 20’s has launched corporate businesses into a full blown reconciliation with karma. Karma for establishments, who have built long lasting legacies by making people believe that their personal and professional value is only rooted in the quantitative output of their work, the number of hours they clock, their loyalty to the corporation, and the number of commas in their checks.

I’d be lying if I didn't admit, as someone who has built their career by giving workplaces the middle finger, that I have indeed cackled loudly to myself over the last few months (HA HA FUCKING HA! This is exactly what all of Y’ALL get). I’d also be remiss if I didn’t admit I also slide into a steep puddle of dread, because as miss karma would have it, I am now included in the “They”, I so harshly and deservingly point and laugh at. This is now my problem to fix.

For context, I’ve spent 10 years of my life, working to climb the ladder from “Intern to Exec”, and it’s taken 9 jobs to get here.I have been very proud to have opted for the unorthodox way to do so. Often times, the biggest FUCK YOU I could give to anyone who overlooked me, lied to me or about me, harrassed me or even underpaid me; was to leave, and using that fuck you at my personal discretion had always been my weapon of choice. 

Ironically enough, this behavior of jumping from job to job, that was once frowned upon by my more mature colleagues, has now transitioned into the thing that has probably made me one of the most uniquely qualified people to lead, at this exact moment. While most people are trying to use the pythagorean theory to figure out why everyone is leaving their jobs, I already know exactly why and also why they had been thinking about their decision for at least 6 months to a year. The truth- Once people feel they have no one in the business that gives a damn about them, and there's no one who can help them grow-- they're over it and they are out.

This makes me wonder why we don’t take exit interviews seriously. It’s probably the most honest piece of data that we have access to, within organizations. You want to know what’s really good (or not) at your company, review the last thing people have to say about you when they know you can’t do anything to them. They’ll let you know exactly what they wanted from you before they realized, you couldn't understand the assignment. You’ll find trends of broken process, unmet expectations, overwork, discrimination, lack of appreciation and lack of growth opportunities. You’ll also find out who specifically is instigating these issues. It’s usually some cocktail-like combination of these ingredients, but none the less you’ll find them in there. The problem is that we’ve let these experiences fester for so long, that we missed the deadline to do better. 

So now here we are, a world of industries struggling to figure out how to sustain and in some cases rebuild a workforce we never really cared enough about. How many times have you pushed someone beyond their limit and just said (to them and yourself) “that's just the nature of the business” or “that’s just how we do things here. And now look at us, doing business with a fraction of the people we need to get things done at a quality level.

If we take a moment to be honest with ourselves, we would acknowledge that we are all aware that the structure of corporate and agency culture was designed to use people at their highest productivity and to replace them upon their inevitable burn out. I mean, we literally refer to our people as resources-- tools we use to get the work done. It’s easier to rationalize an 80 hour work week for 20 weeks for a resource, than to rationalize that Liz, a working mom of 4 and caretaker for her parents, will need to work 80 hour weeks, for the next several months. 

I believe the pandemic opened the door for people who have been over the corporate bullshit, for years. It’s the fact that so many people held onto hope, for so long, and believed that if they just worked a little bit harder, someone would see them, appreciate them and move them to the next level of professional growth. Instead, what people have been met with is consistent disappointment, that has finally run its course. Corporations have gravely let people down and last year’s activities for corporate survival were the last straw. 

The irony of The Great Resignation, and businesses pleading with their employees to stay with them longer, is that I’ve heard very little about the impact of the massive layoffs of summer 2020. How dare we ask any person of a certain level to stay with a company “that needs them”, when so many people were furloughed and laid off, in the middle of the deadliest pandemic in recent history, and the second recession in 20 years, without the same considerations. All for the sake of profit and margins, that many businesses have benefited from in the 2021 calendar year.

So where does this lead us and what’s the answer? My short answer is that we’re not going to FIX this Great Resignation. We’re far too late, and It’s already here. People know way too much now, to go back to the way things were. So this new shift in culture will just need to run its course. The thresholds of mistreatment have been minimized to null, and no longer will anyone let anything stand in their way of progress, growth, stability or freedom. The rules of engagement have officially changed between employees and employers. As we work to make things right, we have to understand, anything we build today will be for the future state of the workplace.

We have the purist opportunity to reconstruct the meaning and expectations of the workplace. Seriously, let’s really think about it. Should all roles be remote? Could we shift to a freelance talent first model, and let employees opt in to full-time status after a test period of time? How long does it really take to learn a marketing skill these days and how does that affect the succession process? These thoughts may sound crazy, but thats the point. As leaders we have to realize, whether any of this is our individual fault or not, we are responsible for the actions of the industries we represent, and it is our responsibility to make things better. To do so, we have to be bold enough to change every single thing about how we once upon a time approached business, talent, culture, growth, reward and reprieve. We will have to answer our own “ we can’t do that”, with “how can we make it work”. We will have to replace the ego of our business, with the soul of our humanity. The legacy and sustainability of our businesses depend on it. Everything will have to be built anew, otherwise what we now consider The Great Resignation, could over time devolve into an industry implosion.

Candidly, we just don't have any time left for that.