A staggering four million employees, or almost 3% of the working population, resigned in August this year, according to the Labor Department. Such a record number has now been dubbed as the Great Resignation to juxtapose its impact to that of the historic Great Depression. The figure is indicative of many changing views toward employment, mostly sharing themes of work dissatisfaction.
The transformation of labor regulations spanning the private and public sectors evidently could not keep up with such an impactful statement from the workforce. With a significant number of people putting their well-being over moneymaking, how those who stay employed will respond is worthy of discussion. If you’re at the crossroads of staying or leaving your present job, these are thoughts you can ponder on:
Your Skills Are Valued
One of the noted reasons driving the so-called Great Resignation is that people feel more confident that a fallback is within their midst because of how in-demand their skills are. They would not jump the gun knowing they would not be sought out elsewhere. Looking at it on an individual level, resigning is a viable course of action as it boosts one’s morale and pushes employers to name higher prices for these value-adding competencies.
On the other hand, this leaves many other qualified professionals bombarded with work that is meant to be done by more than one head. Individual resignations, when compounded, are fuel to a devastating nationwide brain drain. If anything, this delays our economy’s recuperation to pre-pandemic levels.
Presently, you have the upper hand in bargaining for the highly specialized skills you can offer to the market. You can take your time off, but also be ever cautious of how this temporary leave which so many other people took could lead to catastrophic economic crashes, too.
The Trade-off Worth Taking
You also have to realize that your current company is still reoiling its gears after almost two years of an economic slowdown. Its major decision-makers know well the essence of striking a healthy balance between recovering lost business and keeping the workforce’s welfare in check and, in turn, keeping everyone enthused to keep working for the company. At the moment, you may feel like your needs are not as well attended as before, worse, neglected, but that intuition isn’t necessarily conclusive.
Feeling disheartened by how you are currently being treated is common, but do not forget to look at the bigger picture. Try looking into your industry, if not the whole economy, and how it has been coping since its lowest dip. You will realize how financial institutions, the government, and companies alike are all trying their best to keep the bastions of the national economy afloat amid the looming uncertainty of how the pandemic will pan out in the next few days and weeks.
No matter where you are considering transferring, you will most likely encounter the same working situations. Unless you are more than certain that some other company provides a working setup that your current one does not have plans of adapting, then you better contemplate more about deciding to resign.
Making Ends Meet
Let’s face it, one of your topmost motivations to work and get paid is so you can sustain your needs and those of your family. If your decision is final, you should have made sure you have enough of a lifeline to pay for the bills and other recurring expenses just before you start working for a new company. The principle of filing your resignation only when you have a new job you’re sure you can hop onto next should apply, especially during these penny-pinching times.
Feeling exhausted in your job like never before is a valid reason to consider quitting. That is if you can foresee that you will be pushed to work beyond your limits for longer than you can still endure, and more so if you don’t see much of a difference in your workload before and during the pandemic. Still, you must factor in your capacity to comply with your financial obligations and how long you are still bound to pay for them, like your outstanding home loan and insurance plans.
Magnifying Your Vision
If anything good resulted from the Great Resignation, it’s that people rekindled that desire for fulfillment bigger than what they could wring out of the status quo. Perhaps it’s because of the monotony-shaking impact of the pandemic that led people to realize that where they currently are at life offers nothing more than money. Now, more and more people are unraveling layers and layers of their present selves to unveil those passion projects they’ve pushed aside for so long.
Is pursuing higher education an appealing alternative to land a higher-paying job? Is it forming a startup with your plain passion and a reliable team of like-minded friends? These ideations should have popped in your mind at one point during the pandemic, and there is no better time to act on them than when there is nothing else to lose.
The pandemic made possible trends we thought were even absurd to think about, such as employment. Today, work is more than ever more than just a source of living but that of a purpose.
