Is the Great Resignation a leap to a Great Opportunity?
Are you planning to jump ship? If so, you’re joining the Great Resignation. For exhausted Australians priced out of city property markets or feeling rich from record house prices, is this a Great Opportunity? Could the Big Quit be a Big Win for many?
Residz Team 3 min read
Are you planning to jump ship? If so, you’re joining the Great Resignation, otherwise known as the Great Reshuffle or the Big Quit. Millions of workers around the world are not just waving goodbye to their offices, but their jobs too. This mass walk-off, an unexpected side-effect of Covid-19, is so widespread a Microsoft survey reports 41% of global employees are considering it. But, for exhausted Australians priced out of city property markets or feeling rich from record house prices, is this a Great Opportunity? Could the Big Quit be a Big Win for many?
Who’s calling it quits?
‘Quits’ is the name given to workers who “are done sticking it out,”reports The Atlantic. Business and Management Professor Anthony Klotz first noted the trend in the U.S. in early 2021, blaming burnout and stress for the mass ‘change in thinking’. Quits got a taste of not working or working remotely during the pandemic. With closed borders and lots of jobs, many are now choosy about which employer they go back to. Forbes describes this as a workers’ revolution, but The Guardian’s Jane Caro says it’s also a lot of ‘fed up mothers’.
Whatever their reason, Quits are united in their search for a more meaningful existence.
The great migration
Quits have an opportunity to be in the driver’s seat of their life. Moving away from the city is now possible and for many, a less stressful, simpler life with more leisure and family time appeals. So, some say it should be termed the Great Migration.
The Great Migration sounds much better than the Great Resignation because at least we know where it leads. Who says that you have to resign when you can ‘remote’ instead? - Hackermoon’s Nesha Todorovic.
Remote work has thrown the doors wide open on where and how we live. With a good internet connection, flexible employers, and a worker shortage, there’s less pressure to live anywhere but where you’d like to.
The joy of not working
In 1991, decades before the Great Resignation, serially unemployed Ernie Zelinski wrote a book called The Joy of Not Working.
“By voluntarily leaving your job, you get to handle being without a job,” he wrote. “You’ll be more proficient at handling the tough situation when it surfaces again.”
His advice? Cut back on spending, work less, and make the most of your leisure time.
“You must think of leisure as a worthwhile pursuit - as worthwhile as any job you ever had. A life of total leisure doesn’t have to be frivolous and unfocused.”
He recommends:
- Building a ‘leisure tree’ by writing down 50 leisure activities that turn you on now, have in the past or you’ve considered doing.
- Pretend you have six months to live. Choose which activities you’d do in those six months.
“Leisure should be something we all cherish and cultivate,” writes Zelinski. “It affords us the opportunity to experience pleasure, enjoyment, relaxation, fulfilment, and achievement.”
The Great Resignation could be a healthy first step for Australians to enhance their leisure time.
Summary
The Great Resignation has also been called the Great Realignment, which isn’t as catchy. But it boils down to this, work must meet my deeper needs or I move on. Those needs can be met by a good boss, a welcoming office environment, and meaningful work. It can also be met by remote work in a regional community where there’s less time spent commuting and more time for leisure and family. Either way, there’s a big shift underway, and more people will seize the opportunity to take the plunge before it’s over.
Image: SkyDiveCSC