Balades en expertise comptable :
The Great Resignation...
Actu Droit juillet 2024
Décrypté par Jean-François Allafort, co-auteur des Fiches DCG UE12 Anglais des affaires, collection « Expert Sup », Dunod, et présenté par Ian Waddelow
#GreatResignation #BigQuit #JobMarket #Covid-19
The Great Resignation
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The Great Resignation, a term coined by Professor Anthony Klotz, associate professor of management at Texas A&M University, describes the trend of mass voluntarily exit of employees. In early 2021 in the wake of the Covid-19 crisis, millions of people started to resign from their jobs. It is estimated that in August 2021, around 4.1 million Americans left the workforce entirely.
What are the causes of the Great Resignation ?
The primary cause is most likely the job market, with a high number of job vacancies and a very low unemployment rate.
Secondly, the Covid-19 pandemic also caused some workers to exit the labour force while others have reduced their hours. This contributes to competition for available jobs, especially in the hospitality, retail and healthcare sectors.
Low pay, uncertainty about the future, a lack of opportunity for advancement and feeling disrespected at work are also mentioned as top reasons why Americans quit their jobs in 2021 and 2022, according to a Pew Research Center survey.
Finally workers’ priorities changed and played a key role in their decision to resign. Old workers saw the pandemic as an opportunity to retire earlier and spend more time with their family while preserving their health. Younger workers felt that they have only one life and they want to live it to the fullest. Purposeless and repetitive tasks consequently became meaningless.
For the most part, men and women offer similar reasons for having quit a job in recent years.
Is it the Great Resignation an American phenomenon or a global one ?
According to Dr. Simone Phipps, Middle Georgia State University associate professor of management, the Great Resignation, also known as the Big Quit, "is definitely not an American phenomenon. All over the world, the Great Resignation (or some version of it) has disrupted industries and markets, and impacted all stakeholders, including employers, employees, and the community at large. When workers quit, an organization risks a decrease in productivity and profitability as experienced talent is lost, an increase in costs to hire and train new talent arrice, and at the extreme end of the spectrum, decreased chances of organizational survival."
Does this mean that the job market if more favourable for workers ?
The massive wave of quitting was clearly a rare moment of worker power as employees demanded higher wages, and employers, short on staff, also gave it to them.
Is this the end of an era ?
The great resignation may be coming to an end. The rate at which workers voluntarily resign has fallen significantly in recent months. In some sectors, quitting has even fallen back to pre-pandemic levels.
"The great resignation, by really any measure, is over," said Nicholas Bloom, a professor of economics at Stanford University who studies labour economics. He says "that’s moved into the window of history now."
Workers may not be resigning at the same rate these days, but that does not mean they are staying at work because they enjoy it.
According to Gallup poll released last June, 59% of workers were quoted as "quiet quitting," meaning that they are not engaged with their job ; and 18% are "loud quitting," actively disengaged (but still employed).
A separate survey from Georgetown University showed that 68% of young adults "view their work mainly as a way to make a living," and not as a major part of their identity or personal fulfillment.
So are we back to normal now ?
