The Great Resignation and the New Office Politics
The Political Scene | The New Yorker
The New Yorker
4.3 • 3.9K Ratings
🗓️ 6 January 2022
⏱️ 30 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week, the U.S. Labor Department reported that 4.5 million people left their jobs in November—the most since the government began collecting data, two decades ago. A major reason is the COVID-19 pandemic, which has changed the relationship between office workers and their workplaces, and exacerbated challenges faced by workers in health, hospitality, education, and other sectors. Some also argue that the Great Resignation is part of a larger movement against employers who ask more of their employees while providing less in terms of work satisfaction. Cal Newport, a New Yorker contributing writer, joins Dorothy Wickenden to discuss the Great Resignation, the future of work across professions, and how employees and managers can ease burnout.
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| 0:49.0 | This is the political scene, a weekly conversation with New Yorker writers and guests about |
| 0:54.0 | politics. |
| 0:55.6 | It's Thursday, January 6th. I'm Dorothy Wickenden, executive editor of The New Yorker. |
| 1:01.5 | Are you thinking about quitting your job right now? A lot of us are. So let's talk about this. |
| 1:05.1 | The great resignation. This is it. My last day teaching. I just put in my resignation. |
| 1:10.3 | If you had asked me in the summer, if I would be part of the great resignation, I would say absolutely not. |
| 1:14.6 | But now? |
| 1:15.6 | I was very clear and open with them when I quit, that I was quitting to focus on my mental health and explore my interests and see where things take me. |
| 1:21.6 | Okay, everybody, the official return to office date is July 15th. |
| 1:25.6 | Finally. Oh, you're excited. Oh, no, I quit. |
| 1:31.6 | For months, social media has been inundated with posts like these. People announcing and often |
| 1:37.0 | celebrating their decisions to leave their jobs. What? Right, at our job, right? Somebody said, |
| 1:42.1 | hey, don't schedule me on Mondays, and guess what they did? |
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