The Great Resignation: Why People Are Leaving Their Jobs In Growing Numbers
Consider This from NPR
NPR
4.2 • 6.2K Ratings
🗓️ 22 October 2021
⏱️ 13 minutes
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Summary
Anthony Klotz coined this ongoing phenomenon "The Great Resignation."
Klotz is an organizational psychologist at Texas A&M University.
In part, he says, the pandemic has made workers reevaluate what they are actually getting out of their jobs.
"During the pandemic, because there was a lot of death and illness and lockdowns, we really had the time and the motivation to sit back and say, do I like the trajectory of my life? Am I pursuing a life that brings me well-being?" Klotz said.
Employers are also having to rethink what their employees really need.
NPR's Audie Cornish spoke with Laszlo Bock, co-founder and CEO of the human resources company Humu, about the basic human need for respect.
"You know, in the pandemic, people have talked a lot about essential workers, but we actually treat them as essential jobs," said Bock. "We treat the workers as quite replaceable."
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Honestly, who among us has not thought about quitting our jobs? |
| 0:03.5 | You know the old joke about winning the lottery and getting to say, |
| 0:06.8 | so long suckers! |
| 0:08.7 | Thing is, actually willing yourself to take the plunge? |
| 0:12.4 | Well, that's a lot harder than you think. |
| 0:14.0 | I didn't even tell anybody. |
| 0:15.4 | I sat in the parking lot and I tried to wheel myself to go in and it wasn't happening. |
| 0:22.2 | All right, to imagine it's a Saturday morning this past June. |
| 0:25.2 | And I was sitting in the parking lot and I just decided I can't walk in there. |
| 0:29.2 | I just cannot do it. |
| 0:30.6 | Marry Waters had pulled up in front of a grocery store where she worked in St. Louis, Missouri. |
| 0:37.2 | I couldn't walk into such a dehumanizing toxic place where we're all sort of just like |
| 0:45.2 | walking past each other, not even saying hi that days would blur together. |
| 0:49.9 | Waters spent her days stalking freezers for 10, 25 an hour. |
| 0:54.4 | But she says customers and management didn't treat her like a human being. |
| 0:58.9 | And on top of all that, she had to work a full year before qualifying for health benefits. |
| 1:03.6 | That's not a great policy at any time, but especially in the middle of a public health |
| 1:08.7 | emergency to just let your employees come in without medical care. |
| 1:12.8 | It made me feel like an absolute tool. |
| 1:15.7 | She drove out of the parking lot and she did not look back. |
| 1:18.8 | And Waters isn't alone. |
| 1:20.7 | A year and a half into the pandemic, the number of people in the US quitting their jobs |
... |
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