The Great Resignation Year 2021

The year 2021 is getting recognition for “numbers” that are yet to be fully understood. These numbers are now being interpreted by a lot of sources. I’ll share some of the “numbers” and you can get into the “interpretation” activity too. So, what are some of the numbers, in no priority order:

· In 2021 12.7 million people quit their jobs.

· Newsweek magazine reported the April 2021 “Quit rate” as the highest in 20 years “.

· A record 4.5 million American workers quit their jobs in November 2021 according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. (it is the highest number reported since December of

2000 (when the data tracking began in 2000, that’s over 20 years ago.)

“Quits” is defined as “voluntary separations initiated by the employee”. The “trained professionals aren’t

in universal agreement when it comes to why 2021 Quit numbers totaled up this way, but they did. And

almost everybody finds correlations between the “COVID experience” and the “Great Resignation

phenomenon”.

What is gaining acceptance are the observations about what may have been driving the “thinking of people feeling the impact of “changes to their worlds”. Influencers like, job lock-downs, interrupted income as businesses/employers not “calling-back” workers, etc. (You add to the list). Maybe it was the pandemic-influenced reality that even though working, they were/are one of the “1 in 4 Americans finding it hard to pay their bills”. And, maybe, just maybe it was/is realizing where they spend the largest portion of their conscious and awake time…at work. (Draw your 24-hour clock and account for your own time.)

Some of the things I hear on the subject include employees looking at their job and asking themselves why are they there. And, since they feel they receive little if any, recognition why not go look for it someplace else? Or, the workplace culture doesn’t promote “friendly interactions across employee groups”; or there is no workplace attractiveness. And as that Abraham Mazlow guy pointed out, people want to be extended value and worth and they need to belong. And if they don’t find it or if they don’t feel it…they will go find it.

So, 2021 was full of a lot of numbers. 2021 was also a year that gave employers especially, a lot of questions. The numbers and the workforce issues will continue to present themselves. Workers are looking at their jobs differently. Are you ready?