The Great Resignation: A phenomenon that’s here to stay?

As COVID-19 wears on, people across the world continue to struggle with the ever changing demands of their jobs. For many, they have decided to call it quits.

A recent survey conducted by Microsoft discovered that 41% of the global workforce is considering to resign from their roles. In the US alone, November 2021 saw a record high of 4.53 million Americans quitting their jobs.

High productivity seemed to be masking an exhausted workforce, as employees find difficulty in establishing a healthy work-life balance, given an increased intensity of digital work days.

To compensate for the lack of face-to-face interactions, employees struggle to keep up with the longer and more frequent virtual meetings, additional documents to work on, as well as larger volumes of emails and chats to respond to. The line between work and personal life continues to blur, and for some, may have already vanished.

The never-ending ‘hustle’ in the digital space has had people reevaluate their priorities, with many asserting that they are overworked and underpaid. Some have chosen to take the leap and quit their jobs, in search for better opportunities elsewhere.

While official statistics suggest that the Great Resignation has not hit the shores of Singapore, many companies have begun their efforts in manpower retention, starting from the implementation of hybrid work for greater security and flexibility.

As the world continues to cope with COVID-19’s economic disruptions, it is unclear if the Great Resignation would ever fade off. However, it is certain that the pandemic has changed the way we work for good and provided the perfect opportunity to recalibrate our goals in life.

For more details on the phenomenon, please refer here.