They are calling this time we live in the “Great Resignation”.
It is said that people are leaving jobs faster than ever before, leaving businesses short handed and undertrained and understaffed. There’s many a conversation about inflation being blamed for lack of adequate wages and a lack of professionalism and inner drive in “this generation” of the workforce. It’s being talked about in little personal conversations, at home and at the workplace. It’s been in the news, on social media, and to some extent even a global conversation.
As I have been thinking about it lately though, I wonder if the course this conversation is taking is ultimately going to divide us further from recognizing the humanity within each of us and force more money into the pockets of corporations. I wonder if we have allowed consumerism and greed to drive the very language we use to describe our current state of being as people…. When instead we should be using our state of being as people to drive our communities forward.
“The Great Resignation”
When reading history books as a child and learning about “The Great Depression”, a certain image was painted in my head. The image was sadness, poor in spirit and finances, broken, very black and white. Having never lived through this time in history, all I was left with were these dismal images of a very rough time in life that was hard on individuals, communities, and my country as a whole.
The images currently being painted by the discourse around my current time living through “The Great Resignation” disturb me so- not because times are tough but because the conversation doesn’t seemed to be based entirely in reality.
After long periods of lockdowns and unrest do to Covid19 that was reached at the heels of massive civil unrest in this country, I’m not surprised people have decided to re-evaluate where they are in life and where they are going in a career… I’d like to propose we call this time maybe “The Great Realization” instead.
During a tumultuous time in this country that has been full of politics and wretched propaganda and racial adversity… I saw many people and families and communities supporting people of color coming together to evaluate how to move forward in big ways like institutional shifts and smaller ways like navigating difficult family dynamics. In a similar way, since covid forced so many of us out of our jobs and / or into periods of isolation, we’ve all had time to think about what’s really important to us.
All that space and time in isolation has led so many to ask questions about there own happiness. For better or for worse, it’s given us time to actually spend with our families, roommates, neighbors. It led to questions about what truly matters in our lives, where we find our purpose when we are out of work or routine… and it also led to innovation as we explored new ways to communicate, pass the time, & engage with those within our own isolated spaces.
The term “Great Resignation” puts the onus on the employee- it’s been talked about how people just don’t want to work and this generation of workforce is just lazy and doesn’t want to do anything. We’ve allowed the discourse to make it sound like this is a big act of rebellious resistance that is intended to tear down society as we know it and that will leave us in ruin… and while I do believe what is happening now is definitely an act of resistance, I think it’s more internal and intrinsically tied to a looming dissatisfaction individuals are having with many aspects of life.
For me personally, this time of Covid and civil unrest in my country has pushed me closer to a few truths that are imperative to the life I want and desire. Family has never been more important to me. Seeing the success of individuals and communally supporting that success is extremely important to me. I no longer feel the need to just accept or stay at a job or in environments (social and otherwise) that won’t offer me what I need while expecting me to sacrifice for their own good. I have different standards for what is acceptable when it comes to my time and what is expected of it and who has rights to it. I’ve realized more of who I am and who I want to be during this tumultuous time in life and history.
I think many people have encountered these kinds of realizations individually, and that is really what is leading to such a shift. Everyone has desires for themselves, and isolation and solitude tend to magnify the problems until we break or find solutions. I’d be willing to bet that those of us making it through all of this are finding and crafting solutions from the buckets of life we’ve been living in during this pandemic and the past few years of intense civil & political trauma.
Have you heard this term “The Great Resignation” before?
What do you think of the term “The Great Realization”?
I’d love to hear your thoughts! Leave a comment below!
La Bella Journeys: 