Whatever happened to the Great Resignation? That remarkable spring in 2022 when 442,000 people in the UK handed in their notice and flocked to pastures new. It was a record number and still is. But it’s set to be broken.
Research shows that we’re on the precipice of the Great Resignation 2.0, with one survey suggesting that up to a third of UK workers could quit their jobs this year while another, conducted by auditor PwC, found that more people worldwide are considering resigning now than during the mass resignations two years ago.
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Eloise Skinner was one of those who took the plunge in 2022. Leaving her job as a corporate lawyer, she was spurred on by those around her making the change and handed in her notice – though it took guts. “The decision was a slow process,” she says. “I’d already been moving into a more self-employed way of working and lockdown had given me time to really think about what I wanted to do. There were quite a few people resigning around the same time as well, so I definitely didn’t feel alone.”
After leaving her job, Skinner retrained as a psychotherapist and though she says she “works with more intensity now”, it’s something she doesn’t mind as she enjoys her work a lot more. That seems to be the main driving force behind all resignations: finding more enjoyment, whether that’s in our work or personal lives.
“It’s like we’re all on this treadmill, running towards some nebulous idea of ‘success’ and then one day we look up and wonder, ‘Is this really it?”, Rychel Johnson, a mental health expert and clinical counsellor from Our Public Records says. “Society has conditioned us to equate success with happiness; get the degree, land the job, climb the ladder – it’s a neat little formula we’re sold. But life has a way of throwing curveballs that make us question this equation.”
There’s a particular turning point when resignation becomes inevitable, Johnson adds. Burnout. “We’ve been sprinting so hard that we’ve forgotten how to walk, let alone smell the roses. And work guilt is like this constant background noise, making us feel bad for even considering a life beyond our career.”