The Great Resignation

Leia em português

This article is an English translation of the original article written in Portuguese, first published on LinkedIn on March 28, 2022.

You’ve most likely heard the terms “Great Resignation” or “Great Quit” over the last few days, right?

The term refers to the growing movement of employees all over the world asking to leave their jobs. In the US, the main country where this has been happening, there’s already a record 4.5 million voluntary resignations a month. In Brazil the picture is no different. In fact, it’s even bigger in proportion. After all, we’re a country with 13 million unemployed people.

According to official data from CAGED (Brazil’s General Registry of Employed and Unemployed Workers), Brazil hit an impressive 500,000 resignations in January 2022, twice the pre-pandemic level. It’s worth noting that terminations by mutual agreement aren’t included in that number, which suggests the real picture may be even bigger.

But what explains this whole movement, even in a country with an unemployment rate as high as Brazil’s? There are many factors to consider, but experts point to 3 main ones:

1. There’s pent-up demand from people who were unhappy with their jobs since before the pandemic and, facing an uncertain scenario, decided to wait for a moment of stability, which is what we’ve been seeing in recent months;
2. Burnout and toxic work environments. For many, especially in the service sector (the one leading resignations), the pandemic was an explosion of work and extra demands. In some cases, made worse by an outdated corporate environment that wasn’t suited to working from home, managers unprepared for this new reality created the perfect environment for their employees’ mental exhaustion;
3. Finally, and probably the most significant, the return to the office or the adoption of the hybrid model. In an international survey commissioned by Microsoft, “70% of employees want companies to keep the flexible remote work option, and almost 50% of them plan to move if they don’t have to go back to the office.”

The market and the research make it clear: companies that go back to the office or adopt the hybrid model will be the most vulnerable to the “Great Resignation” and certainly the most affected by mass departures, especially if that decision is arbitrary and not strongly grounded in data.

The pandemic showed employees that it’s possible to deliver results just as good, if not better, working from wherever they want: from the comfort of their own home, maybe from that long-dreamed-of quiet town in the countryside, or perhaps mixing it with a trip. The anywhere, anytime office is possible, and if there’s anything good we can take from the tragedy that was the Covid-19 pandemic, I’d say it’s this: prioritizing quality of life and spending more time with the people we love.