The Great Resignation Is Really The Great Reevaluation

April 15, 2022

If you think we are in a new era of leadership , recruiting and retention we are, because the Great Resignation is really The Great Reevaluation.

There has been a lot of media and talk about the Great Resignation with some leaders feeling the pain of trying to recruit new talent.

Other leaders who have not quite felt the full effect of the great resignation are firmly believing that this is a ‘trend’ and things will go back to the way they were pre-pandemic.

In my new book, Super.Crucial.Human. I share research on why we are never going back to pre pandemic ways of doing business and that includes the fact that we are firmly in a workers market.

The reason we are not going back is that you can’t fight massive social change. More and more people are reevaluating their work and what it means.

More and more people are standing up for themselves and asking for more money, better working conditions and self realized leaders.

Freelance work has increased 1000% since 2019 and when workers get fed up with the structures and limitations of a too rigid workplace they are simply quitting their jobs.

Recently I was facilitating an executive retreat with board members and company executives and when I shared the stats on over 4 million workers in the US quitting their job in 2021 one executive reacted strongly.

His response was, “well its a workers market now, won’t we go back to an employers market”? It was a valid response/question and the answer is ‘no’.

The reason we won’t go back to an employers market is again because of massive societal shifts in how people view work family and life.

Millennials have always had a ‘life first, work second’ mentality and then the Gen Z’s anchored that mentality with seeking more freedom through freelance.

Now we have Gen C (Generation Covid) those under the age of 20 who have lived/schooled/worked through the pandemic and their mantra is WFA (work from anywhere) along with a NJR (no jerk rule).

My new book Super.Crucial.Human goes into the ‘future of all things’ and how personal values, family values and societal values are deeply influencing the future of work.

So what are leaders to do with this reality?

Firstly leaders need to not fight the research and the trends data that we are in a workers market – they need to accept this is the new reality.

Secondly once leaders accept the new reality they need to get creative on how to better attract and retain workers in today’s market.

Thirdly leaders need to upskill and reskill to include developing their crucial human skills. Today’s leaders need high EQ in order to lead and collaborate in hybrid teams.