NPR’s coverage of the Great Resignation captures a shift that’s been building for years but erupted in 2021: people aren’t leaving work – they’re leaving workplaces that no longer make sense. After a year of forced introspection, employees reevaluated what they value, what they tolerate, and what they flatly refuse to return to. The result is a labor market behaving like it suddenly remembered it had options.
Companies keep framing this as a hiring problem, but the deeper issue is a meaning problem. Workers want autonomy, flexibility, trust, and leadership that treats them like adults. That’s not radical – it’s overdue. When organizations fail to evolve, people vote with their feet, and this year they voted loudly.
Instead of wondering “Why are people quitting?” leaders should be asking “Why did we assume they wouldn’t?” The talent landscape has shifted permanently, and companies that still think culture lives in fancy offices or forced fun will find themselves competing with organizations that actually listen.
What do employees owe their employers in a world where the power dynamic has shifted? And which companies will adjust before the next wave of departures hits?
Related article: NPR
