Calling it quits

Quitting

July 14, 2021

Calling it quits

Americans are quitting their jobs in record numbers in the “great resignation.” These voluntary separations, to use economic parlance, also represent a shift in power—employees finally seem to be gaining leverage over employers.

But it’s more than that. The value of work itself, and the particularly American habit of viewing work as a moral imperative, is undergoing a radical reevaluation.

It’s time to grab the goldfish and dive into the issues behind this counterintuitive pandemic trend. Who’s coming with me?

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By the digits

4 million: Americans who quit their jobs in April 2021, about 740,000 in leisure and hospitality alone

3.2%: Quits rate that month among private-sector employees

1.3%: Quits rate in 2009 following the Great Recession, which dropped from 2% in 2008

40%: Respondents to Microsoft’s 2021 Work Trend Index who said they were considering leaving their employer

15%: Typical voluntary churn rate at US companies as of 2018

1 in 5: Health workers who said they have at least moderately considered quitting because of Covid-19 stress

71%: Share of Gen Zers who said they’d consider quitting if they couldn’t bring their pet to the office when it reopens

6: Months’ worth of savings that most experts suggest you have on hand for what some call a fuck-off fund before quitting a job

Giphy

Million-dollar question

Why are so many people quitting?

When you’re a kid toughing out an exhausting summer job, quitting is frowned upon because it means you don’t have grit. Then you grow up and suddenly quitting is just fine. In fact, rage-resigning to escape a bad scene, without lining up another job, is a badass move glorified in countless movie scenes.

And right now the US is apparently teeming with badasses. But what are their reasons for leaving?

⌛ A backlog of people stayed in jobs they planned to quit. Some estimates suggest that about 5 million people didn’t quit their jobs last year because of the uncertainty of the pandemic and now they’re making up for lost time.

⚖️ We’re rethinking this whole arrangement Employee activism has been on the rise in the US for good reason—employers have left workers to face financial insecurity, grueling hours, and dehumanizing, automated HR processes. “I think it’s changed a lot about my understanding of the relationship between employers and employees,” one quitter told the New York Times.

✨ The rest of life seems more important now In a viral LinkedIn post, a British man explained why he had drafted a new set of rules for life after surviving a heart attack. “I want every day to count for something at work or else I’m changing my role,” he wrote.

😫 Burnout People in essential jobs have had to deal with the toll of emotional labor in customer-facing jobs, even when those customers refuse to wear masks or threaten violence. Others have worked longer hours at home, sometimes playing teacher or caregiver at the same time.

✊ Social change Companies that aren’t acting on equity efforts have become intolerable for many employees. One report from the Center for Talent Innovation (pdf) found that more than one-third of Black employees intend to leave their companies within two years. Compared to white workers, Black professionals were 30% more likely to intend to leave.

🚇 People don’t want to go back to the office A few brave companies have announced inflexible office return policies that are not going to fly with everyone. Remote, an all-remote company that onboards international employees, told Quartz in an interview that it’s now receiving about three times more applicants per month compared to before the pandemic. In screening calls, applicants routinely say they’re looking for a new job because their current employer is asking everyone to return to the office.

Quotable

“We’re going to see lots of ‘boomerang’ employees, who a year from now miss their jobs and decide their novel isn’t going as well as expected. Being a boomerang employee works only if you leave on a very, very positive note.”

—Anthony Klotz, an associate professor of management at Texas A&M University and expert on job exits, speaking to B loomberg. Klotz also suggests you give the office a try before you quit over a return to work mandate—people are very bad at predicting how they’ll feel about something, he says.

Alex Citrin-Safadi

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Pop quiz

Which of the following is from a movie?

Wanting to spend more time on his side-hustle bakery business, an airport employee presents his boss with a three-paragraph resignation letter piped in icing on a sheet cake. A flight attendant announces he’s quitting over a plane’s public address system shortly after landing. He drops several f-bombs, grabs two beers, and makes his escape down an emergency exit slide. Taking over the fast-food restaurant’s cashier microphone, a worker hurtles a heartfelt “Fuck you” to each of his fellow burger flippers and leaves with “I’m out.”A Wall Street veteran writes an op-ed in a major daily newspaper explaining how his former employer, a major investment bank, sidelined client interests.

Correct. This is a scene from the 1998 movie "Half Baked"

Incorrect. It's real. Read more details at the end of this email.

If your inbox doesn’t support this quiz, find the solution at bottom of email.

Quartz

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Quitting: A conversation

Should you quit your job? Let our chatbot help you decide.

Brief history

318 BC: Kuai, king of Yan, steps down “to prove his humility” at the urging of an advisor, according to Chinese historical records. It may be the first known political resignation.

1800s: Labor unions develop in the UK, Europe, and the US, in reaction to abysmal working conditions during the Industrial Revolution. Now workers can strike together rather than quit as individuals.

Jan. 8, 2020: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle announce they intend to “step back as ‘senior’ members of the royal family and work to become financially independent, while continuing to fully support Her Majesty the Queen.”

June 5, 2020: Following George Floyd’s murder and Black Lives Matter protests across the country, Alexis Ohanian, founder of Reddit, reveals that he’s quitting that company’s corporate board and urges the board to find a Black candidate to fill his seat.

Nov. 11, 2020: Fifteen pro-democracy lawmakers in Hong Kong step down to show solidarity with four colleagues ousted for their support of human rights.

June 4, 2021: At least a few Apple employees reportedly resign after the company says everyone will need to work from the office on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays in September.

YouTube

Watch this!

Watch the iconic scene from Half-Baked in which Scarface quits his job with more flair than seems possible to pack into 16 seconds. Warning: very NSFW, but maybe that doesn’t even matter?

Reuters/Brendan McDermid

Poll

What’s most likely to make you quit?

Click here to vote

An opportunity to earn significantly more moneyToxic managers, colleagues, or customersDisagreeing with the company’s ethics or purposeBeing passed over for a promotion

💬 let's talk!

In last week’s poll about microdosing, 40% of you said you would go to work under the microinfluence but you’d keep quiet about it, 36% of you would not, and 24% of you would tell everyone all about it.

Here are some more details on our real-life great quitters from the pop quiz. Greg Smith published his opinion piece in the New York Times, Steve Slater’s legendary JetBlue flip-out made him a working-class hero, and Chris Holmes’s gorgeous resignation cake used black piping on white frosting.

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Today’s email was written by Lila MacLellan, edited by Annaliese Griffin, and produced by Jordan Weinstock.