Thoughts on the Great Resignation

The debate regarding work following the Covid-19 pandemic and what has become known as the “Great Resignation” is very interesting. I think that this topic, specifically, the articles provided give good insight into humans’ relationship with work and their employers. A topic of specific interest to me is to0 what extent humans will work in order to fulfill their biological necessities versus the work they do for all other societal operations. A famous, modern philosopher Hannah Ardent describes a difference between work and labor. She explains that labor is the type of activity that people need to do in order to fulfill their biological needs and work is the rest. As a part of her description, Ardent explains that our society has become obsessed with the action of work and in turn our society is a society of laborers in which we identify ourselves by our jobs and the monetary assets that we have. This description of our society explains why the Great Resignation has such a widespread impact. If we are a society obsessed with our work then our previous notion of work is understandable. There has been a notion in the past to work for the most money you can in a profession that you hopefully enjoy. However, I think this shows a shift away from this society of laborers. It reflects that people are looking in on themselves and deciding whether or not they want their whole life to be dictated and defined by their work. The Great Resignation shows that this previous dynamic is changing. People/ employees have decided that enjoying a job is placed higher than the money they can make. This is also changing the dynamic between the worker and employer, as described in multiple articles. A workers attitude to a job opportunity is now based on flexibility, employee benefits, and actual. I think the true importance of this topic is based on the immense changes to the future that our society is going to see. One article written by Joanne Lipman in Time magazine describes that this shift is not just people abandoning jobs but switching whole professions and lifestyles. It is a massive social shift that is impacting and will continue to impact people’s daily lives.