WP2 Has the Great Resignation in pandemic Changed Our Relation to Work Forever?
Freida Lin
WRIT 150 WP2 FINAL
Zen Dochterman
03/03/2022
With the influence of COVID-19 since the spring of 2020, most people worldwide have already been through two years of remote working/study or even more. I still remember that period time. Everything removes online. My parents and I were sitting in front of the three laptops and working separately. Undoubtedly, remote working saved time on commuting and ineffective social networking, so we can use that time to do many things we wanted to do before the pandemic, but we did not have time to do. During this convenient family time, my parents’ view of work changed. They would like to spend more time on family rather than work all day. The change of people’s opinions of jobs happened in many people in the U.S, which made the Great Resignation. Some people believe that the Great Resignation is a short-term situation; however, I argue that people’s relation to work will be changed forever. More and more people will quit their jobs and spend their time doing something they like or valuable things because the pandemic gives people time to rethink their lives.
First of all, the pandemic let people realise the shortness of life. During this global pandemic, over one hundred and fifty thousand deaths were linked to covid and more people were infected by covid. In this situation, the perishable of life makes people, even young people, think about the arrangement of time– what kind of things they want to invest time in the limited life. Some people quit their job and decide to return to their families or enjoy their lives. Some others choose to pursue their dreams. In an article by CBS News, Karin Kimbrough, an interviewer, points out that the pandemic bought people a reflection and changed their hierarchy of life and work. The idea was, “People have been living to work for a very long time. And I think the pandemic brought that moment of reflection for everyone. ‘What do I wanna do? What makes my heart sing?’ And people are thinking, ‘If not now, then when?’”. She talked about the change in people’s view of jobs after the effect of the pandemic. People started to think about the rewards of jobs and compare them with the sacrifice they made for their jobs. For most people, the rewards they want to gain from jobs are usually about the improvement of their life. As a result, People will not spend their time on repeatable jobs they do not like. They will quit their job and pursue their dreams time by time.
Thus, more and more people would like to try something new or find their old dream back because it is challenging to start an interest randomly. So most attempts are about their previous major in college, and some may be the new interests they want to explore or work in the future. The exploration during quarantine let people consider the most valuable job and help them make a new priority of life. In a TIME article, Keri, a woman, quit jobs she did not like and opened a landscape business with her husband, which also has relationships with her college major–environmental science. She said, “I did some soul searching. During the time I was home, I was gardening and loving life.” In other words, she reconsiders what kind of job she wants to do in the future in the pandemic time. I support her decision to pursue her interest. Those explorations not only let people find something new to do in the future, but they also build connections between their old interests or significant to the jobs they want to do right now.
However, some may object not everyone has brave changed their jobs frequently because of the demand for a stable salary to support their daily spending, especially in the pandemic. The pandemic time undoubtedly increases their risk of health which means everyone should keep extra money to prepare for the hospital and medicine fee. People started to save money systemically. Having a stable job is the primary source of income. In an article of TIME, the author said workers dare not to quit their position during the first stressful months of quarantine even with a high risk of exposure. “During the first stressful months of quarantine, job turnover plunged; people were just hoping to hang on to what they had, even if they hated their jobs. For many more millions of essential workers, there was never a choice but to keep showing up at stores, on deliveries, and in factories, often at great risk to themselves, with food and agricultural workers facing a higher chance of death on the job.” This phenomenon may appear in the first months. Still, with the continuation of the pandemic, more and more people started to reconsider the relation of work for a long-term situation.
Sometimes, people will quit their jobs because they do not want to bear the toxic working environment. Race and gender problems became one of the most damaging influences in work. Many women and people of colour were mistreated, especially the women of colour. Nowadays, society has more expectations for a woman to be a mom rather than a successful architect or businesswoman. In a CQ researcher article, Godbole, a woman landscape architect, lost her job because of the position of a mom. The article said “ Nandita Godbole, of Atlanta, says the requirements of parenthood collided head-on with the demands of her career when her employer believed she was putting family first and the job second.” In other words, society default every woman should become a perfect mom and take care of the whole family at first. After the rethink of life, many people may decide not to bear that toxic environment for salary. They can quit their job and go to some company with friendly and fairly working atmosphere.
After the rethink of life, some people decided to learn new knowledge to fulfil their skills and knowledge for better jobs. The pandemic is the best time for people to “charge” because the quarantine gives people time to learn something new to fulfil their knowledge and skills about the area they are interested in. Because of some isolations rules and shut down policy of most restaurants and entertainment places, people have to spend more time at home. Nowadays, we have more online resources covering almost every profession. People have enough time to apply for online courses and learn relative knowledge. The new skills people learn will have more opportunities to change for a better job.
As a considerable variation worldwide, the pandemic has changed people’s lives in so many ways. The Great Resignation will continue even after the pandemic. More and more people will decide to follow their hearts and choose their one way of life.
