The Great Resignation: Sick and Tired of Being Sick and Tired
by: Dr. Jolene Church
CNBC headline reads: Weekly jobless claims total 351,000, worse than expected (9/23/21).
The rise in jobless claims should not come as a surprise because it speaks to a much bigger phenomenon, the “Great Resignation”. People aren’t quitting their JOBS, they are quitting their former lives. They are sick and tired of being sick and tired. They are tired of not finding meaning in their lives.
For these people, and I’d argue a far greater number of others, they are asking themselves,
“Is this all there is to life? What am I doing in a job I hate? What is my purpose?”
Throughout the pandemic, unemployment has served as a support system to help people re-evaluate and re-invent themselves, including their career choices. The opportunity to take a chance and throw caution to the wind was afforded by having enhanced unemployment benefits and eviction protections. Without a doubt, some took advantage of these additional funds and protections, but for a large group their unemployment presented an opportunity for transformation.
As a Transformation Strategist, Success Coach and HR Executive, I hear again and again from people who are struggling to ‘find’ their purpose and make sense out of why they don’t find fulfillment in their work.
In my new book, Allowing Inspired Transformation: 6 Steps to Defining Your Purpose for an Epic Effect (Successful Thinking Mindset, 2021), I give frustrated people a game plan for figuring it all out. I explain that one’s purpose is not lost, it simply needs to be defined. From there we can determine the steps necessary to build an action plan to live in our purpose — on purpose.
“We all are a Michael Jordan at something.”
This is a time when organizational leaders and managers need to step up their game. Employee engagement isn’t a cute and fluffy program that we DO. It’s an outcome of EVERYTHING we do to connect and engage our staffs with our business objectives. People are sick and tired of being sick and tired and if we, as business leaders, don’t listen and pay attention to the shift going on around us, people will continue to leave and we will continue to have trouble attracting and retaining employees.
This is a call to action. People are messy. Business leaders must realize that they are in the people business when they run a business.
Again, don’t get me wrong, there is indeed a segment of workers who have little to no work ethic and simply don’t want to work. This is not what I am referencing. I am directly speaking to those who find no meaning in their work and have used this time to re-evaluate what they want out of life. We can stop the exodus of these folks from our business if we recognize this as a pivot point.
Do you want to impact your bottom line? My recommendation is that you find authentic ways to engage with your employees, be empathetic to their needs, help align talents and passions with what you need accomplished and be astonished by the results.
If your employees don’t find value in what they are doing for you because they don’t feel valued, how will your value proposition be realized by your customers?
Dr. Jolene Church is a best-selling author, success coach, business strategist, and human resources professional. Her work has helped transform underperforming Wall Street portfolios and people’s lives around the world. Visit www.drjolenechurch.com for more information.
