The Great Resignation: The voluntary resignation movement in the USA has its particularities in Brazil; understand

Brazil recorded a total of 6.175 million resignations in the last 12 months to May 2022, according to the survey carried out by LCA Consultores.

One in three of these dismissals (33% of the total in the period) were at the request of the worker – something dubbed “The Great Resignation”, or, in free translation, “The Great Resignation”, a movement of voluntary dismissals observed in the USA and which is already noticeable in Brazil.

The record number comes amid high unemployment and workers struggling to get back into the workforce. So why are people quitting?

For the specialist in integrity, ethics and conscious leadership and author of the book “A Era da Integridade” (Editora Gente), Luiz Fernando Lucas, in this sense, the pandemic of Covid-19 accelerated processes that already existed.

False idea of ​​stability

In terms of the search for meaning and purpose, an acceleration was noticed, according to Lucas, who defends “staying at home, for some, served as a cure”.

In general, for him, the pandemic influenced the relations of job and highlighted problems that were already affecting the corporate world, but that remained repressed due to a false idea of ​​stability. The demand for hybrid work and more flexibility with schedules, for example, is in this context.

Stability is also called into question by even more recent movements, such as the one observed by the Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR) at Stanford University, in the publication “The Great Resistance: Bringing Employees Back to the Office”of July 2022.

The article points out that, a year after the Great Resignation – when low combinations salaryincreased personal responsibilities and better jobs elsewhere inspired more than 47 million Americans to leave their jobs – today, companies are facing the “Great Resistance”.

That is, after more than two years of remote work, flexible scheduling, and zero commute time, many workers refuse to return to the office. Showing, with this, that the considered pre-pandemic stability is fragile and, as the expert defends, illusory.

Resignation from North to South

even with the Brazil following the North American movements, Lucas identifies that, here, they happen a little later and with some differences. Portion risk of losing a job directly impacts the food plate”, he points out.

“In the USA and Brazil, the phenomena have their particularities. In both I believe that there is a greater search for meaning in life. Here, this big layoff is happening, mostly, among people with higher education and high salaries. This shows that people are weighing factors such as personal satisfaction, purpose, professional recognition and a healthy work environment in the balance, often to the detriment of wages,” he says.

This difference, with the most specialized professionals being affected, for the author, intensifies the opcompany’s appeal, to a conscious individual, as a springboard of acceleration to its purpose.

For him, the voluntary layoffs movement is closely linked to purpose, or rather, to meaning. Today so present in the world of Human Resourcespurpose has even become an aphorism and is regarded as a buzzword.

But, for the specialist, “it’s not fashion, we just leave it out of fashion. The human being is asking these questions again,” he points out.

containing the effects

Following these movements, companies have mobilized to try to alleviate the situation, either through prevention or through the offer of benefits that often influence the decisions of their employees.

An example is the pharmaceutical multinational bayer who developed a technological tool to try to “predict” the resignation of an employee. The mechanism works based on data such as seniority, online courses being taken, participation in company programs, and others.

For Lucas, in general, some points can be observed by the companies that seek to contain the movements of voluntary dismissals:

• Feedback and reverse feedback: “It is up to managers and leaders to ask themselves: when was the last time you asked your employees if they were fulfilled with their jobs, or how they were feeling?”
• Social and ESG projects: “Encouraging employees to transmit knowledge, teach classes and promote workshops for those who do not have access can make a difference when the employee makes his decision. This is practicing ESG.”
• Detailed employee profile: “Often we have employees performing jobs they don’t like or have no aptitude for, and managers can’t be tactful enough to understand where they can perform better.”
• Encouraging changes in life: “In view of the impacts of the pandemic, companies can create policies to encourage significant transformations in the lives of employees, such as moving to another city or country, transferring to a new area of ​​​​the company and even a career change within the corporation itself.”
• Respect for personal purposes: “Professional reasons are important to understand each employee, but this phenomenon of Great Resignation showed that discovering employees’ personal purposes and respecting them is also critical to keeping talent in your company.”
• Leaves and sabbaticals: “Allowing and even encouraging an employee to go on paid leave or take a sabbatical can boost ideas and foster more productivity, in addition to sending a message that the company cares about the individuality of each one.”
• Undertake inside and outside: “Offering the possibility for the employee to undertake within the company itself, such as becoming a partner or assuming the leadership of a project, is an important tool. The company can also foster external entrepreneurship, supporting a personal project of the employee who wants to have their own business, contributing to the ecosystem and society.”

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