Is It Worth It?
You can’t go very far without seeing an article, an opinion, or an insight regarding “The Great Resignation.” CBS, CNN, NBC, NPR, HBR, SHRM, Forbes, Fortune, Inc, LinkedIn…the list is endless, and each outlet is doing their best to showcase the reasons why about 70 million Americans quit their job in the last year. Pew Research cites the most popular reason as “low pay,” The Guardian points to childcare challenges, FastCompany relies on Gallup research that highlights the lack of engagement and wellbeing, and LinkedIn’s Chief Economist suggests that workers are just finally asking themselves, “is this worth it?” This one is my favorite.
When you think about it, the question of “is it worth it?” is essentially a simplified – or in some cases a complexified – cost / benefit analysis. What are the costs? Are the benefits greater than those costs? If so, by how much? Before the pandemic, we may have been aware of our commute, but it seemed like an acceptable cost, given the benefit. “The cost of doing business,” as they say. Now? Well, that commute now costs us more. Perhaps that costs us time with children, perhaps it costs us time working, perhaps it costs us more in gas, or perhaps we’ve developed a newfound intolerance to traffic, which costs us part of our sanity. All of those costs weren’t quite realized pre-pandemic, but now they’re eating us up.
The other side of the equation – the benefit – has changed too. While we still may consider compensation and healthcare and perks as relevant, they have dropped a bit in importance, and the idea of living a meaningful life, and a meaningful work-life, has risen significantly. Employees, now more than ever, want purpose. And if you as a leader can’t help those employees find their purpose and figure out how to contribute in a deeply meaningful way, you’re going to lose them not only to a shorter (read: no) commute, but to a job that scratches the itch more vigorously.
When the pandemic shut down the country, and those of us privileged enough began to work from home, there was a major shift not only in how we accomplished our work, but in how we thought about our work. Surrounded by pain and fear and inequity and hardship and anguish and confusion, employees – collectively – went inward. Literally, they began working alone, in their homes. And proverbially, they had more time and motivation to reflect on what truly mattered to them. And here we are. Tens of millions of people asking “is this worth it?”
And two years later, the question has been answered. “This isn’t worth it” is a less emotionally triggering way to say “this job doesn’t really matter to me, anymore.” “I’m not fulfilled by this.” The employees saying this don’t find purpose in what they’ve been doing for the last few years. And since the pandemic also reminded us how short and precious life can be, we’ve taken “now” as the time to make a change. Hence the Great Resignation.
Sure, we should pay our employees fairly. Yes, we should provide great healthcare. But if we really want to avoid losing more employees, we need to go a bit deeper. We need to help employees find – and live – their purpose.
