More people are re-evaluating their lives post-pandemic and deciding they want to find a better way of working. (Getty Images) Has the pandemic made you rethink your career or deeply question the role of work in your life? If so, you're not alone. In the US, COVID-19 has led to what's been dubbed the Great Resignation: millions of people, from frontline workers to senior executives, voluntarily calling time on their jobs. According to recent research by Microsoft, more than 40 per cent of the global workforce are considering leaving their employers this year. The mass exodus has company leaders bracing for a seismic shift in the workforce — and the trend is likely to be heading to Australia. "The movement of talent is so significant and so sharp that it's different to probably anything we've seen in living memory," behavioural scientist Aaron McEwan, from global research and advisory firm Gartner, told ABC RN's This Working Life. Humans, not just workers Pandemics reshape society at fundamental levels, said Mr McEwan, and this one is shifting the balance of power from employers to employees. "It has rewritten the psychological contract between employers and employees," he said. Think of a psychological contract as the deal you make with your employer about what you get in exchange for your labour, time, and effort. 

Employees appreciate being seen as individuals with full lives, rather than just workers (Pexels: Fauxel) Historically, it's been based on companies providing a great worker experience: a good salary, a nice office, how many benefits they can offer. "Today, employees don't want to be seen as workers. They want to be seen as complex human beings with rich, full lives," Mr McEwan said. "They're not just interested in the experience they can have at work; they're interested in what an employer does to enrich their life experience." Anna Burgess Yang became part of the Great Resignation earlier this year, moving from a career in financial technology to one in content marketing. Based in Chicago, she said the pandemic made her think about how much she is willing to give to work. "There were some stressors within the job itself and then combining that with safety issues, health issues, my kids being home. I just thought, you know what, I don't want my job to be an added source of stress," she said. Anna Burgess Yang left her job because she wanted to find something that she enjoyed doing. (Supplied: Anna Burgess Yang) "I want to find something that I really enjoy and people that I enjoy working with." Flexibility is a big part of the equation for employees, along with how their employer makes them feel. Ms Burgess Yang's husband, a software engineer, also joined the Big Quit after being told he would not be able to continue to work remotely — despite having done so for five years. There was no room for negotiation with his company. The couple value working remotely because it means they can "more equitably share the work of taking care of our kids" and weren't willing to give that up. "So when his employer said, 'You've got to come back in', we were pretty much like, 'No'," Ms Burgess Yang said. "As a software engineer, it's a pretty high-demand field. So, he was able to find something easily that would allow him to continue to work remotely." Downsizing your career The Great Resignation is also being fuelled by fundamental shifts in how people think about the role of work in their lives. Many people are choosing to move away from ambition, to emphasise other aspects of life. They are embracing "career downsizing" — looking for a job involving fewer hours or something with less responsibility and less stress. This was the case for Cathy, who said the pandemic made her reconsider that psychological contract entirely. She quit her job even though she didn't have anything else lined up because she was so burnt out: weighed down by too many virtual meetings, feeling like she was being micromanaged and working additional hours. "I vocalized my concerns, not just to my manager, but also the management above. But they did not take things seriously. And ultimately, I just did not feel that I was heard, I didn't feel that I was listened to," said Cathy, who is now a start-up founder. Experts say this could be an opportunity for employers to "reconfigure" work for today's world. (Unsplash: Austin Distel) "It was incredibly hard to leave. However [it was] the best decision ever. "What this has taught me is just to embrace ambiguity and just to trust in the process and have faith in myself. And it's actually paid off." Quit parts of your job Questioning what you want out of work and life doesn't have to mean quitting your job. For me, it was reconsidering how I did things and quitting certain aspects of it. 

Before the pandemic, I was traveling to New Zealand for work weekly, along with several annual trips to the US. When all that travel was canceled, I cried for a week. Eventually, I realised they weren't tears of sadness. What I was feeling was a tinge of relief. I loved the work, but I was exhausted. The pace felt relentless; I was constantly jetlagged; I hardly saw my family. I was reminded of Henry David Thoreau's classic book Walden (Life in the Woods). Thoreau realized, when looking at his fellow workers, that many people had unconsciously bartered their lives for superfluities like fancy clothes and more land, which they then had to work harder to pay for. In the book, he asked: why do we work so hard for non-essential things? And at what cost? How much is enough? If you're thinking of quitting, first ask yourself if you can tweak your current job so it suits the life you want.(Pexels: Ketut Subiyanto) It was a clarifying moment. And so, I've started to rethink the work that requires intense long-distance travel and instead make career choices around my values, my health, and my family. For me, that means embracing online engagement and possibly looking for more local opportunities. Reconfigure work for today's world. Mr. McEwan said while we're not seeing the Great Resignation in Australia yet, the "underlying signs are there". "We are now significantly above the rest of the world in terms of underlying business confidence. Australia's gone from a rather pessimistic perspective on underlying economic conditions to a positive one," he explained. "We also saw that confidence in the job market also rebounded, so we're now level with the rest of the world." He pointed out that, as we move into next year, people may not get bonuses that are as good as they hoped, miss out on promotions they feel they deserve, or be properly thanked in performance reviews for their recent hard work. "I can imagine that when we hit March of 2022, we will see the Great Resignation in Australia. It will be a movement of talent that I think we are unprepared for," Mr McEwan said. "Companies will have to start ... selling the work to employees." His advice to employers is to see this as a once-in-a-generation opportunity to "reconfigure work so that it's designed for this new world that we find ourselves in". "The way that we work, particularly in offices, is left over from the 20th century, arguably the 19th century," Mr McEwan said. "We work nine to five because that's when the sun is up. We worked in offices, because chances are no one had a computer in their house, let alone a fax machine or any of those things." He said companies need to focus on the needs of their employees and find a way to drive their growth ambitions without overstretching already fatigued staff. Aaron McEwan said the movements in the workforce will be different to anything we've seen before. (Supplied: Aaron McEwan) If you are thinking of joining the Great Resignation, my advice is to start small. Think of it as baby steps toward the change you want, rather than a big leap in a new direction. You may be able to tweak your current job or responsibilities, so it better suits the life you want. If you do decide to quit, put yourself in the right position first. Learn as much as you can, meet people in the industry, and update your skills if you need to. Big changes often feel impossible because we feel like we must achieve them instantly. They're much more attainable if we approach them slowly, over time. Amid all the uncertainty of the pandemic is an opportunity to reshape your career and navigate towards something that makes you feel fulfilled.

 

Questions: 1. Identify and explain the forces (at least 3) responsible for the upheaval highlighted in this article. 

2. How will it reshape your career choices? Explain. 

3. How will it impact HRM and the management of workplace relations in countries like Australia? 

Please provide references.