The Great Resignation is a Great Re-Evaluation — and the distinction matters.

I am seeing a profound shift unfold around me.

This past week alone, three people have told me that they are quitting or have quit their jobs. These were just the latest three, in a series of many more during the past months. Have you noticed this in your network, too?

While I am aware of the dangers of confirmation bias and the trend I’m seeing in my network being purely anecdotal, plenty of data from around the globe is backing up this trend.

If you have opened a business publication recently, you will have invariably come across articles decrying “The Great Resignation”. According to research published by Microsoft, 41% of the global workforce is considering leaving their current employer this year.

In Germany, almost 35% of all companies surveyed by the ifo Institute are experiencing a lack of skilled workers. That is the highest value since the second quarter of 2018 and the second-highest on record. In the U.S., job vacancies rose to a 20-year high in April, leading to ten million jobs being available by the end of June.

The narrative of “The Great Resignation” is that record numbers of people are resigning (i.e. quitting their jobs), leading to a staff shortage in many different areas of work.

While that is certainly true, framing this effect as a Great Resignation narrative is missing a vitally important perspective. The perspective that can inform us on how to deal with the situation (people leaving their jobs in large numbers) and move forward.

What we are witnessing is a moment not of resignation (in the emotional sense), but of re-evaluation.

Every one of the conversations I led with the people I mentioned above had the same undercurrent:

People feeling a profound misalignment between their personal values and the values of their employer. Even worse — in some cases, the individuals I spoke to felt that their values matched the values their company purported to have but was not putting into practice. Performative statements for the sake of employer branding, without real follow-through in ways that truly touch and change the lives of the talent coming into and working for the company.

The pandemic, social uprisings, and the climate crisis mean that organizations can no longer ignore the needs and cares of their employees, for the sake of maximizing shareholder profit and hyper-growth.

The meaningful shifts in values and behavior between previous generations and the ones pushing onto the labor market today (Millenials, Gen Z) are another important factor in this situation that cannot be ignored. These generations with decidedly humanitarian and ecological values have pushed human dignity and well-being, as well as planetary regeneration into the stakeholder arena. (Read more on Stakeholder Capitalism)

People are moving away from jobs where they feel a misalignment in their values & cultural needs. Into jobs where they feel value alignment & they hope for better treatment and more appreciation of their efforts.

People are re-evaluating what it means to work — and what work means to them.

What parts of their life they are willing to devote to work. And where to draw the line and prioritize emotional, mental, and physical well-being.

What meaning relationships have in their life. And how they relate to their community, their co-workers, their bosses, their employers, and the brands whose products they consume.

These shifts in values and focus mean that bad management, lack of accessibility, micro-aggressions, empty purpose statements, and flashy company values that are not acted upon, no longer quietly go unnoticed.

They are the un-doing of the corporate culture of old.

Not the causes, but the casualties, of the great re-evaluation.

The point is not that people are turning away from their old jobs or their incompetent bosses, or their sluggish employers whose workplace cultures don’t afford possibilities for growth or belonging.

People are turning towards themselves.

Towards their personal values and well-being. Towards their families and communities and larger imaginings of life.

In order for organizations to succeed in this period of change, it is imperative to realize this difference. The drivers of this re-evaluation.

To reckon with what is pulling people towards new shores, as well as what is pushing them away.

And then humbly, honestly, and curiously re-imagine what a new world of work could look like.

In co-creation with their most important stakeholders: the people working with and for them.