The Great Resignation (Silent)

The Great Resignation, or great resignation, is a surprising phenomenon that begins in the United States in mid-2020., in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Suddenly millions of American workers began to leave their jobs. This trend began to spread rapidly throughout the world, replicating almost mimetically in almost all Western industrialized countries.

• Related article: "What is social psychology?"

What is behind the Great Renunciation?

The reasons for this profound silent revolution have yet to be defined, given the recentness of the phenomenon and the lack of studies in this regard. But the data speaks for itself. In Spain, a study by Infojobs shows that 27% of workers in our country intend to leave their job in the next year.

Many experts consider this resignation as one more consequence of the pandemic that has devastated the planet recently, while others, the majority, including myself, believe that COVID-19 did not but give the last push to a trend that had been in the making for a long time.

• You may be interested in: "Psychology of work and organizations: a profession with a future"

The drift of the perception of the work context

Indeed, for a long time, especially among the youngest and qualified professionals of medium age, there was discontent and manifest discomfort with respect to his job and his future professional.

The aforementioned study supports figures that quantify the causes of this disaffection at work. Of the 27% of workers who plan to leave their job, no less than 32% would do it for mental health reasons. 27% base their decision on economic reasons, 26% argue that they want to dedicate themselves to a different activity and finally, 24% need a better balance between work and personal life.

As far as we are concerned, we cannot ignore the impact that the mental health has on this phenomenon. The question is, will the mental deterioration, already verified, secondary to the pandemic, be the cause of this resignation? Or will it be the working conditions themselves, exacerbated by the pandemic, that have triggered the trend?

If we consider the other three causes; economic reasons, change of activity or conciliation needs, we have to conclude that the pandemic is just the tip of the iceberg and that in the background there is an absolute disappointment in people with respect to their job and the role it plays in their lives.

Whether it was the chicken or the egg, the fact is that we have another argument when it comes to explaining the increase in the deterioration of mental health as a result of the pandemic and it is none other than the hopeless relationship of many of our citizens with respect to their present and future labor.

• Related article: "Job satisfaction: 7 ways to improve it"

The Silent Resignation

To this term, the Great Resignation (Great Resignation) or Great Resignation (Big Quit), the Quiet Quitting has recently been added. That is to say, it is no longer just the fact of resigning from the job, but rather, staying in the same position, the worker adjusts exclusively to his work schedule and predetermined functions, without making an hour or an effort more than what is foreseen in his contract.

A well-known tweeter, Zaidleppelin, explains it crystal clear: “You are not giving up your job, you are giving up the idea of ​​growing and going further. You keep doing your homework, but you don't subscribe to the culture of effort (…) Work is not your life”.

This reflection can be perfectly linked to that of the impaired mental health. In my opinion, the labor market moves within such brutal parameters of demand and uncertainty that, together with the fall see lower remuneration and less appreciation of the worker's merits, have ended up making a dent in the motivation of the same. Some because they break down emotionally and others because they do not want to put their mental health at stake, the fact is that the phenomenon is unstoppable.

An example

Not so long ago I received a commercial from a digital company in my office that he came to offer us an innovative service. He was a great salesman who actually got her to accept his offer.

However, in the conversation I saw him so anxious and confused that I inquired a bit about his professional work. He was the 1865 worker of a huge multinational. As is, within the company he had a number, he was a number. The supplements for met sales targets increased every year, so it was almost better not to sell so much, since, the following year, to get the same remuneration he had to sell more and more, and so on until the end of the year. infinite.

Our meeting ended, with his offer contract signed, him sitting on my sofa doing therapy and finally resigning from his position within the brand new multinational. And it was not I who pushed him to resign, it was something that, along the lines of this article, he had been elaborating in his head. A moment of calm, a sofa and a friend were enough to abandon his work madness.

In conclusion

I believe that these phenomena and trends, like almost everything, have a multifactorial, multicausal origin, but deep down lies the meaning of life and mental health. Our production and labor model, our social model, and even our health model, are leaking, and this time it doesn't seem to be producing a political revolution or upheaval street.

The response is being silent, a kind of disaffection, of resignation from the type of life and work in which we are immersed and which has begun to lose meaning. I think that health professionals have a lot to say about it., under penalty of the deterioration of mental health, continue to increase exponentially and end up overwhelming the system.

Author: Javier Elcarte. Founder and director of Vitaliza. trauma expert.