The pandemic indeed left a mark on the Aussies’ minds, resulting in “The Great Resignation in Australia” to some extent. With COVID-19 came uncertainties, some of which created doubts in people’s minds. This led them to introspect within and ask themselves, “What I’m currently pursuing, is it worth it?”.
They say, “Giving yourself a year can take you miles ahead of your peers.” But general folks like us can’t even take a day off, let alone a year.
But with the pandemic came the concept of social distancing and quarantine. Further, to enforce the above-mentioned, lockdowns came. Being stuck within the confined space of one’s house with a hefty amount of spare time became the new norm.
The brain earlier occupied with day-to-day struggles was now accessible as a dove. They had nothing else to do except play their life events in rewind in their minds.
Keeping the philosophical part in mind, let us look at the events that led to “the great resignation in Australia.”
What Exactly is “ The Great Resignation”?
The Great Resignation (also known as The Big Quit), a term coined by the organizational psychologist Anthony Klotz, describes a wave of people quitting their old jobs to restart their careers afresh.
This phenomenon began when the Labor Department’s job openings and Labour Report was published. It showed that over 4.5 million US workers left their jobs in November 2021. Turnovers were at an all-time high in the US.
The pandemic made people rethink their priorities, leaving the job and labor market with an empty workforce. It increased the supply and demand equation for remote jobs. Employees assessing flexible working, remuneration, working hours, and work-life balance is the new ask in the town.
When asked about “the great resignation,” Klotz gave three predictions:
- Increase in Competition for Remote Jobs
- A Slower Pace of Great Resignation in the Future
- Flexible Work Hours Being the Norm Instead of Exception:
1. Increase in Competition for Remote Jobs
The pandemic left companies with no choice but to switch to remote working. Digital platforms were used to communicate and work. The World Economic Forum surveyed 300 companies. 43% of the 300 companies participating in it expected to reduce their workforces due to innovative technologies.
The skilled labor shortage was also a significant contributor to it. Remote working pushed companies to hire a more deserving international workforce, which would benefit them more as now they would have to pay less for the same roles, which saves them labor costs.
2. A Slower Pace of Great Resignation in the Future
Due to very tight competition, companies would try to incentivize workers to avoid employee turnover.
3. Flexible Work Hours being the Norm Instead of Exception:
The flexible benefits include employees’ mental health and work-life balance. According to Anthony Klotz, the work culture would collectively take a positive step for the workers in the right direction. He suggested that in the future, employees’ demands for personal life and work would go hand in hand.
The Not-So-Great Resignation in Australia
A PwC Australia survey of over 1,800 Australians suggested that 38% of Australian workers were ready to leave their employers. About 61% left their previous work in the past year and were looking to leave their current position within the following year.
Another 55% of workers were expected to stay with their employer for even more money in five years.
In contrast, it also showed that 93% of workers trusted their employer. They suggested that the great resignation in Australia was just around the corner in 2021.
However, as they say, the reality of job switching is often disappointing. The Australian Bureau of Statistics report suggested that in 2021, only 7.5% of Australians changed their jobs.
This number increased somewhat to 9.5%. But it was still way less than in 1972 when about 12.52% of skilled workers in Australia changed their jobs.
There’s been a bit of a rise in quit rates since 2022. However, it’s still approaching the mean average unemployment rate drop in the last five years, about 8.34%. There’s a difference between “considering to quit” and “actually quitting” the evident job.
Due to the great resignation, recent job mobility rates for job vacancies due to resignation increased from 78.6% in 2020 to 79.7% vacant jobs in 2022. This slight increase is next to nothing as it represents only 0.014% of job mobility for the total working population in Australia. It’s much less than any other country that experienced the great resignation.
The Resulting Job Boom
Moreover, the unemployment rate in Australia clocked around 3.4% in October 2022-a half a century low. The whole unemployment rate dropped by nearly 21,000.
ANZ job market ads data showed a 1:1 ratio of job ads and job seekers to hunters. This meant that for every job out there, there’s a person who can have it.
This job boom could have been because of a skills shortage. But the most logical reason is that everyone wanted job security in those times, so they were willing to accept the wages. Rather than quit switching jobs in protest to find a better-paying one, they stayed with their current employer.
Moreover, due to the high interest rates in the post-pandemic world, people were forced not to quit.
In conclusion, there were resignations in the post-pandemic times, but nothing was remarkable about it. It was a bit higher turnover rate jump than usual, but the number of jobs increased to make it even. Steven.
The Great Burn-Out
Mental health is a side of the post-pandemic world that is often less looked upon. Before COVID-19, people were cruising around and working their hearts out every day in hopes of feeding their families.
But when they were forced to stay home and spend time with their family, the more they gave it a thought, the more things became more apparent to them that no matter however they try hard to make ends meet, if they don’t spend time with there loved ones, they are bound to drift apart from them.
The post-coronavirus world is not the same anymore. Out of 1400 employees included in a study in Australia in 2022, nearly 50% of workers quitting the prime-aged worker(between 25 and 55) felt exhausted beyond imagination.
40% of the total number employed reported that the excitement to work was at an all-time low. 33% of the total were unable to concentrate at work because of reasons unrelated to work.
Notably, most of these people once considered quitting their jobs. But they still turned to work because of wage demands and the responsibilities on them. These were referred to as the “quiet quitters.” If that’s not a sign of the “burn-out,” then I don’t know what is!
While reason varied from person to person, the lockdowns were the most common among them (for the “burn-out”). Parents felt a sense of added childcare and household responsibility to their already stressful and evolving jobs. This was directly proportional to poor mental health concerns.
There was also substantial evidence of a steep rise in people taking an off day from their work. This signified the exhaustion that employees felt.
Conclusion
After considering many factors, such as various studies, facts, and figures, a simple conclusion can be drawn. That is, “there were resignations, but there was nothing great about ‘the great resignation in Australia.’”
However, there was a steady increase in the number of people feeling more and more emotionally and socially drained. The feeling of happiness was getting increasingly short-lived, which resulted in many employees feeling burned out.
The Australian companies quickly accessed it and took appropriate measures to counter it. They made the hours of work flexible and were prompt in adopting the concept of a “hybrid work culture.” Remote working turned out to be a new normal, and giving bonuses on Christmas became a boon.
These measures proved to be the right. They gave the Australian workforce the much-needed energy to prepare them for a new tomorrow—a new tomorrow filled with new challenges to be faced.
Last Updated on March 6, 2024 by Namrata
