'Micromanaged, disrespected': Top reasons workers are quitting their jobs in 'The Great Resignation'

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Business • Perspective

‘Micromanaged and disrespected’: Top reasons workers are quitting their jobs in ‘The Great Resignation’

Health concerns, increased workloads, unrealistic manager expectations are pushing many to the breaking point, readers tell me. And those who can afford to quit or take early retirement are leaving.

By Karla L. Miller
Columnist
October 7, 2021 at 7:00 a.m. EDT

To say my recent column on “The Great Resignation” touched a nerve is an understatement. Hundreds of online comments and dozens of emails from readers who identified with the piece related how pandemic working conditions finally drove them out of jobs they would otherwise have stayed in.

Some readers said they quit because of acute health concerns during the coronavirus pandemic. Others described a long-simmering but barely tolerable state of discontent in which the pandemic abruptly cranked up the heat, making the situation “jump or boil.” Some people set off on new career paths; others decided to speed up their retirement by a few months or years.

[Why millions of Americans are quitting their jobs in the Great Resignation]

Many departing workers said their employers didn’t take the covid-19 threat or their concerns about it seriously.

One 15-year government employee said they now plan to put in their notice after several colleagues who had been ordered back to the office after “doing everything right for 18 months” of remote work ended up with breakthrough cases of covid-19.

{snip}

Reader query: Many people could not afford to quit their jobs in the early stages of the pandemic — so how are they able to meet expenses when they leave their jobs? Savings, borrowing, self-owned businesses, public assistance, lifestyle changes? Write me at [e-mail] and share your strategy.

By Karla Miller
Karla L. Miller offers weekly advice on workplace dramas and traumas. You can send her questions at [e-mail]. Twitter https://twitter.com/KarlaAtWork

[multigraincracker]

1. It's almost like a

national strike.

[SWBTATTReg]

2. The republicans prevented higher minimum wages for decades and now, with COVID banging at the

door, as well as other issues, higher wages are being offered across the board to entice workers ... thus, market forces beyond the stinking reach of republicans have dominated the airwaves and allowed many workers to get better pay, when a lot of our own elected officials wouldn't raise the minimum wage rate. This is one ray of sunshine I see, w/ regard to COVID, that it highlighted the wage disparities, highlighted workers being asked to work in unsafe conditions (they don't want to), and the failure of some elected leaders to raise wages to a 'living wage'. 3 major failures all working together (higher wages, unsafe conditions, failure of Congress) to create a worker tsunami. Finally the workers have some sway, some power, some say in what they should be getting paid, what benefits they should be getting, etc. instead of these Congressional thugs that seem to only represent the 1%ers.

[Sherman A1]

3. Precisely