Hoopla?

There has been much publicised about the current state of affairs on the employment front and the overall dissatisfaction of many employees…

There is no doubt that the Covid experience has hastened many to reconsider their lives and how and where they live… clearly this has a knock-on effect of evaluating our working situations as well.

This has gotten many pundits hypothesising that there is “great resignation” wave about to hit us.  Is this really the case, or perhaps fanciful thinking?

I know from first-hand experience that there has been a significant influx of new residents into Queensland (Sunshine state) from other states in Australia.

Since I arrived and started living in Queensland full time, I usually get between 2 – 5 propositions to buy my house each week.

This is largely from people putting notes in my mailbox, or real estate agents contacting me with active buyers looking to buy in my neighbourhood and finally agents wanting to provide me with a valuation of my property.

To create the carrot!

None of which I’m even slightly interested in, but it does beg the question as to why the massive interest and influx over the past 12 months.

I think we’ve all spent some time evaluating our lives over the past 2 years.  Especially the working from home thing…

Not only is it difficult to work from home, well I find it difficult but maybe that’s just me.  Lol!

However, this combined with having to home-school your kids (fortunately I don’t), or if you live in a location that doesn’t provide you and your family with the space you need to mentally survive, or maybe live in a location with cold and crappy weather for much of the year.

Clearly, the latter was with me making the choice to move back to Australia but being stuck at home for extended periods of time and the isolation from humanity also played a massive part.

This combination invariably has a tsunami effect on many of us… overwhelming to be sure.

So, like with me the answer was finding a place that (a) provided more space, (b) a fabulous and more temperate climate and (c) gave me a more outdoors lifestyle.

Now add on top an employer and/or job that is “so-so” at best and you have the recipe for a major change.

The question is – is this enough to make people resign their jobs?

Yes and no!

Arguably a resounding yes, from the perspective of creating a life more in tune with your hopes, desires, and aspirations.

However, the age-old question is affordability.

This new influx has seen the property markets jump in and around my area of Brisbane by 28.7% in the past 12 months alone.  Not that I would expect this pace to continue, but it is indicative of the marketplace and the lowering of overall affordability.

By the way this isn’t just in Australia – it’s a worldwide phenomenon.

So, yes, I could see people being part of the great resignation, but the reality is I’m not sure many will be able to pull the trigger so to speak.

I’m sure many would like to resign and find a better, more balanced lifestyle however the reality is that the inertia is too difficult to pull off.

That doesn’t mean we should just accept our current life for what it is.   Not in a million years!

For me personally I’m constantly internalising and re-evaluating my life to gain greater insights into what is important to me, what’s working and what’s not working for me.

As you’ve guessed by reading my weekly essay, I’m a huge proponent of ongoing re-evaluation of every aspect of my life and not afraid to reinvent myself.  No secret in that!

I realize that I’m fortunate in many ways in that my circle of impact is small with mostly me to please.

The big question is what’s driving the dissatisfaction with the current working environment?

Is it that the job has always been mundane but now it’s become evident given that you’re working at home?  It doesn’t challenge you or excite you?

Or is it that your employer doesn’t allow you to (a) work from home, (b) only makes you work from home or (c) that you have no control over your working environment?

To be fair, it’s always been (c), but now it’s just been more formalised via government directives and employer’s needs.

Perhaps it’s been the realisation that the stagnation of salaries has gone on too long and that it’s time to move on.  Many see the lack of wage increases, or in some cases a decrease in salary, as just another punch in the gut from their employers.

Play this against a backdrop where larger corporations have been stable with often no net loss during the pandemic, and it becomes super frustrating.  This is not so for the smaller businesses where many of them have suffered considerably…

I think we all forget that our skills, talent’s and capabilities are totally transferable and that it’s our right to take those to whomever we choose.  Maybe it’s for money, maybe it’s for a promotion or for better work-life balance.

Irrespective it’s our choice.  As I said before I would argue that we should always be re-evaluating our lives and not waiting to be a part of a broader movement.

In my mind it’s not a matter of what you should do, but rather when…

Until next week

Ciao!