Millennials. They're back at it again with their whining and laziness. This time, they're daring to quit their jobs due to burnout. Don't they understand the financial ramifications of quitting or "lying flat," even for a brief stint? Aren't they rather young to be burned out?
OK, Boomer.
Millennials, of which I am one, and Xennials, the cohort born from the late 1970s to early 1980s, are indeed leading the charge when it comes to the Great Resignation, or the recent increase in people quitting their jobs, according to an analysis by Visier into U.S. Bureau and Labor Statistics data. More than 6 million people quit their jobs between January and August 2021, according to the BLS's Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey. That was a quit rate of 2.9%, a series high.
But this shift can't be entirely chalked up to generational stereotypes. Rather than laziness, it seems like part of what we're seeing is a fundamental change in how people value work.
After 18 months of pandemic uncertainty altering how we work, it makes sense we'd return to the questions of why we work, and how our jobs affect our quality of life. Is there perhaps another way to earn an income that better aligns with our overall goals? Couldn't we create a future of no longer using a career as the primary or sole basis of our identity and self-satisfaction? Shouldn't this be a moment to consider how to work to live instead of live to work?
Granted, many recent resignations have stemmed from need as opposed to choice. For example, women are more likely to have to quit their jobs to be primary caregivers due to shuttered child care and in-person schooling during COVID. There is also a great deal of stress around returning to work amid an ongoing pandemic, especially if you don't have health care. Long COVID is a growing concern. Although some have quit their jobs to hop to new positions, there are undoubtedly many who've quit without another job lined up.
But even before the pandemic, burnout was starting to catch up to us. A 2018 Gallup study found 7 in 10 millennials felt some sort of burnout on the job, with 28% reporting it as frequent or constant. Whereas 21% of older generations reported feeling the same.
We can theorize that this burnout comes from the increasingly blurred boundaries between being on and off the clock. From being conditioned to believe that appearing "always available" is the hallmark of a promotable employee. From jobs that once required a high school diploma suddenly demanding a bachelor's degree, forcing young people to get mired in never-before-seen levels of student loan debt. Perhaps too from how we were brought up — being over-scheduled as young students to pad our resumes and gain acceptance to colleges.
