> I am almost certain it can be explained by people being worried in 2020 so much that they sticked to whatever job they had.

I think that’s a major contributor. Anecdotally, I think burn out is another factor. Many of my co workers left, not because they would have left in 2020 anyway, but because stress and workload increased significantly. Even when the overall workload didn’t increase, many of my coworkers (including myself) were glued to our screens - working non stop into the evening, with no sense of boundaries. And for many of us, work life balance was already whack. COVID WFH just pushed it off a cliff.

I’m highly paid and enjoy the nature of my work, but every couple weeks I think about resigning. Honestly, I’m tired. I am highly paid, privileged, and have a wonderful boss, but sometimes I feel like a cog in a machine. My boss cares about me but my company just sees me as a replaceable resource. And that’s not to disparage my employer. It’s just the reality of working in corporate America.

> It’s just the reality of working in corporate America.

I think it's just the reality of working for someone else, and the longer you do it the higher the chance of

> I feel like a cog in a machine

becomes. There's a lot that comes with getting older, such as hindsight. Lots of things felt different when I was first experiencing them, vs after 40 (we'll say) years of it. You see things differently, because you know more through direct experience that can't be taught.

> I’m highly paid and enjoy the nature of my work, but every couple weeks I think about resigning.

Delegation is the cornerstone of civilization. <https://sandstorm.io/news/2015-05-05-delegation-is-the-corne...>

Have you considered exploiting work-from-home by outsourcing your job (not necessarily overseas, but to another eager body that you're able to vet face-to-face)? If you're replaceable to your company and you can find a replacement more easily and competently than your employer can—something that has to be true if the truisms that most of HN accepts are actually sound—why not replace yourself and benefit from it at the same time by skimming off the top?

We had some 'new colleagues' try this in the past months; the problem is, in a team setting, it is incredibly hard to pull off depending on your work. These were (we parted ways obviously) developers and in a team setting, you, as the fraudster, would need to be on top and deep into the details of everything your 'staff' delivers. When we pop on zoom to talk about work, you cannot come across as not knowing, intimately, what you did. And that is where it crashes; you will be busy keeping up reading chats between your 'staff' and your 'colleagues' and reviewing source and doing calls. You'll be defending mistakes your staff made as if they are your own etc. If you survive longer than a few weeks of not getting caught, I think this is a good way to burn out fast. Of course if you tell your company, you are going to create a small new consultancy outfit and they can hire this company from now to do your work and your employer agrees, that is another and quite a good story. That is how many start out. And then it is expected that you make profit on staff as that is suddenly your job.

Umm...because it would be unethical... and possibly illegal

I’m fairly convinced that the Great Resignation is the sum of:

1) Natural turnover that did not happen in 2020 adding to natural turnover in 2021. 2) 2021 natural turnover. 3) People (primarily women) not being able to return to work because of child and elderly care.

The reason I don’t think it’s something more than that is that other countries are not seeing a great resignation. Only the US is. And the US didn’t even have struct lockdowns unlike other countries including countries richer and poorer than the US on a per capita basis.

> 3) People (primarily women) not being able to return to work because of child and elderly care.

I think that one is key, BUT primarily because I also think that one is not likely to recede as quickly the other causes will.

I think many people with young children, where both parents worked, and one of those parents was in a relatively low wage job, realized that it actually made more financial and "mental health" sense to have that parent just quit and take care of their children full time. With as expensive as childcare is in the US, people realized "Why am I completely stressing myself out, having someone else raise my kids, when I earn X, but something in the neighborhood of .8X goes to childcare, expenses for having a job (commuting, work clothes, etc.), and taxes. I'd rather have a slightly lower standard of living without having to deal with a bullshit job and having so little time with my kids."

I believe that dynamic is one that has staying power. All of the other fantasies ("people are standing up to the man and saying they won't come back until wages increase") will face reality once people's savings run out and they realize they like having shelter and eating.

To some degree, older folks or folks with money are leaving the workforce and not reporting themselves as unemployed. Going part time or just closing down their career. This causes a mid to high end shortage which will indirectly drain lower level jobs as well.

> Only the US is.

That's a super interesting fact but I don't think it so obviously points out that this is a non-event. Why would the turn from 2020 add but not in the rest of the world? Why would women go home to child/elderly care and not in the rest of the world? Pretty mysterious!

Also a lot of people lost their jobs during the covid crisis, and moved out of expensive cities, back to their parents houses not-in-manhattan, and because of realestate prices being even higher, a lot of them can't afford to come back, atleast not at shitty pay rates the most affected industries (service, food,...) are offering.

Work in global HR. Even though observations are annectodal, it is a real observable phenomena. Already companies I know are facing significant upticks of resignations just this beginning Q4. And these aren't your local fast food or retail or entry type of jobs I'm talking about.

I’m not debating the effect. I’m sure it’s real. I doubt the folklore around why people are quitting.