Furlough and The Great Resignation.

The actual reason.

Andrew Draper via Unsplash

noun: furlough
a layoff, especially a temporary one, from a place of employment.

Last year, 30+ million workers (in the U.S.) went on “furlough.” Today the headlines read “The Great Resignation,” and every outlet and executive with a microphone wants to tell us why it’s happening, but I’ve not heard a single one get it right.

On the 1st of April last year, I had just launched a new project for my company. A full rebuild of one of our most-used internal tools. A huge win for me and my department. It was a project I was very proud of and it was receiving great praise.

“We’re avoiding layoffs at all costs.”

I couldn’t imagine what all those people were going through. I read the headlines at the time, thinking to myself how fortunate I was to have job security in times like these.

Then the phone rang.

My boss was on the line with our VP. My heart sank. I’d never tried to get through a phone call so quickly. By the end of that day, I’d turned over all my projects. My email and access to anything internal were shut down immediately. It felt like I’d been fired for selling secrets with the speed they shut me down.

In the job I was so secure in.

Almost one-third of my company and 30+ million Americans. Millions more across the world, but we all felt so alone.

Fast forward 18 months.

I’m back at that company, but many of my coworkers are not. Thanks to my boss and/or the hole I left behind (I’ll never know the real reason). We’re starting to staff up again after a year of pulling double duty for the coworkers lost. Unemployment rates have slowly come down to SEMI-normal numbers. We’re getting back to the “New Normal.” Kind of.

The problem with the New Normal is companies/corporations don’t like new. So, for corporate offices, it’s really just the OLD normal. Other than a handful of headliner companies, most are being told they need to come back into the office. Despite proving that working from home… Actually works?

What about pay raises for the extra work we’re doing? And inflation. HAH… Oh, you’re serious?9

Enter The Great Resignation.

Research is showing roughly 40% of the workforce is considering leaving they’re job within the year. “But hybrid work!”

Unemployment has dropped, but now people are quitting to pursue their dream jobs. They’re switching careers paths. They want more flexibility, more money, or more time.

These reasons are all true. They’re all pretty awesome reasons. People are striving to get what they need to be fulfilled personally, and not the way corporate America tells them to. I wish employment had always been this way, but why now? Self-realization? No.

Furlough. Furlough showed us all one important thing that no one is reporting.

The safe path, the secure 9-5, is no longer safe and secure. Millions of us were cut from our safe jobs at the drop of a hat. Entry-level employees to executives were shown EXACTLY how much they mattered. Or rather, didn’t. Now, the ripple effects of those realizations, of those furloughs, are hitting.

The risk gap between a corporate job and chasing your dreams just shrank significantly.

Going after that dream job or being an entrepreneur has always been seen as a risky move. Money, success, and security are not guaranteed. Well, turns out, that’s not guaranteed at my 9-5 either. We hope this will never happen again, but we never imagined it would last April either.

Sad? A little, but this is pretty exciting to me! I hope more than anything this trend continues. Let’s get more new ideas. New companies. Freelancers. Travelers. People just living life, not working through it.

And maybe, just maybe, this will influence companies and corporations to move in the right direction too. We might just see a move to more appropriate wages and flexibility. Will it be for the right reasons? No. It’ll be because they’re struggling to find good talent and losing money. But it’s progress, and I’ll take what little progress we can get these days.

To everyone out there thinking about taking that leap, know I’m cheering for you. Now’s the time to shape our own futures.