Swim Upstream - Reframing "The Great Resignation"
“Our Apologies, but we will be closing at 3:30 today.”
“Please be patient. Due to challenges in staffing, your wait may be longer than normal.”
“Inside dining closed and entry for delivery service workers only.”
I read all three of these signs yesterday in my travels, and I confess to the fact that I either shook my head or sighed in judgement each time. The steady current of “No one wants to work anymore” swept by, and I let myself be taken by it. It’s easy to think that way. It’s a safe assumption to make based on the evidence.
What if there’s more to it than that?
What if, given all of the challenges that the collective workforce has faced in the last 21 months, that it is not simply that “no one wants to work anymore” but rather a growing and swelling revolution of “MANY don’t want to work like they traditionally did anymore.”
What if the security of the time-clock and the next two-weeks schedule has lulled to sleep the fiery entrepreneurial spirit of the driven creatives out there, and some have simply had enough?
What if many aren’t actually just being lazy or looking for an easy handout, but are looking to fight for their income in a completely different way - in a way that engages their sense of adventure and purpose?
What if in the end, this all means that business owners have to recalibrate their approach to hiring and engaging their employees, and something changes for the better?
Perhaps the #greatresignation IS the #greatrecalibration on many levels, and on levels that were needed. Maybe the black & white image of the man with the lunchpail headed off to the factory isn’t the symbol of hard work anymore, and the twenty-something at the coffee-shop with the laptop and Airpods IS.
With the advent of the easy side-hustle with companies like Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, Grub-Hub, and others like them, perhaps something was awakened in many out there and they were fueled by the power and control - may I dare to use the term - the risk of depending on their own skill and creativity to put food on the table.
I AM CHOOSING to swim upstream on this conversation. I AM CHOOSING to believe in the fight and drive and creativity of people. I AM CHOOSING to be a voice for it and even celebrate the movement.
I challenge you to do the same thing. Challenge the easy response and reaction to the signs you will read on the doors of establishments today and tomorrow. If that makes me a Pollyanna, then so be it. The countenance and spirit of the gloomy doomsday critic will never look good on me and I am ok with that.
Here’s to the GREAT RECALIBRATION and all of the great things that will come from it.
