In just the months of April, May, and June, 11.5 million Americans quit their jobs, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
And it hasn’t stopped.
Employees are leaving for a variety of reasons but if you track those months, you see that it’s around the time vaccines became available, which probably made many companies comfortable asking people back to the office. But employees had been working from home for over a year.
Life had changed. The world had changed. They had changed.
Many surveys and studies have shown that the reasons come back to issues that existed before the pandemic, but were just elevated by the pandemic. For some people, working from home made them realize they valued their time more. For others, it highlighted how poorly they were treated (many managers distrusting if workers were “really” working from home). And for others, the pandemic showed how non-secure their “secure corporate job” was. If they were at risk of losing something that was supposed to be stable so easily, many thought they should just go it alone—some starting their own businesses or finally following their dream.
So simultaneously during this mass exodus, we’ve seen an over 40% increase in small businesses and entrepreneurship this year.
And to those people, I say “Welcome.”
(Photo by Linda Nguyen)
I’ve been working for myself since the day I graduated college and I’m here to tell you about all the perks and pressure that come along with it.
1. You do get to “make your own hours.”
It’s all of them. Sure, I can peel out in the middle of the day to go run around the soccer field, but I also am working at 5:00am to meet deadlines. I’m never really “off” if I get an email at 9:00pm that disrupts my day or week. My paternal leave for my son in July was just working a little less for two weeks.
2. No one dictates how much money you make.
I get to keep as much money as I can, whatever that profit is. Unless I want to continue to grow my business, in which case I take a lower salary to keep cash flow in the company. Or unless business is light that month, or quarter, or year, and I have to hit the pavement, digging for every dollar that comes in.
3. You get to do something different every day.
Yeah, like the job you do well (in my case, a filmmaker and public speaker). But also like the jobs you don’t do well, like accounting and bookkeeping. Business development. Contracts. Marketing. Sales. Copywriting. Graphic design. Team building. Management. Office management. Oh, plus you have to find and pay for your own benefits.
Don’t get me wrong. Working for yourself is awesome. I couldn’t do it any other way.
But I do it because I can’t do it any other way.
For those leaving their jobs to follow their passions or build their own businesses, just know that you can do it, too. But it holds a whole new group of challenges for you that you should be prepared for.
The thing is, though, I think most of these workers might not be leaving if their employers cared a bit more. We are entering an age where no one cares as much about the “perks” of a cool office job—like the slide or the “Star Wars” corner at my wife’s office building. People want to be treated with respect, recognized for their work, and paid what they deserve.
And to go it alone, despite all my warnings above, is well worth the trade for them.
The flip side of this issue is that employers are losing ⅓ of their workers and it’s creating real issues—especially in the service economy.
I see it this morning in my daughter’s gymnastics class, I see it with jobs I’m hiring for, and we’ve all seen it in the restaurant industry.
And I’m not sure what the solution to all this is, but it’s going to be interesting to see how it combines with all the other economic issues looming like our massive debt, the insane inflation, and what feels like the verge of a major housing crisis.
But one thing is certain. Life has changed. The world has changed.
We have changed.
Rain Bennett is a two-time Emmy-nominated filmmaker, writer, and competitive storyteller with over a decade of experience producing documentary films that focus on health and wellness. His mission is simple: to make the world happier and healthier by sharing stories of change.
You can read the rest of “Right as Rain” here, and check back every Wednesday on Chapelboro for a new column!
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