What young Indians are saying about resigning from their jobs

This writerrsquos Twitter handle has rarely elicited any reactions In the last 12odd years of being on the microblogging social media platform wersquove enjoyed the silence our inactivity has generated The moments of engaging in armchair world views arguments and witty repartee have been few and far between So when we queried about people who quit their jobs in 2021 we werenrsquot expecting to be inundatedAt last count we had 467 comments 272 retweets and 1580 likes ldquoThank you for askingrdquo one person said before explainingmdashwithout being proddedmdashwhy they had resigned ldquoI do not want to work anymore I am sick to my gills of Indian corporate culture and majoritarian toxicityrdquo another added Itrsquos as if everyone was waiting for the nudge to speak up This growing tide of discontentment with work however is not restricted to this Twitter thread alone Globally the job market is experiencing an unexpected turn of eventsFrom left Ronjini Bora Kevin Harding and Prekshaa M quit their jobs in 2021 to focus on doing things that made them happy While Bora says that putting in long hours at work had made her cranky and anxious Harding says he discovered his entrepreneurial skills during the lockdown and wanted to give it a shotWhile in early 2020 when the pandemic first reared its ugly head the looming layoffs pay cuts and prevailing job uncertainty had seen resignations plummet in 2021 the workforce is said to have experienced a collective burnout causing people to leave their jobs The phenomenon is being described as the Great Resignation or Big QuitAccording to the US Labour Department around 45 million employees left their jobs in November 2021 alone a trend that was observed since September that year with three per cent of the workforce quitting their jobs each month As per estimates this amassed to 755 million resignations in America that year India on the other hand has been in the throes of a peculiar situation While the countryrsquos unemployment rate according to independent think tank the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy CMIE reached 791 per cent in December 2021 930 per cent in the urban pockets Indians havenrsquot been spared of the sweeping resignation movement either A report by Dainik Jagran highlighted that leading IT companies such as TCS Wipro and Infosys had witnessed high attrition rates of around 20 to 25 per cent in the last quarter of 2021 Following the Great Resignation top IT companies hired around 17 lakh people last yearThere are a host of reasons for this shift the standard ones being low salaries poor relationship with colleagues and difficult management But in the COVID19 era newer concerns have emerged Burnout need to prioritise mental and physical health being forced to return to work after working remotely desire to change the job industry and inadequate pandemic health measures are some of the top issues that have been cited Many who responded to this writerrsquos Twitter query quit without a job offerKevin Harding gave up a corporate communications job to focus on his podcast and build a travel community PicShadab KhanThe New York Times has termed this phase as the ldquoage of antiambitionrdquo Malcolm Mistry director of Ushta Te Consultancy Services LLP an established solution provider in the HR domain for permanent staffing says hersquod describe this as the ldquoage of antistabilityrdquo ldquoOur parentsrsquo generation did the same job all their working life people are no longer seeking such stabilityrdquo he says He points out how contractual contingent work where the payment is usually on a piecework basis typically parttime or nonpermanent with limited job security is no longer frowned upon Earlier when Mistryrsquos company did contingent hiring he remembers having to convince people about the role ldquoNow people are open to shortterm stints They wouldnrsquot bat an eyelid if a good short opportunity came their wayrdquoForty sixyearold Rajiv Dogra says the pandemic has personally been a time of reckoning The former journalist from Mumbai shifted gears in 2012 when he started an independent agency with a small team which designed and edited supplements outsourced by two national dailies ldquoWe worked for them as vendor partners Everything was going fine until the pandemic Overnight we lost 90 per cent of our businessrdquo Dogra who moved to Ludhiana with his wife and daughter in 2019 remembers experiencing several months of financial uncertainty when an unexpected opportunity came from an Andheribased PR company in November 2020 The role was that of a research and content head ldquoSince it was a workfromhome opportunity I decided to take it uprdquo The beginning was hunkydorymdashDogra had his weekends intact there was a monthly pay cheque coming home and more importantly he was being exposed to an entirely new media industry The erratic work hours were a dampener but he decided not to make much of it Things changed when offices started opening in 2021 ldquoMy boss wasnrsquot in favour of working from homerdquo Since Dogra had taken up the role because it was a remote opportunity he didnrsquot budge ldquoThatrsquos when I began noticing my senior use psychological ploys to undermine my work I would get picked on This control was getting to merdquo Despite the stability the job offered Dogra quit in October 2021 ldquoI didnrsquot have another job in hand But I was confident about tiding over this period toordquo He took to LinkedIn to network He now freelances for a portal with mental health and wellness content while ghost authoring two books ldquoThough therersquos always this lurking fear about where the next monthrsquos salary will come from to pay my bills I feel like I have a greater control over life Thatrsquos a liberating feeling It has made me more confident of myself and my abilitiesrdquo says Dogra adding that he now intends to focus on taking up organic farmingRonjini Bora has been on a break since she quit her job as marketing manager digital and publicity for a publishing house in October 2021 She says the longdrawn remote work hours were taking a toll on her health leaving her exhausted PicNishad AlamDelhibased Ronjini Bora has been on a break since she quit her last job as marketing manager digital and publicity for a publishing house in October 2021 ldquoI had been working for 10 years straight and needed to pauserdquo Bora had taken up the job a month before the pandemic hit India and had barely got to know her colleagues ldquoIn December 2020 10 staffers were asked to leave Although I was new they retained me That was an uncertain professional phase for most and we were all just trying to stick it outrdquo she says in a telephonic interview It was in 2021 that monotony began to kick in ldquoI was putting in more than 10 hours of work and since I was working remotely I got no real breaks It was exhausting My father who lived in Guwahati was also fighting cancer Nothing was helping my situation I was anxious and cranky and my husband had pointed out a change in my behaviour In June 2021 I decided to resign but the company didnrsquot agree and asked me to take a few weeks off I tried that but it didnrsquot work for merdquo In October the same year she called it quits Soon after she lost her father ldquoI needed this break I have become a lot calmer am getting sufficient sleep and that has been a boon Though am struggling financially for some reason I am not worried I have been getting interview calls and opportunities but I still feel tired I think I need another two months before I can go back to a fulltime jobrdquo Writer and podcaster Noreen Malone in her NYT Magazine article shared that almost ldquono one I know likes work very much at the momentrdquo ldquoThe primary emotion that a job elicits right now is the determination to endure If we can just get through the next set of months maybe things will get betterrdquo she wroteMalcolm Mistry Ushta Te HR Consultancy servicesThis ldquodeterminationrdquo seems to be crumbling slowly Work environments have always been demanding but it seems to have exacerbated during the pandemic And many didnrsquot like what they sawA Hyderabadbased NGO professional quit her toxic workplace in September 2021 When she did the math she realised that finances are tight but she could afford to go six months without a pay Quitting her job she says taught her that not being without a job ldquoisnrsquot the worst thing in the worldrdquo Another person who quit her job in mid2021 shared ldquoWhen you have already faced a pandemic where you are afraid of stepping out of your door the risk of not having a job may seem far lessrdquoRajiv Dogra found a job as research and content head at an Andheribased PR company in November 2020 but quit a year later during the pandemic to focus on himself He is ghost writing two books and intends to turn his attention to organic farmingNot everyone quit because they disliked work Prekshaa M 30 who was employed with a leading nonprofit says she loved her job ldquoI joined work in the pandemic and honestly it was a great environment to work in I also created some amazing campaignsrdquo she recalls But having successfully worked remotely for a major part of 2020 Prekshaa realised that she didnrsquot require to be in an office environment to do the same tasks ldquoBy the time I was asked to return to office I had begun enjoying a routine where Irsquod go for an evening walk and spend time with the strays in my neighbourhood They taught me resilience and how to prioritise and be selfish about resting This wasnrsquot possible because most of my time was spent commutingrdquo She resigned in August last yearThat she had been working since she was 17 makes her feel like ldquoI kept borrowing from tomorrow to get through today and then I just couldnrsquot anymore This sabbatical has made me a healthier and happier personrdquoPrekshaa M 30 was employed with a leading NGO in Mumbai until August last year She says she has been working nonstop since she was 17 ldquoI kept borrowing from tomorrow to get through today and then I couldnrsquot do it anymore The decision to resign has made me a healthier and happier personrdquo PicShadab KhanSome like Kevin Harding say that the pandemic enabled him to recognise the entrepreneur within him The 28yearold had a successful career in corporate communications when he decided to resign and focus on building his travel community Having got a promotion and salary hike early on in the pandemic Harding remembers having little to complain except that his responsibilities had increased ldquoAround this time I started my own travel podcast Balancing the Act I shared this development with my boss and he was fine with it It helped me connect with likeminded people and make more friends All of a sudden the podcast blew uprdquo he says By November 2020 he started experiencing a ldquomindshiftrdquo ldquoI felt the need to start something on my own The pandemic gave me more time to introspectrdquo Harding left his organisation in early 2021 After a short break he took up small gigs as brand marketing consultant but eventually went on to start his own travel community Bagpacker Me while running his podcast Guncha Khare is the culture director at Dextrus workspace where she works on the brand marketing and operations strategy and is also the key human resource lead She admits that all sectors have been impacted due to wave of resignationsldquoDue to the pandemic organisations were forced to change their processes to ensure that business continued Employees realised that jobs for which they had to slog hours commute long distances be away from family and cut short vacations could all easily be done remotelyrdquo she says This had led to a major mindshift ldquoThe fact that people have started reprioritising what they want from work life has pushed organisations to reevaluate right down to rethinking JDs job descriptions Earlier business sustainability was mostly given priority over human capital But with what is happening right now companies are looking at what needs to be done to retain peoplerdquoShe however says that there are also those who are staying back despite the market flux ldquoUnderstanding why they are choosing to stay back can also help address the problem HR teams need to have these conversationsrdquoMistry believes that while pandemic fatigue and desire for a better quality of life have played a part in rethinking careers the boom in the economy has also paved the way for newer opportunities ldquoThere are of new jobs that are being created and unfortunately the supply of talent is not adequate to take care of positions opening up For people who needed to change jobs or were in an unhappy environment this is a golden parachute They are looking at this as a nowornever situationrdquo he says Those who are taking breaks in their careers he feels are possibly also bolstered by this boom ldquoIt at least gives them a sense of security and confidencemdashthat they can return to the job market after a month or two and still have something waiting for themrdquo he saysHe however feels that while ldquoremoterdquo and ldquohybridrdquo worked well till it lasted ldquoyou tend to lose a lot of communication team building and camaraderierdquo in the process ldquoSome organisations can lose their identity entirely Because your identity is a collection of how the organisation thinks and works Thatrsquos why many companies are insisting that people return to workrdquo25 per centAttrition rate at large Indian IT firms in last quarter of 2021Top reasons to quit postpandemicBurnoutInadequate pandemic health measuresForced to return to office after WFHNeed to prioritise mental and physical healthDesire to change job industryWhat can organisations doListen to your employees Have conversations with them ask them about their expectations from the job what their grievances are and what can be offered and what canrsquot Make them feel valuedGood leaders During the pandemic while productivity increased so did the burnout Many organisations were able to counter this by equipping their managers to become better managers Managers who were able to create more fluid systems where they were just helping employees manage their work as opposed to extracting work out of them were able to make a huge difference Flexibility is key What people want and have got a taste of is that they can offer value by working remotely But virtual environments can also be isolating Organisations need to give employees the flexibility of working from home when possible or allowing them to leave early come in late etcCourtesy Guncha Khare