Larry Busacca | PW18 | Getty Images The Great Resignation is part of the zeitgeist. If you need proof, just ask Beyoncé. The superstar singer’s new single, “Break My Soul”, released on Monday night, inspires the unwillingness of employees to help feed a record number of Americans quitting their jobs. It is the first song from her seventh studio album, Renaissance, to be released on July 29. Beyoncé’s ode to the release of your work is the latest cultural reference to the Great Resignation labor trend that began in the spring of 2021, around the time the US economy reopened after the pandemic calm. Since then, Americans have used the social networking site TikTok to quit their jobs in public, in the so-called “Quit-Toks”. On a popular Reddit forum, users shared resignation stories and resignation text messages with their bosses. “It was interesting the extent to which the phenomenon has penetrated into zeal,” Nick Bunker, an economist at the Indeed construction site, said of the Big Resignation. Beyoncé’s piece “is an example of a wider public awareness or debate about people leaving their jobs, which reflects what is happening in the job market and society,” Bunker said. More from Personal Finance: How Parents Cope with Rising Costs of Childcare Tax professionals are ‘very skeptical’ about IRS enlarged voice robots80% of economists see ‘stagnant inflation’ as a long-term risk

“Beyoncé wants us to leave our job”

“Break My Soul” topped # 1 on the iTunes Top 100 on Tuesday, according to PopVortex. In the first verse of the song, Queen Bey riffs for the exhaustion of the employees at a driving pace: “And as soon as I quit my job / I will find a new impetus / Curse that they work so hard on me / Work at nine / After five past / And they make my nerves / That’s why I can not sleep at night.” A little later, Beyoncé uses a vocal sample from Big Freedia’s 2014 song “Explode” to repeat this theme: “Release your anger, release your mind / Release your work, release your time / Release your trade, release your stress / Release your love, forget the rest.” Many fans hinted at the Big Resignation on social media on Tuesday. “An hour after work and I understand why Beyoncé told me to quit my job,” one wrote on Twitter. “Beyoncé tells me to quit my job and become a full-time streamer and I like it … can … I just do it … ??” another tweet. Fiverr, which offers services to freelancers, used the song as a starting point for marketing, writing on Twitter: “Beyoncé wants us to quit our jobs and make a living on our own terms. You listened to the woman.” .

Burnout, rewards continue to fuel the Big Resignation

Audtakorn Sutarmjam / Eyeem | Eyeem | Getty Images More than 47 million people voluntarily quit their jobs last year, an all-time record, according to the US Department of Labor. The tremendous pace continued in 2022. More than 4.4 million people left in March, a monthly record. A similar number did so in April, the last month for which federal data is available. Anthony Klotz, an associate professor at University College London School of Management who coined the well-known trend nickname when he taught at Texas A&M University, recently cited widespread burnout among workers as one of four pandemic-related factors leading to increased smoking cessation levels. Most time at home has given employees time to reevaluate their priorities and values, and employees are reluctant to quit distance work. The general history of the last two years is more [one] of employees who find more opportunities and take advantage of them rather than due to burnout and abandonment of work in general. Nick Bunker economist at Indeed “Research shows over and over again that people quit not because their jobs are not paid well enough, but because their jobs are meaningless or unsatisfactory,” according to a recent report by Korn Ferry, a global consulting firm.
Remuneration seems to play a role for many employees – and some economists believe it is a key lever. Hourly wages rose 6.1% in May from a year earlier, the largest annual increase in at least 25 years, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. The momentum stems from record levels of employee demand, which has pushed companies to compete for rare talents by raising wages, especially in certain industries such as leisure and hospitality (bars, restaurants, hotels) and retail. Jobs are close to the all-time highs. Employees have taken advantage of this availability to relinquish their current roles and receive new, higher-paying concerts, Bunker said. “The general history of the last two years is more [one] “Employees who find more opportunities and take advantage of them despite burnout and leaving work in general,” Bunker said. In the past, fired workers may not have felt empowered to quit a job and easily find a new one, he added.
Low wages and lack of opportunities for advancement are the main motivations for employees to leave a job in 2021, followed by a sense of disrespect at work, according to the Pew Research Center.

How a cold job market can affect resignations

Whatever the reason, the wave of resignations seems to be fueling stress and resentment among the remaining staff – which in turn could lead to more resignations, especially if labor market conditions remain favorable for them. employees. More than half (52%) of employees who chose to stay (after a colleague left) reported taking on more work and responsibilities, according to a survey by the Human Resources Management Company. Nearly a third of them struggle to complete the necessary work, 27% feel less loyal to their body, 28% feel more alone or isolated, and 55% wonder if their pay is high enough, according to a survey published in October. Of course, there are signs that the job market may be cold this year – and possibly the Great Resignation trend. First, the Federal Reserve is raising borrowing costs for consumers and businesses in a bid to slow the economy and tame high inflation, which has eroded the purchasing power of the average consumer despite higher wages. The US Federal Reserve forecasts a slight increase in unemployment as a result of its policy.