Why are people quitting… or even changing industries?
According to a recent report from McKinsey and Co., about 40% of workers across the globe are considering quitting their jobs within the next 3-6 months. Furthermore, 48% of individuals surveyed have quit their jobs Studying this trend revealed individuals were reshuffling by switching industries, reinventing by leaving traditional employment by working part-time or starting their own business or reassessing to meet their individual life demands and leaving the workforce.
Many may blame this change on the pandemic, and while it definitely started the trend of reprioritizing what is important (remote work, flexible schedules, etc.) the McKinsey report claims that this could be our new normal.
Is your work passion no longer like a “Great Ball of Fire?”
If your work passion has gone down, you’re not alone. According to The Employee Work Passion Assessment project, conducted by researchers and “Training” magazine in 2012 and 2021, nearly every area of work passion has collectively decreased in the last decade. The dimensions measured in those who took the assessment included job growth, procedural and distributive fairness, performance expectations, collaboration, feedback, connection with leader and colleagues, autonomy, meaningful work, task variety, and workload balance, as well as five intentions to perform, remain at their job, etc.
When the assessments from 2012 and 2021 were compared, 11 of the 12 work passion dimensions were found to be significantly lower, and so were all five of the intentions. The only dimension that did not decrease dramatically was performance expectations, or the perception that “work outcomes are to be done to a certain level of quality and quantity.” As a conclusion to the assessment, its authors noted that it is vital to create meaningful connections in daily life, with the work we choose, and to the people and activities we find most important.
How can you learn to redirect your work passion?
So if work passion is decreasing for nearly everyone, how can you find better fulfillment? The first step might be to recognize that “following your passion” might not be the best career advice. According to an article from Forbes, this cliché assumes that we will only have one passion in life, that it won’t change in time, or that you can even state exactly what your true passion is. Plus, once you make the passion of your life into a job, it can become more like a chore than a passion. That old phrase “Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life” … well, these studies show that that’s not really the case.
Instead, figure out what energizes you (and what drains you) in order to find a career that aligns with both your talents and your interests. If you truly need to leave your job, That’s Good HR is here with our job board, resume tips and other support for job seekers. But for many people, reigniting the spark at your current job might be as simple as making new connections with coworkers or learning new things about your industry.
You can always submit your resume and we can help you navigate the career choices you have to consider!