Isn’t it strange that years and years and we still get eager and happy to celebrate Independence Day, make some plans, watch the fireworks, cheer and toast with friends and family, etc.?
I was sitting in my apartment, hyper-actively making plans, scrolling the world wide web, searching for THE view to watch the fireworks, checking programs for the day, messaging with friends… being a hyper-stimulated-Millenial procrastinating while telling myself that I should better get my writing done.
I had received that invitation to share my thoughts and insights about the new hot topic, the one everyone is and should be talking about right now, that I was actually more than compelled about, “The Great Resignation.”
Then, why was I more dedicating my attention to celebrating such an inconsequential day about something that happened centuries ago, while I could write down a narrative that can potentially treat the very present or the near future, or at least work on my future?
And it stroke me. It fell into places! While Newton got his Eureka in a bath, I got my insight drowning in hashtags: The Great Resignation and Independence Day are the same.
The Great Resignation is an expectation of 41% of the global workforce that is considering leaving their job within the next year, according to a study conducted by Microsoft. A trend that confirms the 52% of employees who intend to look out for a new job according to the Achievers Workforce Institute’s fourth annual Engagement and Retention Report, all in this new term, some judged necessary to highlight the dramatic effect of the movement and make it as captivating as the “Great Recession,” “Roaring 20’s”, “Prohibition,” etc., etc.
So isn’t the Great Resignation the subsequent global Independence (every)day?
The reasons are as diverse as my options to spend a memorable Sunday in the city that will never sleep again.
While some evoke reasons related to the burnout caused by a yearlong of isolation, most of the sources highlight the resistance to go back to the office and the inconvenience it causes. Others defend that many simply realized that there is no such a thing as job security. “They realized being stuck to a single employer is not the best advice.” “They don’t want to rely on performance reviews and pay raises. They want to take control of their own future.” As mentions, Shahar Erez, CEO of the freelance talent platform Stoke.
At the bottom core, the purpose is to regain freedom, kick out an invasive occupant of one’s personal space, be freed from a form of exploitation of one’s (limited) resources and energy or oppression of one’s ideas and ideals. Isn’t that the concept of Independence? Or simply as defined in a politically correct way: statehood “usually after ceasing to be a group or part of another nation or state.”
That’s just it; Some states of mind need to cease to be part of a group of another state (of mind). They need to be set apart and stand out with their own colors, patterns, symbols, and principles.
USA’s 4th of July or France’s 14th of July could be simply someone’s 7th of July. And yet, the fact is that we commemorate those great emancipations every year with fireworks and big demonstrations of impressive Thunderbirds.
Why would we be skeptical then toward a great Resignation? As most of the colonization was called “Protectorate,” maybe some parties are better without it. Except that today, to gain Independence, instead of adventurously navigating the Pacific or Atlantic, we can simply navigate the worldwide WEB. The revolution would be replaced by a simple evolution, and to quote the most famous declaration of independence, “When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the [political] bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.”