Across the globe, people are leaving their jobs for all kinds of reasons. What are those reasons and what are the financial considerations for calling it quits? Matt Mowry from Business NH Magazine answers those questions and more this week with The State We’re In host Melanie Plenda.
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Across the board, regardless of industry, people are leaving their jobs for all kinds of reasons. What are those reasons and what are the financial considerations for calling it quits? Matt Mowry from Business NH Magazine answers those questions and more this week with The State We’re In host Melanie Plenda
This content has been edited for length and clarity.
Melanie Plenda: What's driving the ‘Great Resignation’ so far? Why are people quitting in droves?
Matt Mowry: We talked to a variety of HR and staffing experts in the state and the reasons are incredibly varied. The pandemic was a great reset for people; they were at home re-evaluating their lives and thinking, what do I really want to do? For some, the answer was they don't want to do their job anymore. On top of that, you have all these employers that are needing to add to their workforce. As the pandemic has ebbed and flowed businesses have gone back to producing and growing. Right now it's an employee's market. You have your choice of jobs because employers are desperate to add on.
Melanie Plenda: We know that the recession has hit women particularly hard, especially during the pandemic. Some refer to it as the ‘She-session.’ Can you walk us through why that is, and are there any potential solutions or relief on the horizon that change that?
Matt Mowry: Unfortunately even in 2021 women still bear the brunt of child rearing. When the pandemic hit and schools were closed or went virtual, childcare centers closed and then went out of business, many women found themselves trying to balance this unprecedented workload that they're having to deal with both at work and at home. At some point something has to give, and so many women left the workforce in order to take care of their families. I think women are having to deal with the fallout of the fact that the childcare system, which was tenuous at best before the pandemic, has fallen apart during the pandemic and leaving many families on alert. They're having to choose between going back to work or staying home and taking care of the kids because they don't have any alternative right now. We are seeing the federal government packages they're rolling out, there’s some relief in there for families and money being put into early childhood education programs in that system. Since the pandemic, I think from business owners to government leaders there's been a realization of just how critical and how vulnerable that system is.
Melanie Plenda: Do we have a sense yet if vaccine mandates will have or have had any significant impact, either on the people who were afraid to go back to work, going back to work or on the flip side, people who do not want to get the vaccine choosing to leave or getting fired rather than abiding by the mandate?
Matt Mowry: I think it's sort of a wash because society as a whole is split; it seems almost down the middle on those that support or oppose being told when and how to get vaccinated or when, or how to wear masks. We're seeing it at school board meetings where it's gone beyond debate to threats and screaming matches. Employers are really stuck in the middle of this, they're trying to find out how to keep their workers safe and get them back into the office. But if they mandate the vaccine, then they risk losing some of the workforce who do not want to be told that they have to go and do these things. If they don't mandate it, they may lose the folks that are fearful of going back in because they might have underlying conditions or they are seeing the numbers spiking again.
What we're seeing is employers are choosing sort of a middle ground in some cases where they're offering incentives. They're not mandating it, but they're saying, if you go and get vaccinated and show proof of it, we are going to give you a bonus. They’re offering things like five hundred dollars, or they’ll give you extra days off; they're finding different ways to incentivize those workers. But for some, it's been a tougher haul especially when we're talking about the hospitality industry. The overall quit rate is 2.9% nationally, but in hospitality it's 6.8%. I have to feel that some of that comes from battling customers over masks and mandates, and dealing with all that. The restaurant industry is going to take a while to recover from this, and we're going to see some restaurants going by the wayside because they just can't have the staff to remain open.
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