Illustration by Carson McNamara
This summer, I quit my job.
It’s a shift that’s always lived in the back of my mind. Someday, I thought, I’ll go out on my own as a writer, but the timing never seemed right.
Until a pandemic struck.
In March 2020, like so many workers around the country, I was sent home from the office with no date of return. Yes, there were kinks that had to be smoothed out, and having my preschooler at home for a few months was challenging, to say the least. But I was also lucky to work in higher education communications, with an employer that gave me the flexibility to adjust as I needed. I created balance in the fluidity of my day, able to pause for an hour to go to the grocery store or turn my nonexistent commute into extra time to build a freelance business.
After nearly 18 months of this newfound work environment, there was no going back. Freelance writing became my full-time focus, allowing me to maintain the flexibility I had come to love.
I’m not alone.
Between April and August 2021, 19.8 million of the nation’s workers quit their jobs, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, with studies predicting waves of resignations that could continue through at least the end of the year. The reasons are varied, with some departing by choice and others by force.
“There are a lot of things going on,” says Violet Ho, a management professor at the University of Richmond’s Robins School of Business. “It depends on what industry you’re talking about, as well as the employee’s career stage.
“There’s this notion about work-life balance, which in reality isn’t very balanced and was exacerbated by the pandemic. Compensation [for lower-paid, frontline workers] is not adequate, and those who are working are overstretched and understaffed. And some people are reevaluating and reprioritizing their life goals and deciding to exit the labor market altogether.”
One of those people is Theocles Herrin. He studied economics and music at William & Mary, spending his free time playing music. After graduation, he worked as a data analyst at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, but Herrin still performed a few times a week. In three or four years, he hoped to become a full-time musician.
The pandemic expedited his plans. He missed working in an office, but being stuck at home also allowed him to save money. In December 2020, Herrin moved back home to Charlottesville to strike out as a singer-songwriter. Teaching music classes at Front Porch, a music education and community space in Charlottesville, provides a steady baseline income. Plus, he has the freedom to play regular gigs at The Homestead resort in Hot Springs, perform at a private event in Richmond, or step onstage at a brewery with his band, Theocles and the Scruffs.
It remains to be seen if the surge — now dubbed the “Great Resignation” — is overblown, but there’s no denying that it’s a job seeker’s market. To hire and retain employees, businesses have had to listen and adapt.
Grant Millsaps, CEO of the local consulting firm Frontier, has been helping clients do just that. Most of the companies he works with are Fortune 500 and multinational corporations in industries ranging from health care and manufacturing to government and finance, as well as food and beverage.
He says most companies hire Frontier to stave off retention problems before they begin. Frontier helps them evolve by thinking through return-to-office plans, hybrid work environments, benefits, new governance models and more.
“Employees got used to the human response and level of empathy and flexibility [they saw during the pandemic],” Millsaps says. “They’re watching very closely to see what their organizations are going to do.”
For those clients that are slower to adapt, he encourages taking a look at the big picture.
“If you’re thinking about your footprint, about the money and time for this big space that you have, you’re asking the wrong questions,” he says. “The real question a leader should always ask themselves is, ‘How do we get the best outcomes for our customers and our stakeholders?’
“If someone is working from home and they’re more productive, why would I ask them to return to the office?”
The flip side of remote work is also playing out. Erik Jacyshyn was used to working from home when the pandemic hit. As a health care recruiter — most recently for HCA, where he placed nurses and medical social workers with Chippenham and Johnston-Willis hospitals — he saw business surge during the pandemic, but it also became more isolating. He no longer had monthly hiring events and hospital visits. When his fiancee, a teacher, returned to the classroom this summer, Jacyshyn had few opportunities to interact with others.
“I didn’t have a boss or co-worker that I could just chat with,” he says. “Things escalated, and I was unsure of what my next move would be.”
A friend at JES Foundation Repair approached him about joining their team as a field inspector. He found that JES not only gave him more flexibility and a face-to-face work environment, but they also invested heavily in training new employees, which made Jacyshyn more confident about changing industries.
UR’s Ho says those nonfinancial benefits can go a long way toward making people feel valued.
“Give people a paycheck,” she says, “but also empower them to do what is necessary to appease a customer or protect their own self-interests and physical health. Make them feel involved, give them a sense of autonomy.
“We talk about employees reevaluating their life goals, but I think businesses also have to reevaluate their organizational values.”
