The cause behind the great resignation (which is pretty much the same thing as what is referred to as quiet quitting) is a mental and emotional shift. And it is a positive and good thing. It surprised many people, and the ‘professionals’ and ‘statisticians’ are coming up with all kinds of mechanical explanations, instead of looking at the mindset change that caused it.

The trigger

The combination of the Pandemic and lockdowns coming with it has been a near-perfect trigger.

The Pandemic

The Pandemic has been a shock to most of us – I really do mean a mental and emotional shock. Shock usually makes us anxious, confused, etc., but what is important to see is that it creates a ‘short circuit’. Also, this shock has happened on a collective level and on a mass scale.

The lockdown

I find that – among many other things – the lockdowns caused a reset to our personal lives. What happened was that we got removed from our everyday life. And we did not get into a familiar situation that we are used to – i.e. “work all day as before”, “socialize the same way as before”, “get busy filling your day with stuff and activities as before”. 

But instead, we got forced into doing nothing. We were given a “blank sheet of paper”. (Ask a meditation expert what miracles you can expect when you “do nothing”.)

 

The outcome

The combination of personal and collective shock, coupled with a halt to our “everyday life” triggered a lot of people to rethink their lives. A mindset change happened. More precisely the mindset has been there for quite some time but could not come to the surface. What was this mindset change? In one sentence: “Enough of the toxic, inhuman, dysfunctional, hustle-culture workplace that disconnects me from my own Self!”

It doesn’t matter if it was consciously or unconsciously done, it doesn’t matter if it was “forced” or done unwillingly, and it is also ok that there is fear and anxiety around it. It happened. 

And I find that the outcome has been truly positive and life-giving. I must leave the rest of the thoughts and personal opinions around it to the reader, to you.