All of the job quitting roiling the U.S. labor market is leading many workers to, well, quit their jobs.
The departure of so many colleagues is leaving employees who have stayed with their companies struggling to handle more work and wondering if they’re earning enough to make it worthwhile. As a result, many of those more loyal staffers are bolting, too.
“It’s become a vicious cycle of sorts,” says Johnny Taylor, CEO of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM).
Ruchi Rajput, of Algonquin, Ilinois, worked as a full-time time contractor in talent acquisition for a company’s human resources department. But after several co-workers left, she was asked to help with employee onboarding, budgeting and touting the company’s brand in the community.
Rajput says she was putting in an extra hour a day on average and regularly took calls from supervisors after hours that sometimes lasted 20 to 30 minutes.
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Extra hours
“It was getting a little too much,” Rajput, 36, says. “I was working extra hours and it was not even appreciated.”
She also had to take part in meetings that often prevented her from working on recruiting, “It was completely packed,” she says.
A few weeks ago, she quit herself and swiftly found a new job in talent acquisition. She starts next week.
In August, a record 4.3 million workers quit jobs for myriad COVID-19-related reasons. Some were lured by a near-record 10.4 million job openings, many offering higher pay, as employers scrambled to fill vacancies created by parents caring for remote-learning kids, workers fearful of catching the virus or early retirees.
Others are switching careers after the pandemic inspired them to pursue their passions. Still, others are hunting for jobs that let them work from home permanently or provide a better work-life balance.
Recent surveys are shedding light on the effects of all this turnover on workers who have remained with their employers.
Burdened with more work
Fifty-five percent of U.S. workers say one or more colleagues have left in the past six months, according to an SHRM survey of 1,150 employed Americans in early July. Fifty-two percent of that group say that, as a result, they’ve been burdened with more work and 30% say they’re struggling to get it done.
That’s making them reconsider their options, SHRM says. Fifty-three percent have wondered if there are better job opportunities out there; 55% have questioned if they’re earning enough; 28% are feeling more lonely are isolated, and 42% have thought about leaving their job more often than they did before their co-workers left.
Millennials and Gen Z workers have…
Read More: As more people quit, exhausted colleagues also head for the exit