The first reason is the Covid Pandemic. The pandemic is the main reason people may think of as the cause of The Great Resignation. However, as shown above, it began earlier with the Internet.

The pandemic only accelerated businesses to embrace moving online. It also drove small companies to find new creative ways to make money, often at a lower cost than a traditional brick-and-mortar business. It has also allowed people to find new opportunities and earn income outside of a regular job.

Government Mandates

The third reason is that huge businesses enforced the government mandates by making employees wear face masks to get the Covid vaccine to keep their job. These employees got tired of their careers making them wear face masks, interacting with paranoid customers, and later their employer requiring them to get a Covid vaccine. These employees decided to resign or quit and find another alternative.  These employees may have found a business that did not enforce the mandates or found an online solution, such as becoming a freelancer, or content creator, or finding a way to do an online business.

The fourth reason is retirement. The Great Resignation is also called The Great Retirement. Baby Boomers are finally starting to retire. For Baby Boomers who are beginning to retire or planning to retire, The Great Resignation can be called The Great Retirement.

Some of the reasons for The Great Retirement are that Baby Boomers who were preparing to retire could spend more time with their families. They saw that the stock market was going up. They believe that they are ready for retirement. They put in their time over the years at work. They have put money into their 401ks and pensions. They have money in the stock market. They have in real estate for their retirement.

The seventh reason is that more businesses are moving to remote work. Due to the pandemic, medium to large companies transitioned from in-person to remote positions. While this trend began earlier in the 2010s with websites like Upwork and Fiverr and people finding different ways to monetize websites, it did not go mainstream until 2020.

Now remote work is becoming a real option for people working from home rather than in the office while still working with a company. You can now search for remote work on job sites like Indeed, and various positions will come up. The majority of remote work positions are often related to technology, digital marketing, content creation, and video editing.

The eighth reason is that more people are becoming freelancers. In the 2010s, people could become freelancers and work from home. Freelancing offers people another alternative for working flexible jobs or making a career as a freelancer within their specialty. There is a range of different jobs that people can do as freelancers. The most popular freelancer jobs are writing blog posts, video editing, digital marketing, and virtual assistants. Of course, there are more jobs than those you can find on a freelancing website like Upwork.

A freelancer is a contractor compared to a traditional part-time or full-time employee. This has changed how people view the employer-employee relationship. As a contractor, an individual has more flexibility but will often not receive the traditional benefits of working at an established company. A freelancer will usually perform one or more jobs within their specialty unless they can find a full-time freelancing job on a freelancing website. Freelancing is different from remote work, where an employee will work remotely for an established company.

According to Flexiple, freelancing is a project to become the majority of the workforce by 2027. Two of the most popular freelancing website are Fiverr and Upwork. There are others as well. Freelancing websites will continue to grow as it is projected to grow and more people become aware of remote work and freelancing.

The Internet has created digital nomads. Digital nomads are people who make money online, which gives them the flexibility to work anywhere in the world. A digital nomad may be a remote worker, a freelancer, a content creator, or own an online business. Working online allows people who want to travel, see the world, work on the beach, or live in a country with a lower cost of living than a country like the United States.

Those who were more entrepreneurial may have decided to start their own online business instead of continuing to be an employee and working for someone else. These people chose to spend their time learning how to set up an online business. This is easier today and costs less than starting a traditional brick-and-mortar business. It can be done for only a few grand or less if correctly.

An online business only needs a website, an email list, a YouTube Channel, later can add social media, and finally, needs to sell a product or a service. An online business can also create passive income from affiliate programs, advertising, and people buying digital products or services that only need to be made once. An online company can then hire freelancers to do a job as often as needed or keep them on for as many hours as required to do their job.

Since online businesses are leaner, they do not need the overhead of many employees. This has given rise to solo entrepreneurship. Online companies require less overhead and upfront costs than traditional brick-and-mortar businesses. For this reason, they are lean and don’t need full-time employees. A person can start an online business independently and work to grow it by adding freelancers as the business grows.

Another option was for people to become content creators. The most popular type of content creator is a YouTuber for Millennials. The most popular type of content creator is a TikToker for Generation Z. Being a content creator and becoming influencer on these platforms.  Content creators can make money from advertising, then find ways to build an online business within their niche. They also can create content from anywhere, depending on the type of content a creator makes.

While the physical economy of brick-and-mortar stores will never entirely go away, more businesses are moving to e-commerce, online business, or finding a way to add an online component to a physical business. Some features of the physical economy can never be replaced, like truckers, retail, grocery, delivery, or companies that need to be done in person. However, some of these jobs can be replaced by technology, further displacing workers.

With the lockdowns and incentives from the government through mandates, laws, and regulations, there is more incentive for people to move to the online digital economy. The cost of starting a business is less. You will need less overhead. You don’t need to worry about the types of insurance a physical business may need to have if an employee gets injured and wants compensation. All of your employees can be contractors. This will mean that you also won’t have to provide them with other benefits, depending on the size of your business.

With the rise and popularity of the Internet, everything is moving more online. Social media helped this transition as people became comfortable sharing and posting about themselves on their social media accounts. The Internet gives people the freedom and flexibility to work online or start their own online businesses.

People, especially younger people, are tired of working dead-end jobs. Many young people, including myself, bought into the broken promise that if you go to college, you will be able to get a good job, work your way up in a company, and enjoy the American Dream of eventually owning a home. According to Don’t Quit Your Day Job in 2021, the median income for men was $51,121, while the median income for women was $39,000. According to Zillow, the average cost of a house in the US is now around $330,533 up 20% from last year. The median work income compared to the price of buying a house has priced out many people. Logically, these younger people began to look at other options or find creative ways to create extra income streams. Wages are not keeping up with the rising cost of living and inflation. Real inflation is higher than the 8% reported by the government and the Federal Reserve.

People, especially younger generations, recognize that job security is no longer a thing, and they can’t work their way up the traditional route in companies like previous generations. The cost of living only increases, and young people continue to see themselves being priced out of the housing market. With the rising cost of gas and food, even more of the money young people make must go to necessities rather than trying to save, invest, and work to buy a house of their own. According to Zillow, the average price of a home in the United States is now $337,560. Rent also continues to go up as well across the US. The cost of gas continues to rise too, so if you have to drive to work, that is cutting into what you make as you go to and from work.

The average cost of energy went up an additional $1,000 in 2021 for American households. Americans continue to go into credit card debt, and that trend only grew in 2021. According to Study Finds, nearly 70% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck. They struggle to make ends meet in their lives. The rising cost of living is only making it more difficult for Americans who live paycheck to paycheck. Combine already working Americans living paycheck to paycheck with rising costs due to inflation, and things are not looking good. The middle class is being systematically destroyed. The Federal Reserve and government policies are destroying the middle class.

The social contract is a theory in political philosophy that there is a contract between individuals and their government. It has also been applied to individuals and society. The social contract theory has also been applied to the employer and employee relationship in the workplace. All three of these are breaking or have been broken if you go along with the social contract theory.

The government has not protected the rights of its citizens. It has infringed and taken away their rights. This is particularly evident with the pandemic and goes back even further with the agencies created after 9/11, further restricting people from traveling.

The social contract has been broken between individuals and society by the various institutions no longer doing their jobs. The mainstream media is the most prominent example of this, both on the left with CNN and on the right with Fox News. They are not the Fourth Estate as people are told that they are to keep politicians and the government in check. The mainstream media is propaganda, and more people are going to alternative, independent news sources online.

The social contract has been broken between employers and employees. In the West, especially in the United States, the average worker’s wage cannot keep up with inflation. More employers are moving from part-time or full-time employees who traditionally provided benefits to contractors, such as freelancers, because they can be paid less and don’t need to provide them with benefits. Employees are looking for new ways to make money to make ends meet and move up the social ladder.

A vital question must first be asked about the social contract. Do you remember signing it? If so, when and where? What exactly did you agree to? What were the terms and conditions?

Job security is now a thing of the past. Employees can no longer expect to receive the benefits, 401K, and pensions that traditionally came with a full-time job from an employer. People are starting to recognize that job security is no longer the case. They are working to find other ways to make money and an income outside of the traditional workforce. Freelancing, becoming a content creator, and starting an online business are three options for those who recognize that job security is now a broken social contract.

While job security is now a thing of the past, the Internet and online businesses allow people to create multiple income streams. The Internet provides many different ways to do that. People can start a website and get revenue from advertising, affiliate programs, selling digital courses and products, and being a coach or consultants. A YouTube Channel is another way to reach people and make money from ads while reaching an audience to sell the products or services within your niche and sub-niche. It is also easier to write a book to self-publish today so that you don’t have to deal with a publishing house to keep more of the money from your book. There are many other options, from drop shipping to selling products on Etsy. It requires more creativity, thinking outside of the box, and knowing that there are options outside of a regular job.

In brief, the American Dream is dead unless you can find ways to make it in the Age of the Internet. Entry-level jobs like fast food, retail, and even some tech jobs will be replaced by artificial intelligence and robots. The rise of inflation and the rising cost of real estate makes it difficult, if not impossible, for regular people to buy a house.

Conclusion

There are many reasons for The Great Resignation, The Big Quit, The Great Reshuffle, or The Great Retirement. No matter what you may call it, these are only thirty reasons for The Great Resignation. You may be able to think of other reasons that are causing people to leave the traditional workforce.

What do you think about The Great Resignation? Are you taking part in it? Do you believe that there is a social contract? Leave a comment in the comment section and let us know.

Views expressed in this article are the author’s opinions and do not necessarily reflect the views of Secure Single. It is intended for informational and educational purposes only. It is not investment or financial advice. James Bollen is the author of Thriving Solo: How to Flourish and Live Your Perfect Life (Without A Soulmate). Now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon. Subscribe to Secure Single’s Substack for free!