'Big Resignations' are not a new trend for the world's professions. There have long been people who refuse work because office hours and company culture interfere with a more peaceful life. Today, however, the phenomenon is much more widespread: a large number of people are deciding that life is more important than work. At least as it is today.
What are the short-term prospects for this change?
I talk about it periodically. Attempts to give one “rural” dimension to smartworking. Structural changes even of working spaces. The profound changes both in the processes of work in presence and in the tools that will guarantee the remote work (also in the metaverse). The explosion of YOLO economy. In practice, it seems that companies and professions (at least certain companies and certain professions) will not have walls in the near future.
We are in an era of massive transformation of the modern organization of work and professions.
Different generations have very different attitudes towards their lives and careers. Baby boomers often ask “what do you do for a living?” Much of how we define ourselves, even for me in my 40s, is still based on how well we have done in our professions.
And those who come after? (Actually, I would be there too, as I am part of generation X). They tend to ask a completely different question. They ask “What do you like to do?”. And they are consistent, if they can: if they can't find a career with their professions that offers an adequate match between what they do for fun and what they do for a living, they leave it alone.
Self-employed professions as a new "fixed salary"?
Today more than half of American kids are starting to believe that self-employment is safer of a full-time job. It seems like a contradiction, in a planet that still echoes times in which "solid" professions guaranteed solid jobs, whoever the 'boss' was. The security and stability of a "fixed salary" becomes a conceptual and complex issue, which does not only include the economic aspect.
The "paycheck" budget, in other words, includes various deductions. Even that of time taken away from loved ones, health, personal hygiene, creative hobbies. Having done all the budgeting, there are professions that allow you to choose a "salary" that has healthier items in the budget, perhaps despite the economic part, or perhaps with fewer hours worked, or more flexibility.
Change is underway, and “life balance” will guide many future work decisions, shaping the professions of tomorrow.
