The Great Resignation hits Australia as 1 million people quit their jobs

Jasmine McDonald was micromanaged by an overbearing boss and chained to her laptop. Then like a million other Aussies she quit her “toxic” job.

When Jasmine McDonald had the “distractions” of the office removed while working from home during lockdown, she quickly realised her workplace was “toxic”.

She was “chained to her laptop” racking up an extra hours each day, while also being contacted after-hours and on most weekends by the corporate tech company she had been at for five years.

The software integrations co-ordinator felt like she was “sinking” in her job at a company that she said was purely driven by money, where she would be managing up to 30 projects at one time.

“It was just a constant barrage of phone calls and messages, it was almost like being micromanaged in lockdown,” she told news.com.au

“It felt like you couldn’t get up away from your desk, go to the bathroom, have a coffee, have lunch – you had to sit there all the time for fear of missing something.”

The 39-year-old said she was paid to work 37.5 hours but ended up doing 45 to 50 hour weeks, particularly during Sydney’s lockdown in 2020.

In her time at the company her role had also evolved to include a lot more responsibility but her pay had barely budged, she said, leaving her on around $60,000 which was far below industry standards.

Jasmine was left burnt out from her job. Picture: Supplied

Eventually, she became “very burnt out”.

“I was very disgruntled. I had been trying to get my role changed and to progress within the business but you tend to get pigeonholed when you do your job very well – the company don’t want to move you as they will have to get someone to replace you, so they want to keep you where they are comfortable having you,” she added.

“But I didn’t want to do anything, I didn’t have motivation. I had decision fatigue. I felt I was chained to my desk and stagnating and just simply existing.”

The Great Resignation begins

At the same time her 14 year relationship was also breaking down and when she turned to her then husband for support, telling him she would “wake up one morning and be comatose” as a result of the mental health impacts of her job, she said there was no support.

She knew then she needed to make a change, sending her resume out, “stalking” LinkedIn and going to any interview available, landing a new job in January last year.

Ms McDonald isn’t the only Aussie who ditched their job in 2021 as part of The Great Resignation, a phenomenon that has been hitting the US will millions of workers quitting a month.

New figures showed that almost 10 per cent of the Australian workforce quit their jobs last year – a whopping 1.3 million people, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

It was the biggest number of Aussies changing jobs since 2012.

Australian money background

Happiness trumps money

Ms McDonald said it was time for employers to recognise great employees before it’s too late.

“When I told my manager I was leaving he was like ‘How much do you want?’ I was like ‘It’s going to take me leaving to acknowledge my work?’” she said.

“Companies need to recognise staff while they are there – don’t try and recognise them when they are already out the door. I said it wasn’t about the money, I took a step sideways but since I’ve been in my new role I’ve been offered reward and recognition.”

She said the new role, which is based in healthcare, is completely differently, delivering her the job satisfaction she desperately craved rather than waking up with a feeling of “dread”.

“For me it was about my mental health and my sanity rather than a big financial gain and that’s more of my motivator when it comes to my job – it’s the satisfaction I have in my job,” she said.

“I would rather be happy and have a good mental wellbeing then make a lot of money.”

Kris Grant, CEO ASPL Group. Picture: Supplied

Resignations could skyrocket

Kris Grant, CEO of management consultancy ASPL, has predicted the quit rate could hit 15 per cent by the year’s end as the labour market tightens with record low unemployment rates.

She said the ABS data was clear evidence that the country was seeing the start of The Great Resignation in Australia.

“We have seen the turnover rate jump up to a 10-year high of 9.5 per cent as the labour market tightens and unemployment rate drops to a near 50-year low of 3.9 per cent,” she said.

“Employees who aren’t happy will walk and increasingly, they are using their bargaining power to ask for higher salaries.

“The recent rise in job mobility was more pronounced for women, jumping to 10 per cent from 7.6 per cent while for men it rose to 9.1 per cent from 7.5 per cent.

“Some women are using their power to walk away from low paid jobs, and we’d encourage those women who are looking for a new job to ask for more money to try close the gender pay gap between men and women, which nationally stands at an unacceptably high 14 per cent.”

The unemployment rate has hit a 50 year low. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Jeremy Piper

With skills shortages emerging across all industries in Australia and job ads at historic highs, the time has never been better to look for a new job, Ms Grant advised.
“More generally, as inflation rises more quickly than wage costs, we can expect employees across industries to lift wage demands to take into account higher inflation,” she added.

“That risk grows as inflation climbs higher and the number of job ads rises too. Employers need to listen to their employees’ demands, especially now that the job market is tightening so quickly or they could lose their most precious resource, their staff.”

The ABS also found that people were more likely to change to a job with more hours (36 per cent) than to a job with the same hours (33 per cent) or less hours (31 per cent).

But financial company Wisr’s research found 21 per cent of Aussies wish to quit but claim they can’t due to sizeable debt, while just over half credit financial constraints and life pressures as the main obstacle to their career aspirations.

Have you quit your job or made a major life change this year? We want to hear from you [e-mail]