A trend from the United States is beginning to settle here. More and more workers are deciding to quit their job to take up another very different activity. Last year, the number of resignations, among those under 30, increased by 44% compared to 2020.
We meet Maxime, co-director of a soap factory in Brussels. “I get up with envy. I know that no matter what will happen during the day, I know that I will be useful and here I am not sure what I will do with the day. But I know that it will be necessary and that it will be for the good of the company and the project”, he explains.
Maxime took over a soap factory in Brussels two years ago. Before that, he was employed in a large consulting firm. This job no longer made much sense to him. “I had this click to tell myself that I arrived where I was supposed to arrive in my job. I no longer found meaning or energy in what I was doing and it was time to leave and find a project that suits me more”, he testifies.
A trend from the United States
In the United States, since the start of the pandemic, nearly 50 million workers have reportedly left their jobs voluntarily. Some have also filmed their resignation before relaying it on social networks. In Belgium too, resignations have been on the rise among young workers since the start of the health crisis. “It is mainly people aged 25 to 30 who have taken the initiative to resign. For the 30 to 35-year-old bracket, there is also an increase of 39% compared to 2020”, explains Anne-Sophie Bialas, human resources expert in a social secretariat.
Laurent Taskin, professor of management at UCLouvain has been following employers and their workers since the first confinement. With teleworking, he notices that an essential dimension of their professional life has disappeared: the organizational sphere. In other words, no more conversations at the coffee machine, chance encounters with colleagues and management.
How to retain employees?
“All this informality is necessary to learn. An organization is a place where we learn. From the moment we become hyper-networked individuals and we share less of what a company represents, its involvement and meaning that one requires of one’s work are also threatened”, explains Laurent Taskin.
Today, business leaders are faced with an increasingly acute problem: finding ways to retain their employees. Last year, only 17% of contracts were terminated at the initiative of the employer. This is the lowest rate for three years.