What Happens After The Great Resignation? With Vincent Chan
Like thousands of other dissatisfied workers you quit your job. So many people quit or changed jobs the media called it the “Great Resignation.” So, what happens next? Companies still need to employ workers. You still gotta pay the bills, right! Will workers gain power, or will it just be more of the same old grind? Even worse could it just mean the end of the world as we know it? To unravel these mysteries for you I sat down with my man Vincent Chan. If any one can make sense of just why this happened and of what will happen next then Vincent Chan is your man too.
So, the question Vincent Chan asked himself, just like many others did back in 2020, was is all the stress, the long hours, the endless drudge worth it? There has to be a better way than being someone’s wage slave? Vincent Chan’s answer was to play to his strengths and go into business for himself in the great world of finance education. Guess what, hundreds of thousands of others also joined the ranks of the self-employed in areas like entrepreneurship, consultancy, retail and small business. To Vincent Chan this is an example of that great American drive to create new businesses and industries. Critics on the other hand see this as further evidence that millennials are just a bunch of lazy, coddled, self-centered overgrown kids!
Statistics demonstrate that those who stayed in their existing jobs increased their wages on average by around 4.8% while those who switched jobs or set up their own business on average increased their wage by 6.6%. So it seems that the Great Resignation was of economic benefit to many, but as Vincent Chan tells me the “Great Resignation” isn’t just about making more money it is about giving workers more balanced lives. With this in mind some US companies are introducing remote working, enabling workers to take advantage of living in areas with lower costs of living than the major cities. In countries like Britain, Spain and New Zealand companies are experimenting with four day working weeks. This adds up to greater flexibility for workers and better quality of life.
All this sounds like a new golden age for workers, one that America hasn’t seen since the post World War II economic boom. But is this scenario too good to be true? As Vincent Chan tells me there is another bleaker scenario that may just follow trends developing in China. Ever larger groups of young millennials dissatisfied with the expectations placed on them by government and corporation are choosing “laying flat.”
The laying flat movement in China sees young workers opting out of the promise of China’s consumer led economic miracle based on 6 day working weeks and a working day of 9am to 9pm. While America has enjoyed a 5 day working week based on a 9am to 5pm work day for a few generations now, many predict the end of the great American dream of endless prosperity and rising living standards based on hard work and selflessness. How long can this kind of mindset continue for when workers continue to see employers benefiting more from the fruits of their labor than they do themselves? If this trend continues then it will be the economy that is laying flat. A stagnating retracting economy, which will spell bad news for us all!
So, what will it be? An economic renaissance based on millennials harnessing that can do American spirit. Or a period of stagnation and economic decline. Whichever scenario plays out the future may just be in your hands so choose wisely. If you would like to hear more of Vincent Chan’s thoughts about the Great Resignation please watch the video here. More financial education videos by Vincent Chan covering a wide range of topics can be found here.
