You can barely turn on the news over the past three months without hearing about “the Great Resignation.” Millions of people quit their jobs and decided to focus on living the lives they always dreamed about, leaving the rat race of Corporate America and doing what they want to do.
The pandemic got people thinking about more than money and power. They wanted the chance to finally be free to explore and work on the things that mattered to them, spend more time with family, and take better care of themselves. In many people’s eyes, the pandemic made them finally take a look at their mortality. People decided they didn’t want to spend the best of their lives just working to make money.
Middle-aged, middle management, and technology professionals, primarily white men, and women, are the poster children for the great resignation. So, did the great resignation skip over Black America?
New Jobs, not No Job
The media loves a good story. If you have 4 million people just deciding to quit their jobs because they want to do something else, it makes for good TV. Are all the people quitting deciding not to work anymore, and living on a small island in the Caribbean? Are they going to spend their days hiking in some remote part of the world?
The answer to that question is NO. The vast majority of resignations are people who decided they just wanted to change jobs. People got used to more flexibility, and they wanted to keep it. Many just started looking for new job prospects, and they got what they wished for. To sum it all up, all those resignations are just people getting new jobs because they wanted to do something different. And the pandemic was the catalyst to get them to leap finally.
For Black professionals, the great resignation is probably more a dream than a reality. Many black professionals had a hard time just getting where they are now. The likelihood of taking a chance at a new opportunity is far less appealing to us than our white counterparts. The reasons are plentiful, but most are around whether we can get the same opportunities presented to us as our white counterparts. History says it isn’t likely.
Early Retirement because I made More Money than You
The Great Resignation is also being fueled by people who have historically had and made more money than black people for a lot longer. Middle-aged professionals who have been able to make more money could also save more money over the years. Now, instead of waiting until they turn 65, many decide to retire early and find creative ways to live off of less with the money they have already saved. If you were privileged enough to be able to save enough even to think early Retirement is a possibility, congratulations to you. But most black professionals don’t have this benefit. We make less than our counterparts on average, and we took a long time to finally get to the point of making decent enough money to be able to begin living an everyday middle-class life finally. But student loans are still lurking in the background, which usually deters most thoughts of leaving the workforce.
While the percentage of people resigning from jobs who are leaving the workforce to retire early is much smaller than those getting new jobs, the number is still significant. And it is yet another option that most black professionals still cannot even consider as an option.
Side Hustling America – The Black America Great Resignation Opportunity
Black professionals are participating most in the creation of side hustles. We aren’t resigning from jobs in record numbers, but we are creating micro-businesses. The possibilities for the “Great Black Resignation” reside in this phenomenon. Black people are starting to do the math and recognize that after taxes, commutes, daily lunches, and other hidden costs associated with having a regular 9-5 job, there is an opportunity for more freedom through micro-businesses. What’s the difference between having a full-time job making $70,000 a year before taxes and having a business that makes $50,000 a year? Not much!
The coming Great Black Resignation may result from the surge in profitable micro businesses. These businesses will not make black people rich, but they will provide freedom, flexibility, and a sense of purpose. We may not be significant participants in the recent great resignation, but Black America is taking notice. We see the trends and the possibilities of living a more purposeful life outside of the office. Our Great Resignation is on the horizon. It will just look a little different than the one making headlines today.
