Toxic work culture, lack of loyalty, unrelenting burnout and ‘lazy girl jobs’ may fuel the biggest January quitting spree in 20 years.
Who’s up for another Great Resignation? According to a recent analysis of Federal Reserve Bank data on quitting trends, next month might see us in the throes of a fresh exodus from the workplace.
The data indicates there are two specific times of year when people tend to quit in higher numbers: January and August. The January exodus has been nicknamed the ‘bonus bounce,’ with researchers speculating January 2024 will herald the biggest quitting spree in 20 years.
The timing for January’s wave of resignations isn’t hard to ferret out: workers who are unhappy in their current roles often hold out until the holidays are over—after their annual bonus checks have landed safely in their accounts. Then, they’re out of here.
Though the labor market is moderating slightly, hiring efforts are still projected to struggle through stubborn talent shortages in Q1 2024. This strong hiring landscape will only fuel the freedom that workers feel to seek a better fit elsewhere.
Pair the historically high number of open jobs with the negative reasons that people quit—lack of loyalty, general burnout and toxic work culture—and it’s not hard to see how January may well be a bleak month for employers struggling to retain top talent.
Lazy girl jobs on the rise
To this laundry list of reasons to quit your demanding job, I would add the recent ‘lazy girl jobs’ phenomenon. Lazy girl jobs are, in a nutshell, the types of roles best suited to quiet quitting. They’re defined as non-technical roles that are remote, require little to no interaction with customers or coworkers and allow for significant flexibility in where, when and how the work is performed.
It should be noted that workers who seek that type of role aren’t just female, nor are they actually ‘lazy’: they simply see the rest of life as more important than their work. Their job needs to pay the bills, of course, but that’s about it. They don’t seek fulfillment, joy or even social interaction from their work.
They are, as a friend of mine recently put it, operating in ‘power saver mode.’ Like a laptop conserving its battery life, they still get the job done, but it might be a bit slower or just not as pretty along the way.
Responses to the lazy girl job trend have been all over the board, with some loudly praising the movement for championing healthy work-life boundaries, while others decry it for encouraging workers to give less than their all. Often, these differences fall clearly along generational lines, with my generation, Boomers, being more likely to look askance at their younger-gen counterparts whose professional goals consist of finding a less-demanding, remote role that gives them plenty of time and energy for their personal life.
How employers can survive the exodus
Employers who are paying attention to workforce trends should tune in to what makes lazy girl jobs such a thing, especially to their younger workforce. Leaders may need to have serious conversations about how they might tailor their open positions to better meet what younger workers are looking for.
For example, one of the defining features of a lazy girl job is fewer direct interactions with customers and even coworkers. While this may sound antisocial on the surface, it could actually be related to the fatigue of over-meeting—a challenge for many organizations where some estimate that workers lose almost a week every month in unproductive meetings. Gen Z, already an anxiety-prone generation, may feel that having to ‘perform’ socially in multiple meetings every week just isn’t appealing.
Lazy girl jobs are also marked by their flexibility. As long as the work gets done, you can do it at night, broken up in chunks throughout the day or even just work that normal 9–5 shift when that’s the most convenient or productive time of your day. This type of flexibility can’t translate to every single role, but it’s worth examining your current lineup of open roles to see where a little more flexibility can be introduced to entice the younger workforce.
The Factor/Vega analysis includes several additional action steps to mitigate the fallout of January’s bonus bounce, such as thanking your people in a meaningful way, reframing goal statements as questions and implementing a team diagnostic survey and discussion. To these suggestions, I would add prioritizing a human connection with your team.
A human connection is forged when you feel seen, heard and valued by the person you’re interacting with. You know you’re not just a number to them. They take the time to make eye contact, ask questions (and listen to the answers), validate what you’re saying (even if they don’t necessarily agree) and treat you with respect that is never impersonal or rote.
In the age of AI, human connection will become increasingly important to workers who want to know they’re more than just a cog in the machine. Not to mention that it’s almost impossible for a toxic work culture to take root when people feel connected at this level.
To be frank, it may already be too late to fully prevent a January bounce-out at your company. Premeditated quitting usually has strong reasons behind it, so I would encourage you to use any resignations as a learning experience. Conduct post-mortem interviews, find the common pain points and commit as an organization to making the necessary changes this year so that, come January 2025, the bounce won’t hit so hard.
Waiting to bounce out
If you’re one of the workers just waiting for your bonus to land safely in your account before you hand in your notice, I see you. I’d never try to convince you to stay in a role where you’re burned out, unappreciated or forced to sacrifice your personal goals to your professional life. At the same time, the grass isn’t always greener on the other side.
If you’re still weighing your options, here are some questions to ensure you’re making the right choice:
- What do I dislike about my current role/employer?
- What do I like about my current role/employer?
- Do I have the ability to develop new skills at this company?
- What factors in my personal life are influencing my work, positively or negatively?
- Do I look to my job for identity, purpose, social interaction or other intangible benefits, or is it simply about the paycheck right now?
- What type of work would help me to become the best version of myself?
Only you can be the best judge as to whether your current role is still a fit—or if it’s time to move on. If you do bounce out, do it gracefully and don’t burn your bridges. If you stay, commit to making 2024 a great year, as far as it rests with you.