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https://www.bbc.com-By Alex Christian
Plenty of workers are happy in their new positions amid the Great Resignation. But for some, hindsight is 20/20.
When Lucy was offered a full-time remote position at a digital publication agency, it felt like an upgrade on her current role. Not only would the London-based creative-services manager be given a more flexible working arrangement, but she’d also seemingly be granted greater career opportunities – as well as a healthy pay rise.
“At my interview, I was told the role would be a complete step-up from my current work,” says Lucy, whose surname is being withheld for job-security concerns. “I was promised I’d be working on bigger and better things, collaborating with more high-profile clients.”
After struggling to make up her mind whether to accept the position, Lucy eventually opted to take the new job. But even in her first week, her day-to-day experiences didn’t match what her boss had promised in the recruitment stage. “During the on-boarding process, I realised my role had been oversold,” she says. “It was actually much more admin based, and there was high staff turnover.”
Soon, Lucy began to question her decision to change jobs. “There were many positives at my old employer – it wasn’t easy to leave,” she explains. “Looking back, I was tempted to move based on over-promises made by my new boss, who was desperate to hire anybody. By my second day at work, I was deeply regretting the choice I’d made. It felt like I’d taken a step back in my career.”
Much of the narrative around the Great Resignation has focused on people who have made inspired decisions to jump ship for other opportunities, re-craft their careers for a better work-life balance or drop out of the workforce entirely. But in hindsight, not everyone is pleased with their decisions. Increasingly, some workers are finding they quit their job with great gusto – but didn’t necessarily end up in a better situation.
According to a March survey of around 2,000 US workers who quit their job in the past two years, about one in five said they regretted doing so. Likewise, employees also expressed remorse for their new role: only 26% of job-switchers stated they liked it enough to stay; a third reported they had already begun searching for a new role.
Such figures imply that large swaths of the workforce now regret joining the Great Resignation, and that they may have made their decision to leave their job in haste. But is this phenomenon truly greater than ever? Or may quitter’s remorse simply be part of the job?
Why regret is on the rise
For nearly a year, around four million US workers have quit their jobs every month, often for better pay or roles that align more with their values. It’s helped to spark a hiring crisis that’s seeing great competition for talent. Other countries are feeling the squeeze, too; in the UK, this worker movement has created a record number of vacancies.
Many workers are being tempted to change jobs due to this intense scramble for candidates, says Shayla Thurlow, of online employee-advice platform The Muse, based in New York City. But while many of these would-be employers are dangling different types of perks in front of jobseekers, workers may be missing some of the red flags. Thurlow says digitised recruitment and hybrid-working environments can make it harder for employees to discern important structural issues, such as a company’s work culture, during the interview process.
In a 2022 survey by The Muse of more than 2,500 US workers, 72% said their new role or company was very different from what they had been led to believe
In a 2022 survey by The Muse of more than 2,500 US workers, 72% said their new role or company was very different from what they had been led to believe, with nearly half stating they would try to get their old job back as a result. “With the labour market as competitive as it is, we’re seeing many recruiters with flashy sales pitches trying to attract workers with a big pay rise on top,” explains Thurlow. “But it’s leading to some jobseekers taking roles or working for organisations that don’t meet their needs, meaning they soon experience regret.”
Thurlow says earlier-career employees are most vulnerable to having a position be oversold to them, meaning they’re more likely to eventually regret switching jobs. “Quitter’s remorse may not necessarily be regret for leaving the old job, but more a case of finding out a job isn’t actually as advertised. It’s those who have been in the workforce for longer who are more likely to ask the right questions in an interview. Conversely, it’s younger workers who may find themselves caught up in the pizzazz of a company sales pitch.”
The condensed timeframe in which job candidates may have to make these life-altering career decisions can also add additional pressure, leading workers down a problematic path. “When you think about quitting, you’re actually weighing up a complex set of pros and cons, comparing your current role to a potential one,” explains Anthony Klotz, associate professor of management at Texas A&M University’s Mays Business School, US. “But you’re doing so with incomplete information: the company recruiting you will only tell you the good things.” It’s best to go through the decision “very slowly and deliberately”, he says – though not every worker has the latitude to do so, which can sow the seeds of quitter’s remorse.
If everyone else is leaving…
Millions of workers scattering to new positions en masse may also persuade a candidate to feel as though they have to move on, too – even if they don’t necessarily need to.
A worker may see colleagues resign all around them amid a hot job market, and feel they may be missing out, says Klotz. “They begin to view all other companies with rose-tinted glasses because of all this momentum pulling them into the market. And the grass is always greener – we tend to overweigh the positives of trying something new.”
The tight labour market also means a worker who is still somewhat happy with their current employer, yet bears some frustrations, may be tempted to simply switch jobs and take a salary hike, rather than stay and work through issues.
“Currently, it can be easier to quit than have tough conversations with management,” says Klotz. “When people resign, it’s often not because people hate their jobs: they may like 80% of it, but dislike the other 20%. When they switch, they’re often looking to solve the 20% – and assume the good things in their current job will be there in their new role. But many people don’t realise that every job comes with different issues.”
Klotz believes it’s in these situations that workers can experience the most intense quitter’s remorse. And ruminating over an apparently bad decision can come at a longer-term career cost. “Changing jobs is a hard transition,” says Klotz. “The longer you stay in that liminal state, harbouring feelings of regret, the harder it is to engage in your new workplace – it negatively impacts job performance.”
Regret as part of the job
Instances of quitter’s remorse may be on the rise due to the current high churn of the job market. However, regret is typically part of the process, regardless: the next step in a worker’s career path often involves reminiscing over workmates and tasks left behind.
In fact, Klotz says occasional nostalgia for a past role is perfectly healthy, particularly when beginning a new role. “Regret is a normal part of the process. It’s common to experience relief and excitement shortly after resigning, but there are also many reports of people soon feeling a tinge of regret afterwards.”
The risk with quitter’s remorse is that deep feelings of regret, however fleeting, can cloud an employee’s judgement. During a difficult transition process, a worker could be pushed to swiftly follow one quit with another amid the current job market. “The danger is quitting again too quickly,” says Klotz. “Then, you’ll be hitting culture shock repeatedly, constantly restarting the cycle.”
Feeling out-of-sorts in a new role, and sometimes pining for an old job, is a process that can take up to two years while an employee builds up their social capital – Anthony Klotz
For employees experiencing quitter’s remorse, the challenge is to analyse its root cause. For example, Thurlow believes a worker can look elsewhere if they feel a role has been incorrectly sold to them. “If the actual job is vastly different to what was promised in the recruitment process, then it’s perfectly acceptable to find a good fit elsewhere,” she says. “There’s no reason to suffer through unfulfilling work or toxic environments when you have the ability to search for jobs that meet your financial needs, values and personal beliefs.”
In most cases, Klotz recommends it’s often best to acknowledge and then push through feelings of regret. “Feeling out-of-sorts in a new role, and sometimes pining for an old job, is a process that can take up to two years while an employee builds up their social capital. Every company culture is different: you have to adjust and slowly build up your relationships, efficiency and effectiveness at the job.”
If regret is often part of the job, then workers experiencing quitter’s remorse may be better off sticking it out in many cases. For example, Lucy has stayed with her current employer. While she still has frustrations with its corporate culture, she has gradually been given more fulfilling tasks and now reports greater job satisfaction.
“I’m happier to stay in the longer term now,” explains Lucy. “There are still issues, but I’m finding that they’re slowly being worked out the longer I’ve been here. I’ve become used to a new routine, got to know how things work a bit better and realised the bad things about this job aren’t actually as bad as in my previous role.”