The Great Resignation of 2021
Debbie Morrison • October 12, 2021

The Great Resignation of 2021

In a phenomenon now dubbed the ‘Great Resignation’, employees are quitting their jobs in droves, many determined to change careers altogether. These anomalous numbers attracted attention when they began spiking in the autumn of 2021, particularly in the foodservice, hospitality, and retail industries so beleaguered through the pandemic. The trend has now spread to almost every other industry, throughout the world. Depending on the survey, something like half of all employed people are actively on the market.

 

There are several factors driving this. The first – and most nebulous – is a general working malaise. It’s not altogether surprising; as we all now know, a global pandemic isn’t easy or stress-free to live through. In addition to typical stress levels in any job, every employee has been working through a period of increased anxiety and unpredictability for eighteen months and counting, in many people causing symptoms similar to burnout.

 

Naturally, some people were already dissatisfied with their job or workplace, getting ready to move on prior to the onset of COVID. If they were fortunate enough to have continued secure employment, they hung onto it as they watched friends lose their jobs. This has led to an unusual level of pent up frustration as things begin (at least in some ways) to return to normal.

 

There are a great many employees who were asked by their employers to work from home through the pandemic, and discovered – no surprise here – that they enjoyed it. Now that their employers are requiring that they return to the office for their work, they’re questioning why, reluctant to give up the flexibility that they’ve enjoyed without a good reason for doing so.

 

It’s also not hard to imagine that income replacement programs offered by governments to support unemployed people have caused some of those people to question even the nature of employment itself, returning to ‘the grind’ only grudgingly and looking for something different.

 

With this multitude and range of reasons why people might be dissatisfied and considering walking out the door, how can you avoid your employees being part of this number? There are three strategies that are always valuable for keeping your finger on the pulse of employee engagement, but especially so right now.

 

Check In

If you want to understand where your employees’ heads are at, the first step is to ask. For larger organizations, this might mean conducting a broad-based employee engagement survey, or a series of brief ‘flash polls’ (protect employee anonymity if you want honesty, which may mean engaging a third party to conduct this kind of research).

 

Checking in, though, doesn’t necessarily mean surveying. Now is a great time to encourage managers at all levels of the organisation to touch base with members of their teams: sitting down for regular one-on-ones, communicating with intention, getting a sense for how engaged people are feeling in their work and what could be improved. Be ready to set aside ego, make it safe and acceptable to speak up, to really listen, and to respond to concerns (either with changes where it’s possible and appropriate, or with good explanations why some concerns can’t be alleviated).

 

Show Appreciation

There are many things a company can do to make employees happy: compensation increases, bonuses, more perks and benefits, promotions and professional development, and more. Time and time again, though, employees report that one of the most critical things their employer can do to make them want to stay is to show appreciation. To recognise their good work, and to let them know that they’re a valued member of the team. It costs nothing to say, “Thank you, really nice work”, either publicly – like an email to the whole team recognising one person’s specific contribution – or one-on-one (remember that some people cringe at public recognition just as much as others crave it).

 

It’s been more difficult to show appreciation to employees working out of the office; the natural conversation points at which that recognition would happen are harder to come by. Now, perhaps more than ever, is the right time to show your employees that you appreciate their work and commitment to the company through the challenging last year and a half.

 

Question the Status Quo

Many companies have asked their employees to be flexible throughout the pandemic. Creating, then working from home offices – some more makeshift than others – almost overnight, continuing to work while children of all ages are home from school or daycare, trying to remain alert and engaged through yet another video meeting (“I think you’re on mute, Michael ...”).

 

If you’ve asked your employees to work from home, and are now asking them to return to the office full-time, know that some of them are questioning why. Of course, this doesn’t mean that you must move away from onsite teams in favour of remote employees. It only means that it’s helpful to understand your own reasons for asking your people to come back, and how you can make it work better for everyone.

 

For many managers and companies, it’s the innovation and energy flowing from more collaboration. But collaboration doesn’t happen automatically just because everyone’s back in the same space. If this is your goal, what structures or processes will you put in place to foster the kind of in-person collaboration you’re looking for? For some companies, it’s more about the close working relationships and camaraderie that are knit from a tight social fabric. That’s great, but not every employee thrives in the same kind of social culture. What programs and activities will you initiate to allow everyone to experience – and contribute to – the social environment you want to create?

 

Be aware, as well, that many temporarily-remote employees have experienced a kind of work-life balance and flexibility that they’ve never had before. For these employees to be happy back in the office may mean proactively encouraging behaviours that preserve that balance (prompting people to take a head-clearing walk over a full lunch break, instead of eating at their desks, for example), and offering a greater degree of flexibility to deal with personal and family commitments.

 

Whatever status quo has meant for your organisation, be open to questioning why you’ve always done things the way you’ve done them. Whether they change or not, you’ll have a greater sense of purpose and intention about what you’re creating with, and for, your employees.

 

These three strategies can help strengthen your employee satisfaction and engagement at any time. Now more than ever, though, they might just be the keys to preventing your best people becoming part of the Great Resignation.

Your Culture Report Won’t Show You This

By John Elliott • June 6, 2025
On paper, they were fully resourced. No complaints logged. No formal red flags. Delivery metrics holding steady. But behind closed doors, the signs were there. Delays. Fatigue. Silence in meetings where pushback used to live. And a growing sense that key people were leaning out, emotionally, if not yet physically. When the cracks finally showed, the conclusion was predictable: “We need more people.” But that wasn’t the real problem. The problem was trust. And most organisations never see it until it’s too late. The Hidden Cost of Disengagement In Gallup’s 2023 global workplace report , only 23% of employees worldwide reported being actively engaged at work. A staggering 59% identified as “quiet quitting”, psychologically detached, going through the motions, doing only what their job description demands. Source: Gallup Global Workplace Report 2023 Disengagement is expensive. But it’s also quiet. It doesn’t show up on a balance sheet. It doesn’t send a Slack message. Disengagement isn’t new, just silenced. And in executive teams, it looks different. It looks like polite agreement in strategy meetings. It looks like leaders shielding their teams from unrealistic demands, instead of confronting the system causing them. It looks like performance metrics still being met… while people emotionally check out. The issue isn’t always capability. It’s safety. Psychological, political, and professional. Many senior leaders don’t raise concerns, not because the problem isn’t real, but because they don’t believe they’ll be heard, supported, or protected if they do. And this is where the failure begins. The Leadership Lie No One Talks About We talk a lot about leadership capability. About experience, commercial acumen, execution strength. But we don’t talk enough about context. Every leadership hire walks into a culture they didn’t create. They inherit unwritten rules, quiet alliances, and legacy power structures. If those dynamics are broken, or if trust is fractured at the top, no amount of capability will compensate. According to a 2022 Deloitte mid-market survey, 64% of executives said culture was their top strategic priority. But only 27% said they actually measured it in a meaningful way. We say culture matters. But we rarely structure around it. And so new leaders walk in with pressure to perform, but little real insight into what the role will cost them emotionally, politically, or personally. We Don’t Hire for Trust. And It Shows. In executive search, the conversation is often dominated by pedigree and “fit.” But fit is often a euphemism for sameness. And sameness doesn't build trust, it maintains comfort. We rarely ask: Does this leader know how to build trust vertically and horizontally? Can they operate in a low-trust environment without becoming complicit? Will they challenge inherited silence, or unconsciously uphold it? Instead, we hire for confidence and clarity, traits that often mask what’s broken, rather than reveal it. And when those hires fail? We call it a mismatch. Or we cite the usual: “lack of alignment,” “wasn’t the right time,” “they didn’t land well with the team.” But the truth is often uglier: They were never set up to succeed. And no one told them until it was too late. The Cultural Infrastructure Is Missing One of the most damaging myths in leadership hiring is that great leaders will “make it work.” That if they’re tough enough, experienced enough, skilled enough, they’ll overcome any organisational dysfunction. But high-performance isn’t just personal. It’s systemic. It requires psychological safety. A clear mandate. The backing to make hard decisions. The freedom to speak the truth before it becomes a PR problem. When that infrastructure isn’t there, when the real power dynamics are unspoken, good leaders stop speaking too. And the silence spreads. What Trust Breakdown Really Looks Like Often, the signs of a trust breakdown don’t show up in dramatic ways. They surface subtly in patterns of underperformance that are easy to misread or excuse. You start to notice project delays, but no one flags the root cause. Teams keep things moving, quietly compensating for the bottlenecks rather than surfacing them. Not because they’re careless, but because they’ve learned that early honesty doesn’t always earn support. New leaders hesitate to make bold calls. Not because they lack conviction, but because the last time they did, they were left exposed. Board reports look flawless. Metrics track nicely. But spend five minutes on the floor, and the energy tells a different story. These are not resource issues. They’re relationship issues. And the data backs it. According to Gallup’s 2023 State of the Global Workplace report , just 23% of employees worldwide are actively engaged. Worse, around 60% are “quiet quitting.” That’s not just disengagement. It’s people doing only what’s safe, only what’s required, because trust has quietly eroded. Gallup also found that managers account for 70% of the variance in team engagement, a staggering figure that reinforces just how pivotal leadership trust is. When people don’t feel psychologically safe, they shut down. Not dramatically. Quietly. Invisibly. What’s breaking isn’t the org chart. It’s the ability to speak plainly and be heard. And by the time it’s visible? The damage is already done, and someone calls for a restructure. “Low engagement is estimated to cost the global economy $8.8 trillion, 9% of global GDP.” Gallup, State of the Global Workplace 2023 So What’s the Real Takeaway? If you’re seeing performance issues, before you jump to headcount, ask a different question: Do the leaders in this business feel safe enough to tell the truth? Because if they don’t, the data you’re reading isn’t real. And if they do, but you’re not acting on it, then they’ll stop telling you. Leadership doesn’t fail in obvious ways anymore. It fails in the gap between what people know and what they’re allowed to say. And the price of that silence? Missed opportunity. Reputational damage. Cultural decay. Sometimes, the problem isn’t who you hired. It’s what you’ve made it unsafe to say.

The Energy’s Gone, But Everything Still Looks Fine

By John Elliott • May 27, 2025
Why Culture Decay in FMCG Is a Silent Threat to Performance It doesn’t start with resignations. It starts with something much quieter. A head of operations stops raising small problems in weekly meetings. A sales lead no longer defends a risky new SKU. A team member who used to push ideas now just delivers what they’re asked. Nothing breaks. Nothing explodes. It just... slows. And from the outside, everything still looks fine. The illusion of stability In food and beverage manufacturing, where teams run lean and pressure is constant, performance often becomes the proxy for culture. If products are shipping, if margins are intact, if reviews are clean, the assumption is: we're good. But that assumption is dangerous. According to Gallup's 2023 global workplace report, only 23% of employees worldwide are actively engaged, while a staggering 59% are "quiet quitting ", doing just enough to get by, with no emotional investment. And in Australia? Engagement has declined three years in a row. In a mid-market FMCG business, those numbers rarely show up on dashboards. But they show up in other ways: New ideas stall at the concept phase Team members stop challenging assumptions Execution becomes rigid instead of agile Everyone is "aligned" but no one is energised And by the time the board sees a drop in revenue, the belief that once drove the business is already gone. The emotional cost of cultural silence One thing we don’t talk about enough is what this does to leadership. When energy drains, leaders often become isolated. Not because they want to be, but because the organisation has lost the instinct to challenge, question, or stretch. I’ve seen CEOs second-guessing themselves in rooms full of agreement. Seen GMs miss red flags because nobody wanted to be "the problem". Seen founders mistake quiet delivery for deep buy-in. The emotional toll of unspoken disengagement is real. You’re surrounded by people doing their jobs. But no one’s really in it with you. And eventually, leaders stop stretching too. We train people to disengage without realising it Here’s the contradiction that most organisations won’t admit: We say we want initiative, but we reward obedience. The safest people get promoted The optimists get extra work The truth-tellers get labelled difficult So people learn to conserve energy. They learn not to challenge ideas that won’t land. They learn not to flag risks that won’t be heard. And over time, they stop showing up with their full selves. This isn't resistance. It's protection. And it becomes the default when innovation is punished, risk isn't buffered, and "alignment" becomes code for silence. Boards rarely see it in time Boards don’t ask about belief. They ask about performance. But belief is what drives performance. When culture begins to fade, it doesn't look like chaos. It looks like calm. It looks like compliance. But underneath, the organisation is hollowing out. By the time a board notices the energy is gone, it’s often because the financials have turned, and by then, the people who could've helped reverse the trend have already left. In a 2022 Deloitte study on mid-market leadership, 64% of executives said culture was their top priority, yet only 27% said they measured it with any rigour . If you don’t track it, you won’t protect it. And if you don’t protect it, don’t be surprised when it disappears. The real risk: you might not get it back Here’s what no one likes to admit: Not all cultures recover. You can try rebrands. You can run engagement campaigns. You can roll out leadership frameworks and off-sites and feedback platforms. But if belief has been neglected for too long, the quiet ones you depended on, the culture carriers, the stretchers, the informal leaders, they’re already checked out. Some have left. Some are still there physically but not emotionally. And some have started coaching others to play it safe. Once that happens, you're not rebuilding. You're replacing. So what do you do? Don’t listen for noise. Listen for absence. Absence of challenge. Absence of stretch. Absence of belief. Ask yourself: When was the last time someone in the business pushed back? Not rudely, but bravely? When did someone offer an idea that made others uncomfortable? When did a leader admit they were unsure and ask for help? Those are your indicators. Because healthy culture isn’t silent. It’s alive. It vibrates with tension, disagreement, contribution and care. If everything looks fine, but no one’s really leaning in? That’s your problem. And by the time it shows up in the numbers,t might already be too late.