The Great Resignation has been making a lot of headlines lately. I'm not at all surprised, considering companies have practically made it their mission to treat at least sixty percent of their workers like disposable dirt, giving no raises or promotions, and screwing with benefits every which way they can. It's good to see some general backlash beginning, even if I doubt much lasting change will result in this country since the US government has rarely backed the worker class in a meaningful way, unlike other developed nations in Europe, but at this point I'm in favor of any improvement for workers.

There have also been a few articles about boomerang workers, which also doesn't surprise me. At my old job we had a few researchers who either left LIB or transferred departments, and then six months to a year later asked for their old jobs back since their new jobs were even worse. It's always the risk you take when you move on, and I'm sure a decent proportion of those quitting now will find that is true in their cases as well. Going back isn't always better though.

For me, when I left LIB it was out of desperation since it was literally killing me to stay there, and I STILL seriously considered asking for my old job back once the pandemic hit and it was obvious I would be unemployed and living with my parents for the foreseeable future. The job had switched to remote, and I thought maybe I could make it work in some way. 

However, I felt sick every time I thought about actually making that plea to come back, not because of the humiliation, but because I knew I would be walking back into the exact same situation I had left in terms of a terrible company treating us progressively worse for my class of worker, stress that would make me unable to eat without vomiting again, and a dysfunctional management structure. Health insurance that was eating up over $15,000 a year and a big brother "wellness" framework that was increasingly invasive. Doing the jobs of three people since key people had retired and weren't being replaced, but still receiving minimal or no raises for years. Banking was one of the industries that enforced a call back into the office over the summer despite Delta, so it would be in person alternating weeks, and the loss of anything I could consider my space since they moved my desk 12 times in five years across two boroughs even before any pandemic upheaval. And most of all having no power to effect changes that would address any of these problems.

In short, I was Milton in Office Space and burning down the building (metaphorically) was the point I was pushed to before quitting. Unfortunately the building I chose to burn down was my body since I had some autonomy over that. I don't want to be there again.

I wish the boomerang workers the best and hope that they can come back to their positions with new benefits, a substantial raise, and a better outlook on where they are in life. In some organizations it can work that way. I hope that the minimum wage is raised due to this worker backlash and that basic rights like health benefits and maternity leave can be secured for everyone. I see glimmers of hope that we can do better even if it remains to be seen if we will. Fingers crossed that there is a silver lining in all of this.