Great Resignation

The Great Resignation is the name for the wave of people quitting their jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic, especially in 2021, as workers rethought their careers and what they would put up with.

What the Great Resignation means

Dictionary.com describes the Great Resignation, also called the Big Quit, as the widespread trend of large numbers of workers leaving their jobs during the pandemic. It’s usually discussed in the US, but the trend was international. Dictionary.com points to dissatisfaction with working conditions, poor treatment by employers, and people reassessing their careers and lives after the upheaval of the pandemic.

The phrase became a frame for a whole vocabulary of work slang that followed: quiet quitting, rage applying, lazy girl jobs.

Examples

• “Half my old team left during the Great Resignation.”
• “The Great Resignation forced the company to finally raise salaries.”
• “Is this a new Great Resignation or just a bad year?”

Where it came from

Dictionary.com credits the first known use to management professor Anthony Klotz, who used it in interviews and opinion pieces in May 2021. Millions of US workers then left their jobs over the summer and fall of 2021. The name copies the pattern of the Great Depression and the Great Recession, where “Great” signals a big, lasting event.

Related terms

• Quiet quitting: doing only what’s required.
• Boreout: exhaustion from boredom at work.
• Career cushioning: lining up a backup job.
• Vibecession: when the economy feels worse than the numbers.

See more terms like this in our work and money slang guide.