"The Great Resignation"

riclad

What's happening in America is different, people are resigning from low paid jobs with no health insurance , there are other options, work from home, work as a driver etc is cyber bullying not present in every country? Of course if you are thinking of having kids there's cheaper country's to live in, high rent s and high House prices will make some people move to other country's especially if you have a job that can be done online

It makes no sense to me, truck driving is a low paid job but the whole supply chain shops and factory's relys on trucks to deliver parts and food to supermarkets and factory's

Wanderer78

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118199900#Comment_118199900

...all makes perfect sense to me, people have had enough of sh1te jobs

Wanderer78

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118199989#Comment_118199989

only started checking out graebers work now, been wanting to for a long time. theres plenty of alternatives, we just dont want to implement them, ubi could very well be a method of preventing social and economic implosion, but we dont even want to admit that either

BrianD3

Another factor that hasn't been mentioned in this thread is healthcare. I have left my job to become an unpaid carer for an elderly relative as the community care services provided by the state were completely inadequate. A bad situation got worse during Covid. E.g. daycare centres for the elderly that people were relying on were shut. Also, non Covid healthcare was neglected. My relative had a fall and fracture during wave 1 of the pandemic and should have had orthopaedic followup and physiotherapy/rehab. Nothing - and I subsequently heard that HSE physiotherapists had been redeployed to contact tracing and other Covid duties.

How many more people will have had falls and other health issues that have not been addressed and have resulted in people declining, losing independence and needing more care, putting even more pressure on services.

The primary care system (GPs) is also at breaking point.

The burden of care is increasingly falling on family members and if they didn't have a stellar career to begin with, resignation to become an unpaid carer might look to be the least worst option.

What's the alternative? Covid, sorry nursing homes max charges under the so called Fair Deal are approx 1000-2500 per WEEK, many people would pay a lot less than than that but if someone has assets and a decent pension they get reamed. If a family member is on low or even average pay, it may pay them (in terms of protecting family wealth) to give up work to become a carer if the only other option is a nursing home for their relative at up to 2500 per week.

Add to that the crisis in the paid homecare sector. Agency employed carers are paid a little above minimum wage and are treated badly, zero hours contracts etc. Surprise surprise, many don't stick around and would rather go on the dole and supplement that with nixers.

Add to that HSE employees and other public servants who have changed their outlook thanks to Covid and the reaction to it. Many public servants were treated badly in terms of working from home during the pandemic. WFH successfully but at the first sign of a drop in Covid cases in 2020, ordered back to the office by useless managers in contravention of public health guidance. I know of a couple of people who were reasonably happy in their jobs who planned to work until 65 but are now planning to take early retirement (with a significant financial hit to their pension) at age 50 and telling their boss to fcuk off.

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Shao Kahn

It's an existential crisis.

It tends to happen during or after periods of extreme stress in society. Particularly after war, when many people have died. But pandemics would have a similar effect. The hippy movement in the US is a good example of something that can morph out of this mindset.

We're all aware of our mortality. But these events bring us closer to edge of the cliff than we are comfortable with, and it has a deep resonance in our psyche. Many people re-evaluating their life, and not seeing the point of working in crap soul destroying jobs just to run around on the consumerist hamster wheel.

Maybe we'll get a second hippy movement out of it! Free love baby! ☮️ 🙃

aligator_am

I think a fair part of it is down to increases in broadband and mobile data speeds. This is allowing people to work online much easier than before.

Sites like Fiverr and Upwork can bring you in some decent money once you start to get decent customer reviews, I'd say a good amount of people started dabbling with this during lockdown and are now making as much as they did in their old jobs, without having to possibly deal with an unpleasant boss for minimum wage.

Also think quite a lot of people have started messing with trading cryptocurrencies, maybe not making millions but along with doing some side gigs then they may be earning an OK wage.

It also ties in with my point about increased mobile data speeds, (although maybe not as relevant here in Ireland) as it'd be possible to move to a much cheaper location but still work online.

I'll give you an example, you can go to the Philippines on a standard 30 day visa, then extend it to 3 months, then up to a maximum of 3 years. After that you can leave the country for a few days and come back in and restart the whole process.

You can rent an apartment or a house for about €300 a month, the cost of living is very low and most people there speak English quite well.

When faced with the option of dealing with a low paying job in the West with maybe some cranky boss or working for myself in the Philippines then I know which one I'd choose.

More and more countries are starting to come around to the idea of attracting digital nomads and are offering tax or visa incentives , I believe Georgia will allow you to stay for up to a year at a time and legally allow you to work online or start a business there. I think Greece are also bringing in something like this where they'll apply a very low tax rate to your earnings (not sure how the tax residency issues would work though?).

I may be wrong about this, but I think a lot of people are getting more educated about working remotely with the potential to basically be their own boss. Maybe some of them are taking a gamble to see if they can succeed at it?

daheff

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118202409#Comment_118202409

While I understand your point re living in a low cost location, you need to do that as a freelancer. Companies don't want their employees working in other countries as it could mean they have a deemed presence for taxable purposes, which could be quite expensive for them ultimately.

aligator_am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118202460#Comment_118202460

Yeah I know what you mean, but I think more and more people are starting to get more savvy about working for themselves online, especially younger people, even to the point of starting a YouTube channel as additional income (the number of new YT channels skyrocketed during the lockdown).

I'm thinking along the lines of maybe part of the reason why some people aren't taking their old jobs in companies is because they've found that they can earn around the same money working for themselves online.

There was a huge spike in people teaching English online during the lockdown also, the money's not terrible (maybe around $20 per hour) and you don't need a degree for a fair few of the online tutoring companies.

It actually got to the point where there were so many people signing up that they stopped accepting new tutors.

As I say, I people are starting to figure out that there are other avenues they can go down to earn money (lol I think Onlyfans single handedly kept all the Thai and Filipina bar girls afloat during lockdown).

Thinkingaboutit

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118202409#Comment_118202409

People can freelance or operate informal revenue earners far more easily. Given how the inflation rate is essentially a political fantasy, a lot of people a wondering why they work for the Man for less while ever more is demand of them.

donaghs

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118202182#Comment_118202182

I wouldn't compare it to the hippy movement. I'd see hippies more like kids who grew up in a golden age, America's post-WW2 economic boom. An economic boom which benefited almost all of society and reduced inequility, the great compression, 1940s to 1970s. Great Compression - Wikipedia

Their parent who lived through the depression and ww2, like many harsh times predeceding generations also went through, the Hippies largely grew up in more comfortable suburbs with supermarkets, TV, sometimes their own bedroom, university education, etc etc. And maybe this created the criticisms of materialism, foreign policy etc. As well as some spoilt, entitled, self-righteous complainers.

The pandemic, government borrowing to pay people out of work, lockdowns etc all are unpredented I think?