The Great Resignation is a Spiritual Crisis

The Great Resignation occurred in 2021 and was followed by the 2022 phenomenon known as “quiet quitting.” While pundits attribute these workplace trends to a variety of worldly causes such as lack of childcare and availability of public programs replacing incomes, the change in workforce patterns is actually rooted in a spiritual seeking caused by pandemic-created lifestyle changes.

What are The Great Resignation and quiet quitting?

The Great Resignation and quiet quitting are terms used to describe two significant, current trends in national employment and the workforce. The former term refers to the voluntary mass resignation of employees from the workplace across all industries. Some of these workers decide to find new employment and some do not, choosing instead to stay at home with children, return to school, change industries, or just take a break from working altogether. 

The term “quiet quitting” has been coined to describe the phenomenon of employees remaining at their jobs – but quietly performing less work, at least in the eyes of their managers. Some argue that quiet quitting is simply the act of employees putting up long-overdue boundaries about their time and mental health in the workplace.

One oft-cited cause of these two trends is the desire of employees to find positions that allow greater work-life balance; what worked before the pandemic simply no longer works. Women have also been among the slowest to return post-pandemic to the workforce, as they took on childcare and homeschooling duties in the middle of the shutdown. 

How is it spiritual?

While socio-economic factors do influence these trends, the two true drivers of this national restlessness are spiritual. The first of these is the fight against acedia, also known as sloth. The second is the beautiful discovery of what really matters in life: a perspective on the eternal gained during the fraught and confusing time of pandemic shutdowns. Both influences impact what our hearts desire. 

Acedia

“Acedia” is defined as “spiritual sloth” and is considered a sin by the Catholic church. Acedia is disengagement, listlessness, and hopelessness. As I have written previously, acedia is also defined as a rejection of God’s grace and the blessings He wants to give us, as well as a determination not to move forward with one’s life.  

Think about the slothful behaviors the pandemic reinforced: excess time on social media, doomscrolling the news, and hours spent with TV and movies. Remember attending TV Mass? How many Catholics have still not returned to Mass, post-pandemic, because livestreamed Mass is still an option? Sloth is a difficult sin to overcome in a physical sense, but particularly in the spiritual sense. Acedia tells you that making an effort is not necessary, because nothing really matters anyway. 

Acedia was already a problem in our culture that the pandemic exacerbated. Acedia is a difficult pit to climb out of and may also be the driver behind “quiet quitting” and employers’ inability to rehire.

Discovering true wealth

While acedia and its impact on one’s life are negative – and something to strive to overcome – the other side of the spiritual Great Resignation battle is actually positive. During the pandemic – particularly when mandates and lockdowns were at their worst – humans on a mass scale had the time to evaluate what matters in life. What do money, career, prestige, proximity to glamorous theaters, designer gowns, or the perfect Facebook album of a trip abroad matter if you don’t have health, family, and friends to enjoy it?

For many, the realization of what really matters came as they saw their children needlessly suffer from the shutdowns and forced online learning. Others stood helplessly by as their businesses, which they poured heart and soul into, disappeared. A common tragedy, of course, was the forced separation of families, particularly the young from the elderly, in the name of health. These were devastating, life-changing things to live through. As a nation and the world, we are still enduring the consequences of this traumatic time and will for generations.

This collective realization happened for many over the course of the pandemic. The loneliness and austerity of the shutdown period provided a window for us all to examine what really matters. This discovery is finding “true wealth.” Professionally, the significance is that people are willing to completely change their lives, if necessary, to hold on to the meaning they discovered during the pandemic.

A note for seekers

Despite the temptation you may feel, I do not recommend resigning your job unless you have a very solid plan in place, the support of your spouse or family, or have otherwise thoroughly examined your finances.

Instead, I recommend an alternative: do not forget what you experienced during COVID. Continue to look inward and examine what you learned and what your soul is seeking now. Find a way to go deep – through prayer, by working with a spiritual director, or by going on a retreat.

Most importantly, continue those things that kept you human during the pandemic. Just because the world has opened back up does not mean you need to neglect your bird watching, crocheting, rollerblading, gardening, and especially not the renewed time you spent with family and friends. These things make us human! These pastimes keep us from being workaholic automatons. You are absolutely entitled to hobbies and a life outside of work, and chances are, you will be a better employee if you do these things. These positive actions allow us, with God’s grace, to move away from acedia and toward the recognition of our true nature: loved by God and called to live a life in relationship with him.

If you feel you are still in the midst of this time of radical self-examination, remember what Saint Pope John Paul II said: “Jesus Christ is the answer to which every human life is the question.”

The silver lining

The pandemic was a traumatic ordeal, one whose societal consequences will be felt for decades. The silver lining is that the unusual time in 2020-2021 provided the world a moment to stop and re-evaluate what really matters and to strive to live in a way that has meaning. This blessing in disguise is an opportunity and a hopeful step toward greater closeness with our Creator.