A plea for The Great Reignition
MADMADE founder Tim Harvey wants to move away from the negative connotations of The Great Resignation and look instead towards the opportunity for positive change.
The Great Resignation is no longer a surprise to most, a wave of change that has rippled across the world, with Australia the latest victim.
I say victim because that tends to be how this is reported on – a threat to the workplace. Earlier this month, the former US treasury secretary stated how this trend should scare investors. But what if Australia (or any other country for that matter) wasn’t a victim? What if they were a beneficiary of this huge shift in the workplace, after all this is a moment of positive change.
One of the hardest hit industries has been marketing. I left my role at a US-based advertising agency at the end of May for a change in country, focus and time out. I work three days a week now, and am going it alone for a year in a bold experiment that will challenge the model most of my career was exposed to. I’m one of so very many that has made a significant shift, but for me it wasn’t about resigning or finishing something (I loved my job) so much as starting something new and now being the right time for that. And so, it saddens me that we talk so much about this on behalf of companies losing something, versus people gaining something.
A plea. What if we stopped talking about The Great Resignation and started talking about The Great Reignition.