Giving notice

Why Americans are quitting their jobs in droves

Quitting.
(Image credit: SeventyFour/iStock)

This is the editor's letter in the current issue of The Week magazine.

When a plague recedes like a spent tsunami, it reveals a world forever altered. Outbreaks of infectious disease — the bubonic plague, smallpox, cholera, the Spanish flu, AIDS — have been pivot points in human history. Plagues fueled the rise of Christianity in the Roman Empire. They eroded feudalism and gave rise to capitalism and the middle class. They devastated indigenous people in the Americas and paved the way for European colonization. We have just begun to see the first glimpses of how COVID-19 will reshape our society, but it's already clear that work will never be quite the same. We're in the midst of "the Great Resignation," with more than 12 million Americans quitting their jobs in the last three months alone. Given a pause during the pandemic to re-evaluate what matters to them, and vivid reminders that life is fragile and uncertain, blue- and white-collar workers of all kinds have decided to fire up that old Johnny Paycheck song: "Take This Job and Shove It."

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William Falk

William Falk is editor-in-chief of The Week, and has held that role since the magazine's first issue in 2001. He has previously been a reporter, columnist, and editor at the Gannett Westchester Newspapers and at Newsday, where he was part of two reporting teams that won Pulitzer Prizes.