It's Friday, December seventeen. I'm Oscar Ramires from the Daily Dive podcast in Los Angeles, and this is reopening America. We've been seeing a lot of action with the Great Resignation, as people quit their jobs for better opportunities. But people aren't just leaving their broadcasting it to social media and finding a community with others who have done the same. Traditionally, career coaches wouldn't recommend speaking ill of former employers online,
but all the rules have changed. Emma Goldberg, reporter at the New York Times, joins us for more. Thanks for joining us, Emma, thanks for having me on. You know, throughout the pandemic and the latter half, we've been talking about the Great Resignation. You know, a lot of people leaving their jobs, moving on. Hopefully it's bigger, bigger and
better things. But what we're seeing in a lot of cases is these big public displays of these resignations, people broadcasting that they quit, you know, going out on social media and you know, letting everybody know, or you know, even videos of how they did it, different things like that. I know career coaches probably don't feel the best about those tactics. But you know, all the rules have kind of changed. So Emma, tell us a little bit about it. Yeah,
that's it's a great question. So I think, as you mentioned, more and more people are starting to pick up on the fact that people are leaving their jobs. So the quitting rate, which is the percentage of workers who are voluntarily leaving their jobs, reached three this fall, which is which is really high. There was one and fourteen hospitality workers, for example, quit their job in August. But I think what's notable about this moment is that it's not just
at the quitting rate is high. It's also really visible because people are blasting it on social media when they leave their jobs. To that point, right, uh, Or I mentioned the rules have kind of changed. You know, that's not necessarily a lot of what career coaches would probably
want or really wasn't what was happening a lot. You know, you never wanted to disparage the company that you left or a former boss or something, only because you know it might look bad for the next employer somebody espec Now with social media, right, a lot of employers go back and check those feeds. You know, if there's kind of signs of troublemaking or anything like that. You know, they might want to steer away from hiring you. That's
exactly right. Some of the career coaches that I spoke with are pretty weary about this trend because they noted that, um, first of all, the labor shortage is not gonna last forever. At some point, jobs are going to be in higher
demands than workers and the others who that. You know, regardless of whether workers are in demand or not, bosses and hiring managers are still most likely searching people on social media before hiring them, and they're often going to be a little bit skeptical if they saw that person posting about a former employer or a former boss. Yeah, but for them, for the employers you mentioned also to you know that it's this tough balance, right, you know, do I hire a dicey person maybe, or do I
risk the burnout of others in the company. And that's a key thing, right because these staffing shortages obviously put more pressure on the remaining employees. You know, if we if we keep that shortage and we keep that pressure up on everybody else, is the burnout worse? Rather than hiring somebody who might have posted something on social media that's exactly right. It's a tough kind of between a
rock and a hard place for employers. But some of the experts that I spoke with said that at the end of the day, right now, what they're most worried about is these staffing shortages that are going to lead to burnout among their employees, and so sometimes they're willing to go for those slightly dicier hires, even if it's someone who, let's say, posted a TikTok ranting about a former employer or former boss or the piece you profiled Gabby n l O she left her real estate job.
I think she posted something to TikTok so her followers could see how did her story go? Yeah, Gabby Um is a really fun voice in this piece, and she's someone who was working this really corporate job. She was waking up every morning before five am and then going on this commute to the office where she didn't always necessarily feel like she was getting um the fulfillment and the meaning and the benefits that she wanted. So February
of the pandemics we quit her job. She had about ten thousand dollars in savings and then she posted a TikTok about it um what I'm calling a quit talk, where she talked about why she decided to quit, and it really resonated with followers, and she ended up starting a podcast called Corporate Quitter that's kind of cheerleading other people who are quitting their jobs as well. Did you did she get another job? Or is the podcast the
only thing she does right now? Because the only reason why I asked that is, like, you know, then there was no danger really in posting that TikTok if she changed career course, you know, she's making money elsewhere, so it would be interesting to see that part of it. I think you're pointing to something really important, which is, on the one hand, right now you have you have career coaches kind of urging people to make snabby choices.
But then you have workers who are saying that over the past year and a half, they've kind of questioned their values, they've questioned what they want out of their work and out of their working days, and they've decided that they don't want to go back to corporate life.
So if they're posting something that kind of slams shut the door behind them, they're not mad about that, and they're saying they've realized that they really want more agency and ownership over their careers, and in a lot of cases that means creative pursuits where it's actually to your
benefit to build a brand by posting UM. They worsen even about quitting on social media, and to your point, you know, they post the stuff people are, you know, maybe tuning out some of the career coach guidance, you know, the things in that area, and they're finding a community on social media. They're finding guidance on social media from other people how they didn't and what they're doing next, and you know people take those cues and and use
that advice as well. Yeah, that's exactly right. People are giving one another advice about how to quit. I spoke with UM a young woman named g G. Gonzalez who left her investment management role, and she actually uses her TikTok in part to kind of give people advice about how they can make similar moves to what she did.
And I think what's an important point is that for all of these people who I ended up speaking with for the piece UM, the post that they make about quitting are actually a really important part for them of building their brands and allowing them to do the kind of creative work that they want to do. So it's sort of expanding their audience and um and and building and amplifying the platform that they have to talk to people. And and they're you know, they're owning what it means
to be a quitter. To them, being a quitter is is cool. Emma Goldberg, reporter at the New York Times, thank you very much for joining us, Thanks for having me on. I'm Oscar Ramirez and this has been reopening America. Don't forget that. For today's big news stories, you can check me out on the daily I've podcast every Monday through Friday. So follow us on I Heart Radio or wherever you get your podcast. H