A simple catch up over a beers with friends opened my eyes for the Great Resignation.

Last Tuesday, I was in a pub with friends from my previous job for the classical end of year catch-up. We have a group of 4-5 (myself, one Irish, one British, two Aussies) middle thirties professionals that gather 2 or 3 times per year to have a beer or good dinner and talk about life.

The venue chosen for our gathering was Coogee Pavilion (or simply the Pav, for Coogee locals). The Pav has a great balcony with ocean views, and it is a great spot for an end of day drinks.

After a couple of beers, calamari, and checking in on everyone with the standard questions: how is family, are you travelling home for Christmas, how is your girlfriend/partner, you still living in the same neighbourhood, we ended up on the topic that made us friends: our jobs!

Apart from me, they were still working for the same company that I used to work with two years ago. I heard the same old complaints: lack of recognition and opportunities, bad corporate politics, and non-sense behaviour from senior management.

But something was completely different from our last meeting: their attitude towards these issues. I was surprised to see that 2 of them (the Irish and the British) had put forward their resignation.

The Irish has been speaking about this for the last two years but has finally decided to start his thing on his own. He is taking some time off and will start his own gig early next year.

I’ve never had this kind of conversation with the British. He also put forward his resignation in November, but senior management convinced him to stay and gave him other perks. After a couple of beers, though, he told me that he is probably leaving in January or February in 2022.

The Aussie Guy, a top talented bloke and the youngest in the group, was telling me how he has been looking for new opportunities and discussing with recruiters. Inspired by us 3, he is also thinking about starting his small business.

As for myself, I told them that I am not happy where I am and my plans for the future. What I thought would be the job of my dreams, it’s been boring, and I have zero excitement of working on the projects that I’ve been involved in.

I briefly told them about the FIRE concept and my plans for the future – no wonder of how interested they were (more on their interest below).

My takeaway from the beers and calamari

So, here there was a group of 4 top-talented young professionals with different backgrounds and goals, but on the same boat: looking forward to leaving their respective jobs.

My conclusion from our end of year catch-up was that big corporations will suffer with middle-management resources over the next coming years.

There will be a talent shortage that will induce increased workload to stress levels in staff, which in turn will boost even more the big resignation wave!

I am already suffering from it – I have been thrown into a project because two young professionals have resigned and were exhausted with the corporate approach from my current employer (note: I believe that this is the market reality, not specific to one or another employer in my opinion).

Last week, I was in touch with one of them, who has recently joined an investment bank and guess what..?

It’s been two months since he started his new role, and he is already saturated from it – long hours, crazy environment, lack of appreciation….

The Corporate Pyramid

Extending my reflection for a broader context, I used my engineering skills to frame the problem in a didactic way – the corporate pyramid.

The pyramid has three major layers – the YP (young professionals), the MMP (Middle-Management Professional, and the SSP (Senior Management Professionals).

Young professionals, fresh out from universities, are still willing to do the 9-5 regime and see that as a means for success in their lives – they are full of energy and dreams and can’t wait to move to the middle category in 5 years or so.

Some of them will strive and will become the future generation of CEOs and SMPs.

Some of them will burn out in less than one decade whilst trying to become an MMP or SMP as fast as possible (sad reality!).

Senior management professionals (>40 years old) tend to have a conservative position, and even though some of them cannot stand their professional routine anymore, they are probably stuck with massive mortgages, kids, and a family package that they need to provide financial support.

Then we finally have the mid-management professionals (late 20s and 30s). They have passed the graduate days, are making “good” money but do not identify themselves with what they are doing or just don’t buy the corporate model anymore.

Most of them have already lived the “corporate dream” – wearing suits, travelling for work, staying in fancy hotels, and working on significant projects – and realized that this is not for them or just don’t fit in that model (I include myself here).

Impacts of the Great Resignation on the Corporate Pyramid

The great resignation has been fueled my MMP and has been shrinking the middle of the pyramid.
And what is the impact of this?

The funnel is losing its structure and balance, which is increasing burnout across all levels. In 11 years into the corporate world, I’ve never seen these levels of staff turnover – It is crazy to see companies with turnover rates above 30-40%.

SMPs are obliged to accept the consequences because of all their existing financial liabilities.

YPs are being told that this is part of life and they should get used to it if they want to succeed in the corporate world.
MMPs don’t buy these fairy tale stories anymore and are willing to take the risk to become entrepreneurs in their field or completely change their professional lives!

At the end of the day, what is the worst-case scenario? If they fail in what they are trying, they can go back to the corporate world!

The Great Resignation, COVID-19 and FIRE movement

The COVID pandemic has caused all sorts of damages worldwide: lockdown, mental health issues, increased stress levels, etc. 

However, it also has shown that there is a different life model. You don’t necessarily need to wake up at 6 am every day and go to an office to earn money and be successful.

In my opinion, people in their mid-thirties are the most affected by this whole new paradigm from a psychological perspective. All of them have been question themselves with numerous questions, such as: 

• Why am I doing this?
• Why do I need to go to the office and stay in front of a computer for 9 hours per day and try to please senior management that I do not admire?
• Why this is the “model of success” in life?
• Why can’t I create something for myself with my rules and my understanding of the world?

At the same, they are the ones that have the biggest opportunities to leverage this situation to change their life paths completely. 

I am personally trying to reinvent myself and exploring different alternatives, including this blog. 

When I told my friends about the FIRE movement during our catch-up, they were extremely curious and asked me multiple questions.

The British guy sent me a message the day after we had met, asking for book and website indications on the topic. 

The Irish lad remembered how he was happy during his time in Colombia (He studied Spanish for three months there in 2019), having a great lifestyle in Medellin with an extremely affordable way (leveraging geographical arbitrage – see this post about it), and started to make the calculations of how much he could make from his investment property back in Dublin and what was his cost of living in Colombia. 

The Aussie was more conservative and focused on his career, which is completely understandable – Each one has different dreams and life models. But he was still actively discussing numbers and the 4% rule (see this post for more on the 4% rule and FIRE movement).

At the end of the night, everyone was on FIRE!

Write again soon! 

Cheers,