The Great Resignation
Etymology
Coined by Anthony Klotz, an organizational psychologist, who used the phrase in May 2021 to predict a surge of post-pandemic departures. The name deliberately echoes historic "Great" upheavals like the Great Depression, casting a labor-market shift as an era. It briefly rebranded quitting as empowerment rather than instability.
noun phrase · /thuh GRAYT rez-ig-NAY-shun/
The wave of workers voluntarily quitting their jobs in unusually high numbers, especially across 2021–2022, in the wake of the pandemic.
What it names
A handle for a mass reassessment of work — a moment when quitting stopped being an individual event and became a visible, collective trend with bargaining power.
Example
During the Great Resignation, our team lost four people in two months, each to a raise we could have matched.
Related idea
Lying flat is the same disillusionment expressed by withdrawal rather than exit — opting down instead of quitting out.