The Great Resignation

Future. A growing number of employees are quitting Big Tech in what some are calling “The Great Resignation.” Wooed by smaller companies, workers are taking their talents to startups where they can make a bigger impact and take advantage of a flurry of IPOs and funding. The growing resignations signal another trend — a shift in power balance. More people are starting to rethink what work means to them, scrutinizing how they spend their time, and demanding more from employers.

Tech-xodus
Big Tech has a problem — its employees are leaving.

• In April 2021 alone, a record four million people, or 2.7% of the American workforce, quit their jobs.
• According to a Microsoft study, over 40% of the global workforce are thinking about quitting.
• In tech specifically, over 30% of surveyed IT professionals say they plan to recruit for a new role in the next several months.

Big fish, small pond
Employees at tech giants are flocking to smaller upstarts where they can make a splash and cash in on a market flush with record-breaking VC deals. Defectors also cite pandemic burnout, resistance to returning to the office, and frustrations with Big Tech bureaucracy and staid business practices.

Others point to a growing stigma around working for tech giants. According to Ran Mokady, who left Amazon to work for an AI startup helping older adults, the pandemic made him reevaluate things.

Indeed, with labor demand outpacing supply, many believe it’s an employee’s market, making it an ideal time to leave. “There’s a lot of [IPO] money out there,” says Kelly Soderlund, ex-SAP, adding that “employees have never been in such a position of power. It’s an interesting inflection point.”