[johnny35]

Does anyone have a good understanding of how this narrative got started and took off? We've always had narratives outpacing facts (in hopes that the facts could be nudged into catching up), but I wonder to what extent social media plays a role in driving these stories now.

[vikingerik]

It's just the media fishing for clicks, like everything else. People love stories about quitting because they dream of doing it themselves. Particularly the people whose attention is already on social media rather than work.

The reality of the so-called "great resignation" is just pent-up demand for job switching that didn't happen during the pandemic. Every number looks high compared to 2020's artificially suppressed baseline.

Of course social media wants to push the idea that people aren't working, because people who aren't working consume more media, and that's all they care about.