The Great Resignation puts pressure on those who stay behind

Office workers are starting to feel the pain of the Great Resignation, as increased workloads and the strain of repetitive tasks has pushed up to 70% of employees to consider quitting their jobs in the next six months.

That’s according to enterprise automation software company UiPath’s 2022 Office Worker Survey, which collected 5,000 responses from office workers across the US, UK, France, Germany, India, Australia, and Singapore.

The so-called Great Resignation is showing no signs of slowing, with a record 4.5 million American workers quitting their jobs in November 2021 alone, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. Now, 70% of survey respondents said they are considering following suit in the next six months.

This has led remaining colleagues to feel increased pressure at work, with 83% of respondents taking on up to six new tasks outside of their job descriptions due to coworkers resigning. As a result, 68% of respondents reported that they no longer know what their responsibilities are.

“Very few people are quitting due to salary alone. Usually it’s more about working conditions,” Jack Gold, president and principal analyst at J. Gold Associates, told Computerworld at the start of the year.

Monotony is also having a negative impact on employee wellbeing, with many respondents noting their frustrations about having to carry out what they see as mundane or administrative tasks. These frustrating tasks include responding to emails (42%), scheduling calls and meetings (35%), and inputting data (34%). Globally, 94% of those surveyed said they feel exhausted at the end of a workday at least once a week.

“The world of work has changed and retaining and attracting workers with the aid of emerging technology is a business imperative,” Bettina Koblick, chief people officer at UiPath said.