You thought the Great Resignation was over?
Think again.
After a brief intermission where everyone was terrified of recession and grateful to have any job at all, people are quitting again. In waves. Your coworkers are dropping two-week notices like they’re going out of style. Your group chat is full of “I finally did it” resignation announcements. LinkedIn is a parade of “I’m excited to share…” posts.
Welcome to the Great Resignation 2.0—except this time, it’s different.
In 2021, people quit because they were burned out, overworked, and realized life was too short during a pandemic. They quit for better pay, better conditions, or to start that business they’d been dreaming about.
In 2025, people are quitting for darker reasons: because they’ve lost faith in the system, because AI is making their jobs unbearable, because the return-to-office mandates broke them, and because they’ve realized the corporate ladder doesn’t lead anywhere worth climbing.
Let’s unpack why everyone’s quitting again—and why this wave might actually change things.
The RTO Backlash: “Come Back to the Office or Else”
Let’s start with the catalyst that’s triggering mass resignations: return-to-office mandates.
After three years of proving they could work effectively from home, millions of workers got hit with ultimatums. Amazon mandated five days a week. Major banks brought people back. Tech companies that built entire identities around remote work suddenly decided offices were essential.
What employees heard: “We don’t trust you. Your productivity doesn’t matter. Face time is what counts.”
What really broke people: It wasn’t just the commute (though three hours a day in traffic will destroy your soul). It was the dishonesty.
Companies claimed it was about “collaboration” and “culture,” but employees knew the real reasons:
- Commercial real estate investments they needed to justify
- Middle managers who couldn’t manage remote teams
- CEOs who missed the power of walking through “their” office
- Desire to quietly reduce headcount without layoffs (make it miserable enough and people quit)
The result: The workers who could leave, did. The ones with in-demand skills, savings, or options walked. Companies lost their best people and kept the ones who had no choice but to stay.
Real examples:
- Amazon’s five-day mandate triggered a massive exodus of senior engineers
- Major banks are discovering their junior talent won’t tolerate in-office requirements
- Tech companies are quietly relaxing policies after losing too many people
The people quitting over RTO aren’t being dramatic—they’re making a rational calculation that their quality of life matters more than corporate real estate.
AI Anxiety: “My Job Is About to Be Automated”
Here’s what nobody’s saying out loud at your company meetings: everyone’s terrified of AI.
Not in the “robots taking over the world” way. In the “my job will be automated in two years and I’ll be competing with 10,000 other people for the few remaining positions” way.
The AI fear breakdown by job type:
Content writers and marketers: Watching ChatGPT write decent copy in seconds Designers: Seeing AI generate logos and graphics that are “good enough” Customer service: Knowing chatbots are getting better every month Data analysts: Realizing AI can now do basic analysis faster than they can Junior developers: Watching AI write code that would have taken them days Paralegals and legal assistants: Seeing AI review documents at superhuman speed
Why this is driving resignations:
Smart people are getting ahead of the curve. They’re quitting to:
- Retrain in AI-resistant fields
- Start businesses before their savings run out
- Move into roles where AI is a tool, not a replacement
- Exit industries facing AI disruption
The thinking goes: “If I’m going to be unemployed in two years anyway, I might as well quit now while I can still leverage my experience to pivot.”
Whether AI will actually eliminate all these jobs is debatable. But the fear is real, and it’s driving decisions.
The Burnout Boomerang: “I Thought It Would Get Better”
Remember when everyone said we learned from the pandemic and would never go back to toxic work culture?
Lies. All lies.
The people who quit in 2021 for mental health reasons, found new jobs, and thought things would be different? They’re quitting again because surprise—the new job had all the same problems.
What the burnout boomerang looks like:
Act 1: Quit your toxic job in 2021, full of hope Act 2: New job seems great for 6 months Act 3: Realize it’s the same dysfunction with a different logo Act 4: Quit again, but this time with more cynicism
The patterns people are escaping:
- “Urgency culture” where everything is a crisis
- Meeting overload (8 hours of meetings, when do you actually work?)
- Performative productivity (appearing busy matters more than results)
- Constant reorganizations that accomplish nothing
- Toxic positivity (mandatory fun! team building! pizza parties instead of raises!)
- Layoffs that massacre teams while executives get bonuses
Why people are quitting this time: They’re not looking for a better job—they’re looking for a different system entirely. Freelancing, starting businesses, contract work, anything that escapes the corporate hamster wheel.
The “Quiet Promotion” Exodus: “More Work, Same Pay”
You know what’s hilarious? Companies that laid off 20% of their workforce, gave the survivors all the extra work, called it “a growth opportunity,” and acted surprised when those people quit.
The quiet promotion playbook:
- Company does layoffs for “efficiency”
- Your workload doubles overnight
- Boss says “this is a great chance to showcase your abilities!”
- You work yourself to death for six months
- Review time: “Great work! Here’s a 3% raise that doesn’t cover inflation”
- You rage-quit
Real examples employees are sharing:
“I was doing my job plus my coworker’s job plus managing an intern. Asked for a promotion. Got told ‘budget constraints.’ Then they hired someone external at the level I asked for. I quit the next week.”
“After layoffs, I was doing the work of three people. My boss called it ‘stepping up.’ I called it exploitation. Found a new job and left.”
“They eliminated my manager’s position and expected me to take on all his responsibilities. No title change. No raise. Just ‘teamwork.’ I lasted three months.”
Why this drives resignations: Because people aren’t stupid. They can see they’re being exploited. And the fastest way to get a real raise in 2025? Quit and get a new job.
The Wealth Gap Realization: “I’ll Never Get Ahead Here”
Something clicked for a lot of young workers: no amount of hard work will buy them financial security in their current jobs.
The math that’s breaking people:
Your salary: $65,000 Rent: $1,800/month ($21,600/year) Student loans: $400/month ($4,800/year) Healthcare: $200/month ($2,400/year) Car payment: $350/month ($4,200/year) Gas, food, utilities: $1,000/month ($12,000/year)
Total: $45,000 in basic expenses Left over: $20,000 (before taxes eat half of it)
Good luck saving for a house, retirement, or any kind of financial security.
The breaking point: People are realizing that working hard, getting good reviews, and climbing the ladder… leads nowhere. Your salary will never catch up to cost of living. You’ll rent forever. Retirement is a joke.
So why stay at a job you hate when you’ll be broke either way?
The resignation logic:
- “If I’m going to be poor, I might as well be poor doing something I care about”
- “I’ll never afford a house on this salary, so why suffer in this toxic environment?”
- “The company makes millions while I can’t afford to have kids—screw this”
People are rage-quitting the entire concept of trading their lives for slightly-above-poverty wages.
The Side Hustle Escape: “I’m Making More Money Online”
While some people discovered their side hustles were scams, others actually made theirs work—and now they’re quitting to go full-time.
Who’s quitting to go independent:
- Content creators who hit monetization thresholds
- Freelancers whose side gig out-earns their salary
- E-commerce sellers who built profitable stores
- Coaches and consultants with full client rosters
- Developers with steady freelance pipelines
Why the timing is right in 2025:
The creator economy matured. The tools got better. The platforms stabilized. And most importantly, people figured out how to actually make money online instead of just collecting followers.
Real resignation stories:
“I was making $75K at my marketing job. My TikTok + course sales hit $90K last year. I quit in January.”
“I’d been freelance web developing on the side for two years. Finally replaced my salary. Put in my notice and never looked back.”
“Started a Shopify store selling band merch as a hobby. It grew to $15K/month. Why would I keep my $50K job?”
The catch: Most of these people worked 60-80 hour weeks for 1-2 years before quitting. They didn’t quit TO build a business—they built a business and then quit.
The “Lifestyle Over Money” Movement: “I’d Rather Be Poor and Happy”
This one drives Boomers crazy, but it’s real: people are choosing less money for better lives.
What this looks like:
- Quitting $100K corporate jobs to teach yoga for $40K
- Leaving big cities for small towns with lower stress and lower costs
- Taking pay cuts for remote work and flexibility
- Choosing jobs with better work-life balance over higher salaries
Why this is happening: The pandemic broke people’s brains in a good way. They realized that grinding for money they never have time to spend on a life they’re too exhausted to enjoy is insane.
Real examples:
“I was making $120K in tech but working 70-hour weeks and constantly anxious. Now I make $65K as a park ranger. Best decision of my life.”
“Quit my consulting job to teach high school. Yeah, I make half as much, but I have summers off and actually sleep at night.”
“Left finance to become a carpenter. My friends think I’m crazy. But I love going to work now.”
The generational shift: Older generations: “Money first, happiness later (maybe)” Younger generations: “What’s the point of money if I’m miserable?”
What This Wave of Resignations Means
The Great Resignation 2.0 is different from the first wave in important ways:
2021 Resignations: Optimistic. “I’m quitting for something better!” 2025 Resignations: Disillusioned. “I’m quitting because the whole system is broken.”
2021: People quit bad jobs for good jobs 2025: People are quitting jobs entirely—for freelancing, entrepreneurship, or complete career changes
2021: About finding better conditions within the system 2025: About escaping the system entirely
This isn’t just job-hopping. It’s a fundamental rejection of how work is structured in America.
What Companies Are Getting Wrong
Companies are responding to mass resignations with:
- Pizza parties and “culture initiatives”
- Mandatory fun and team building
- Wellness apps and meditation rooms
- Ping pong tables and beer on tap
What employees actually want:
- Pay that covers cost of living
- Flexibility and trust
- Reasonable workloads
- Actual work-life balance
- Leadership that doesn’t lie
- A future they can believe in
The disconnect is astounding. Employees are drowning, and companies are offering them pool floaties.
Should You Quit Too?
Not every resignation is heroic. Not every person who quits has it figured out. Some people quit and regret it. Some quit one disaster for another.
Questions before you rage-quit:
- Do you have savings? Quitting with no cushion is high risk
- Do you have a plan? Or are you just running away?
- Is the problem your job or your industry? Switching jobs might be enough
- What’s your alternative? Freelancing sounds great until you realize you have no clients
- Are you running toward something or away from something? One is strategy, the other is panic
When quitting makes sense:
- Your health (mental or physical) is deteriorating
- You’ve exhausted all options to improve the situation
- You have a concrete backup plan
- You’ve saved enough to weather the transition
- The opportunity cost of staying exceeds the risk of leaving
When quitting might be a mistake:
- You’re acting impulsively without a plan
- You’re broke with no savings
- Every job you’ve had has been terrible (maybe it’s not just the jobs)
- You’re romanticizing unemployment or entrepreneurship
The Bottom Line
People aren’t quitting because they’re lazy or entitled. They’re quitting because:
- The social contract of work is broken
- Companies are exploiting loyalty instead of rewarding it
- The cost of living has made financial security impossible for most workers
- AI is creating existential job anxiety
- Return-to-office mandates violated years of trust
- Quality of life matters more than quarterly earnings
The Great Resignation 2.0 isn’t a trend—it’s a symptom of a fundamentally broken labor market.
Will all these resignations force systemic change? Maybe. Or maybe companies will just hire more desperate people willing to accept worse conditions.
But for the individuals quitting? They’re not waiting around to find out. They’re taking control of the only thing they can—their own choices about how to spend their limited time on Earth.
And honestly? You can’t blame them.