Who saw it coming first? 'Great Resignation'? Beyoncé or Anthony Klotz? Was it the glamorous music diva or the then shy and almost unknown professor of organizational psychology at Texas A&M University? Was it the author of the song 'Break My Soul', “Now I just fell in love / And I just quit my job”, or who coined a term destined to go viral in an interview given to Bloomberg Businessweek in May 2021?

BothBoth were intelligent and insightful diagnosticians of one of the phenomena that most concern organizations today, one poetically, the other as an 'insight': the endless resignations of his collaborators, endless and unpredictable but, above all, at least in appearance, impossible to stop.

Despite all sorts of new policies put into practice, many of them related to the promotion of a culture of well-beingIt seems there's no way to retain talent. But what if, for a moment, we could consider that the best way to retain talent is precisely not to want to? What if we're analyzing what's happening based on concepts or categories that can't explain it? Below, the three great myths that prevent us from understanding what 'Great Resignation' means. And how to manage it better.

A simple way to understand a phenomenon, perhaps too simple, it's true, involves trying to answer three equally simple questions about it: what, why, and for what purposeIn other words, what is happening? (its meaning)Why does this happen? (its meaning) And what is the purpose of doing it? (its purpose).

In one way or another, whether the questions are explicit or not, almost all attempts to explain the 'Great Resignation', and almost all actions aimed at remedying it, address these themes: their meaning, their significance, and their purpose. almost absolute unanimity in the responses it has already become a planetary narrative, unanimity and lazy uniformity In many cases, they sometimes obscure understanding more than they illuminate it, sometimes they neither clarify nor reveal anything. This is not always the case with myths, but perhaps that is what happens here.

1. What is the 'Great Resignation', what is its meaningThe 'Great Resignation' is first and foremost, as its name undoubtedly indicates, an act of "Great Renunciation". MYTH #1The 'Great Resignation' is not first and foremost an act of “"Great Pandemic Resignation" but a act of self-affirmation, the great protagonist of the 21st century, an act of festive proclamation of its sovereigntyThe collaborators do not renounce an “object,” the work, but rather affirm a “subject,” the itselfwherever they perform.

The most advanced organizational cultures support work environments conducive to self Realisation, one of the great aspirations of contemporary workers, but which has already become insufficientIn addition to self-realization in professional life, they now also aspire to... self-transcendenceto achieve something that has meaning for others, their colleagues, and also the recipients of the products and services intended for them. When they perceive that this is not the case, “just quit” their work, as Beyoncé sings.

__2. Why The 'Great Resignation' is happening, what is its meaning? Employees are looking for more friendly working conditions, flexible hours, 'home office', policies that promote psychological and emotional well-being and favor the reconciliation between professional and family life. MYTH #2Certainly, collaborators seek all of the above, and perhaps even much more, but still That is not the only possible meaning of his “Great Renunciation”.

All of the above, or more precisely its absence, raises problems nothing minor for the task performanceBut those who decide to resign do not do so for that reason, or not only for that reason, but because of their inability to view problems as challengesand challenges that do not primarily relate to tasks but with respect to oneselfA challenge always makes sense, a problem very rarely does.

Sooner or later Solutions are found to problems, challenges remain for a lifetime - life itself is a gigantic, continuous and fascinating 'start-up' -That's why so many are considering leaving their current jobs They are not seeking immediate gratification., as they are usually and unfairly judged, They simply reject fleeting gratificationssuch as money, for example, or power over others.

__3. So that What happens when 'Great Resignation' occurs? purposeThe obvious purpose is to improve the professional situation. MYTH #3Those who are considering resigning from their jobs do so precisely because they are not thinking only in terms of work and profession.

What they are looking for, above all, is a new order of their desires, their needs, and their expectationsand a new order that gratifies them all. Is well-being enough? Not if it is not also a relational well-beingThe new workers are leaving their jobs not in search of better income, but above all, pursuing higher quality linksWhen the quality of interpersonal relationships is poor, people seek them in new spaces. In this case, the purpose is the answer to the question for what It's not enough; their concern is the for whom.

To retain talent in times of 'Big Resignation', we must start by demystify conventional answers to the questions what, why and for what purpose.

And this is the paradoxical keyTo retain talent, you shouldn't try to retain it, but rather contain itConcepts matter. To contain is Having with others is community. of learning, enthusiasm, projects and experiences, while to hold backAccording to the 23 Academies of the Spanish Language, it is “to preserve something that should be returned".

In times of primacy and affirmation of subjectivity As rarely seen in history, only those organizations capable of handling the complexity that this entails manage to "retain" talent. organizations that “contain”Organizations that promote this same subjectivity instead of discouraging it, that encourage expressiveness and creativity, open work environments, "flow" cultures, resilience rather than resistance to the environment, career plans, results-oriented work, personalized rather than generic compensation, more free time, the integration of families and friends, interesting training perceived as vitally useful, and not just for increasing efficiency—organizations that foster this possibility to find in what one does what one isand vice versa, and that facilitate great and diverse paths to achieving happiness, or at least a part of it.

Between June and October 1940, the so-called Battle of britain, the first major battle fought entirely in the air, in this case over British skies and the English Channel. Hitler He considered an amphibious invasion of the United Kingdom impossible without first destroying its Air Force.

Near London were located several airfields These were the refueling stations where Spitfire and Hawker Hurricane aircraft would come to refuel and repair combat damage. History tells us, in lowercase, that on the first day of the battle, as soon as the battered planes arrived, the major in charge of the workshops ordered that the undamaged parts be reinforced instead of repairing the damaged ones. When asked why Regarding that decision by the perplexed mechanics, the major responded: "Those who were damaged in the parts that these have healthy are precisely those who did not manage to return."

Countless organizations are focused on carrying out a thorough “damage control” (visible) with respect to the 'Great Resignation', retaining or wanting to do so, which in a way alludes to creating a seductive but almost forced impediment to the exercise of free subjectivity, but they lose sight of the fact that there is no greater (invisible) harm for a professional than thinking that their work is their only hope, and the only thing they aim for, and The main and supposedly attractive reason for wanting to retain him is "to be better," but not to actually be better. Beyoncé or Anthony Klotz? Perhaps the humble Royal Air Force major whose unknown name holds a legend.