For Black professionals, resigning is liberation.
I made the choice to tender my resignation in the fall of 2021, but not for the reasons you may think.
By now we have all endured seemingly endless punditry on the Great Resignation — with economists, employers, and politicians alike all making their case for why Americans need to return to work and what the nature of that work should be. The most recent tally indicates that 75.5 million Americans quit their jobs in 2021. Some are unwilling to return to an office, others are in search of higher wages, and a greater segment is switching industries and taking up new ventures entirely.
As we continue settling into the new year, the atmosphere is heavy with apprehension that the Great Resignation may be here to stay. This reignited focus on recruitment and retention has particularly steep implications for the nonprofit organizations trying to make a case that working to improve society is equitable compensation in lieu of competitive salaries and comprehensive benefits.
Even still, the Great Resignation is too small a narrative to convey the nuanced truths of what it is like navigating this current iteration of the American workforce while Black. Beyond the reprieve that virtual work grants some Black women from microaggressions and bias, there remains a question about Black liberation in a society dependent on our mental, emotional, spiritual, moral, and physical labor.