It's ALWAYS about what you can walk away from - any relationship with a person or organization is a negotiation, and the more powerful of the two parties is the

It's ALWAYS about what you can walk away from - any relationship with a person or organization is a negotiation, and the more powerful of the two parties is the one that can walk away first. Just like there are other fish in the sea, there are other jobs, other forms of work, etc. The pandemic enabled a lot of healthy soul searching and introspection - many came away with the conclusion that their current arrangement for work wasn't worth the price. In general I've heard of 3 major groups that saw this: 1. Boomers near retirement who pulled the plug early; these hit harder because they hold most corporate operational knowledge 2. Married mothers who had to stay home for childcare who realized they'd rather stay at home; this because it's always been very marginal whether working is better than stay-at-home financial for couples. 3. Younger folks who probably never liked how work "worked" and decided they had time to try other tings The exodus from high cost parts of the US is likely part of this introspection and enlightenment as well.