Big gap: fewer resignations but dissatisfied people are growing in the office

The long wave of uncertainty in the economic context also has its impact on the labor market, which takes the form of great disillusionment. Fewer mass resignations, but much more frustration. From the great resignations of 2021, the great resignations in fact, we have moved on to quiet quitting, the silent abandonment, the great regret, the great repentance, up to what the HR innovation practice Observatory of the Milan Polytechnic indicates as the dominant phenomenon of this period, the great detachment. What is happening to Italian workers? Mariano Corso, scientific director of the Observatory, explains to us that «there is a growing frustration, attributable to the perception of instability in the labor market, accentuated by conflicts and global crises and by wages that are often inadequate to the cost of living». All this is worsening the already precarious level of well-being in the three dimensions: physical, relational and mental. The share of those who say they are fully engaged is only 17%, while just 10% are comfortable in the organizational context. However, the number of people who have changed jobs or would like to do so is decreasing and has gone from 45% in 2022, to 46% in 2023, to 42% in 2024 and to 41% in the last survey.

The data from the 2025 Observatory are the result of a double survey, with the aim of understanding the path of change in human resources management: the first is among 150 large, medium and small companies where the HR manager speaks, the second, carried out with the support of Doxa, is on a sample of 1,500 workers. Starting from the latter, just over one in ten (11%) has changed jobs in the last year or intends to do so within the next 18 months (29%). Many variables, the first is certainly economic uncertainty and therefore the difficulty in understanding the prospects, block those who in the past have swelled the ranks of the great resigners. Taking the latest data published by the Ministry of Labor on the mandatory communications system, relating to the third quarter of 2024, there is a trend decline, compared to the same period in 2023, of 2.9%. The absolute numbers say that voluntary resignations were 541,129 (307,176 males and 233,953 females), or 16,024 less than in 2023. Going back a little further, in the first quarter of 2024 the drop compared to 2023 was 0.4% and in the second quarter 3.8%. Blocked by the fear of worsening their situation, as happened to some who surfed the wave of major resignations, workers become disillusioned, resigned to dissatisfaction. According to the Observatory data, quiet quitters, who stay in their job doing the bare minimum without being emotionally involved, have increased by 14%: it is estimated that they are 14% of the total, a good one in seven. Among those who want to change jobs, the percentage of those who are actually interviewing has decreased by 12% (52%), while the percentage of those who regretted changing jobs has dropped by 64% (from 56 to 20%). However, the majority continues to be dissatisfied.

The approach to work is changing. "Wellbeing and balance, which continue to be people's priorities, are being accompanied by a growing search for safety and protection - continues Corso -. In this context, the main challenge for human resources management, in 2025, is to work on the sense and meaning of work, trying to overcome the growing feeling of precariousness". In yet another phase of transformation, between generational change and technological revolution, human resources managers have the task of "charting the course of change in organizations, which passes through artificial intelligence, new strategies and new skills". The data says that more than half of the people interviewed, when choosing a new job, look at the protections offered by the contract (75%), the presence of a healthy and stimulating work environment (73%), the amount of pay and economic benefits (69%). The rest comes after, much after, even the possibility of making a career, which is indicated among the priorities by only 51%.

The disillusionment of many workers makes it even more difficult for companies to manage the talent shortage issue. One in two companies interviewed expects to grow their workforce in 2025, but 83% of organizations are struggling to hire new staff and, in half of the cases, the difficulty has increased in the last year. The most critical aspect is the difficulty in finding candidates with the appropriate technical skills. About one in five new positions concerns digital professions: the most sought-after profiles are those specialized in AI, Big Data Management & Data Analytics and Cybersecurity & Data Protection. "In all three, acquisition through internal development has increased to the detriment of research on the external market - observes Corso -. The Talent Shortage makes the organization's ability to develop new skills even more central. Already today, 8% of workers need to be retrained because the skills to carry out their job are not adequate or are at risk of obsolescence within 3-5 years. And one in three workers is worried that their skills will become obsolete in the short future or that they will have difficulty relocating". On the other hand, more than one in two people also believe they have skills that could be useful in other roles, which is why they are not currently taken into consideration. The combination of skills shortages and the lengthening of working lives makes it urgent to analyze the skills needed in the short-medium term (3-5 years) and understand how to relocate people to positions where they can express themselves best: more than one in four companies, however, does not carry out an assessment of current skills.

The frontier, according to Corso, should be that of skill-based organizations where responsibilities are assigned based on people's skills, rather than on traditional factors such as hierarchical position, functional membership or seniority. In this type of organization, the Observatory found that the percentage of workers who are "well" increases from 10% to 18% and intenders and resigners go from 41% of the sample to 36%. But the real surprising data is the jump from 17% to 42% in the percentage of fully involved and motivated workers.