After Covid, the US saw a wave of younger workers leaving unsatisfying and exploitative jobs. Now I hear it’s France’s turn

Recently I was chatting to an acquaintance in Paris, a senior manager in his mid-50s, who works for a French company in the education sector in France. He was complaining to me about what he viewed as a lack of loyalty and commitment among the younger workers he manages – both millennials and gen Z. I imagine the manager is, himself, a good boss; at least, the person I know is sympathetic, flexible, and has admitted to me that he would give everyone raises if he could. So I held my tongue. But inside, every cell in me was cheering for all of the underlings who were willing to leave a job that wasn’t suiting them, or who were demanding more flexibility in their hours and locations.

The phrase “quiet quitting” was first referenced in Urban Dictionary in May 2022, but millennials have had a reputation for being “difficult” employees to manage since well before then. And now, after what was termed the “the Great Resignation” – in the US in the period after Covid – the internet is simmering with rumours that a Great Resignation 2.0 may be brewing, perhaps brought on by employers such as Amazon insisting that staff return to the office five days a week from 2025, when many would still prefer hybrid arrangements. This follows a study by LinkedIn and Microsoft which found that even more people want to quit their jobs today than did in 2021. The survey of 31,000 individuals across 31 countries found that 46% of employees want to leave their jobs in the year ahead – more than the 40% in 2021. (Of course, there’s a big difference between wanting to quit and having the means to go through with it.)

Alexander Hurst is a Guardian Europe columnist