It is telling that the most popular village explainer of the current labor shortage should not be an economist but a psychologist. Klotz teaches at Texas A&M’s Mays Business School, but he holds a doctorate not in economics but in organizational behavior. Economists say workers are demand higher wages, Where swap crappy jobs for better paying jobs, or be choosy because they can live on prolonged unemployment benefits saved which expired in September. It is certainly possible that such speculations are true, and if they are, hallelujah. But any explanation too deeply rooted in the peculiarities of the U.S. economy comes up against the fact that, as columnist Ishaan Tharoor observed on Monday in The Washington Post—the Great resignation is global. It’s happening all over the place. What do the workers of the world have in common? (Besides, of course, the desire to lose their chains.) They are all sick and tired of the global pandemic.

The Great Resignation is less about what is in a worker’s wallet than what is in a worker’s head. So I called this Aggie psychologist who came to me so highly recommended, and I lay down on his virtual couch. I told him what’s bothering me. His answers were very convincing.

Reports of burnout at work, Klotz told me, “are about as prevalent as they could be.” Frontline workers have gone through the worst, but you see it everywhere: “caregivers, managers, middle managers, shift workers”. Most likely, dear reader, you have already experienced this yourself. There is also a memory mori aspect, or what Klotz calls “mortality indices.” People are dying from Covid-19, and there’s a good chance you will know of one or more. “When people come in contact with death or disease,” Klotz explained, “it makes us step back and think about existential thoughts.” Containment has given many of us time to reflect on these questions.

Finally, we learned during the pandemic that many people really like to work at home. A Gallup poll from October 13 found that 91% of them wanted to do at least some of their work from home after the pandemic. “It definitely gives us more freedom to organize our days,” Klotz said. “When we are given autonomy, we tend not to give it up on purpose.”