🔶 Collective resignation; the other side of protests in the hell of inflation and unemployment

🔻 A report by Atfeh Chaharmalians

They smile, cry, or show their resignation papers, their latest pay slips, and their settlement forms to the audience; they say “last shift,” “last patient,” “last case,” and “last day.” These are stories of the decision to leave a job—something that, for many of them, has been part of their lives for years.

A young nurse wrote in an Instagram post: “When resigning, I cried for all the years I had ignored myself; for my adolescence and youth that I spent studying for the university entrance exam, and then having to endure the harsh atmosphere of the hospital.”

Another nurse, speaking about overcoming fear and carrying out what she considered the right decision, announced her resignation. An employee reported that they finally put into action the decision they had been thinking about for months within ten minutes.

Among these accounts, teachers are also strongly represented. A math teacher with 23 years of experience says they have left their job. Another person, who describes herself as holding a PhD in physics and being temporarily employed, says her monthly salary is 17 million tomans. A formal education ministry teacher also says that after 15 years of experience, following the school principal’s reminder about her clothing, being summoned to the security office, and what she calls “neglect, lack of fairness, low income, and the absence of respect and human dignity,” she decided to resign. Another young teacher also says that her take-home pay doesn’t even cover her commuting expenses.

In such circumstances, what factors determine people’s calculations about whether to continue or leave their jobs? And when those decisions go beyond the individual level and become collective behavior, what message do they carry about a country’s psychological and social situation? What makes these accounts more thought-provoking is that, in an economy where earning income is vital to cover the costs of living and where finding a new job is not easy, why do some people end up in a situation where staying in their job becomes more costly than leaving it? Saba Alaleh, a social psychoanalyst, answered Deutsche Welle’s questions on this matter.