- a lot of (most?) people are really stressed out by the pandemic, and suffering from some kind of mental health crisis or discomfort. This can push someone to finally resign a borderline job, or switch careers if they were struggling already with burnout. I also know several friends who had marriages blow up during this time that otherwise would have kept going indefinitely, and that often leads to rethinking many other life decisions.

- the constant ‘work from home’ has also allowed many people flexibility to pursue side projects, invest in other parts of their lives, and try things they otherwise wouldn’t because of the lack of flexibility. This opens up new lines of thinking other than ‘keep turning the crank at this specific job as hard as I can’

- stock market valuations have skyrocketed. For folks with large stock portfolios, many went from ‘doing ok, maybe retire in 5-10 years if I keep doing this’ to ‘fuck you money’ in the space of a year and a half.

- for everyone else, there is a severe crunch of staffing in many companies, and some are willing to pay people based on that, leading to shaking up a stagnant wage pool in many markets. Many of the stagnant wage pools were at companies that were already not very good at showing caring and empathy for their workers, or outright abusive. A lot of people are switching because of one or more of these factors, and enjoying massive raises and better working conditions because of it.

- as more folks resign and/or switch, and when it actually works out well for them, others notice and are more willing to do the same.