People don’t leave jobs… yes they do!

People don't leave jobs they leave managers, it's a phrase you see across the internet and popping up on memes on social media and of course talks on youtube and TED. There are countless surveys out there that will tell you 57% of people or 78% of people or any number you, want leave a job because of their boss, and so it must be true, that's why people leave jobs, bad managers.

Except, that's it's not true, and if your organisation hangs their hat on that, then I believe you are in trouble because I must wonder how many of these 'bad boss' statistics are really confirmation bias. If you go out asking, would you leave a job if you had a bad boss, most people will say yes! There are many reasons to leave a job, some better than others but all perfectly valid, here's just a few reasons why people really leave jobs.

The bad boss

Don't get me wrong, if you have a bad boss the chances of you wanting to hang around and keep working for them are not high, but you may not leave the company. You may transfer to a different department or division. You may decide that you can minimise the interaction and so do what you need to do until you can escape. In reality, even a half decent HR department or even an organisation without an HR department is going to see a trend of people wanting to get away from this 'bad boss'. The chances of them being there long term are in reality slim. So, when the bad boss goes and people still leave, is it another bad boss, has the company gone out of their way to hire only bad bosses? No, there is something else at play here. 

Equally, it could be the wrong boss, maybe the boss is perfectly well-fitted to most of the team but for one or two people they are not the boss to get the most out of them, it happens!

The bad wrong job

Its fair to say there are good jobs, jobs, and bad jobs (some would even say terrible jobs) and so if you had a bad job, would you stay in it? What makes a bad job? The worst job I ever had was working at a bus building company as an industrial engineer. I had to wander round with a clipboard and watch everyone work and try to time them doing it, then guess if they were working at the right rate or playing games. It was horrible, I hated it, so I left. The boss I had however was really good, really encouraging, but it just wasn't me, so I left.

It could be a range of things, and it is different for everyone since we are all individuals, and all wired slightly differently (which is a great thing!). We all have instances when we are talking to someone, and it gets round to what they do. We say, oh I could never do that, it sounds terrible… so maybe it's not a bad job, it's the wrong job.

If what spins your wheels is a lot so people interaction, and you love doing presentations, and coming up with new ideas. Being asked to not talk to people, work in a small room and crunch numbers is terrible, and you won't stay. That doesn't come back to a bad boss, it comes back to a bad hiring process that allowed you to work in the wrong job. The hiring process shouldn't be quick, it should be thorough and should help both sides be clear about the job and the attributes for that job and if the person applying meets them. Don't hire a big picture thinker who loves interacting with people to be a data cruncher, it's soul-destroying for them, and vice versa.

The no advancement job

For some people they find a job and that's it, that's their job, they have landed in the perfect place and never want to change. I had a colleague I worked with in Scotland who was offered promotion 3 times and all 3 times turned it down, when asked why he said I already have my dream job why would I give it up. He described it as Captain Kirk having to stop being captain of the enterprise, it was just wrong. For others, however, each job is a development opportunity to the next one they want. If it becomes clear that there is nowhere to go within the current organisation as the next step in your development, then you are going to leave, and you should leave. If you have come to the point where you think that ok, I've done enough here I need a new challenge then it's time to change role. If a person can't do that within your organisation for what ever reason, then it's time to find an organisation that will let them move to the next challenge.  

The no challenge job

This is a little different from no advancement, there are lots of people who don't want to move up the ladder, that doesn't mean however they don't want to have their brain stretched in some way. If there is poor job design, i.e., it's a dull job, and it doesn't need you to think, or you do the same thing day in day out, then chances are there will be turn over. If you are not constantly looking at how to engage your team with interesting work (and we mean interesting to them) then you are going to lose people who just don't find what they do interesting.  

The bad wrong environment

I had a friend who left a job because they hated the building they were working in; it was claustrophobic to them. Just because of the work they did, there was no outside light where they worked. The air was recycled, and they had to wear, as she called them, “bunny suits”, those white coveralls you see them wearing in CSI. It was just draining on her, so she left, her colleague thought she was mad, he loved working there, he loved the work they did and didn't mind anything else.  

The toxic environment

There are of course toxic environments where workplace bullying occurs, backstabbing, setting people up to fail, information is withheld and all sorts of really bad stuff. I think it's fair to say most people involved in an environment like this are keen to get out of dodge, unless of course they are suffering from Stockholm syndrome and are effectively captive.

The pay & benefits

It may be a non-PC thing to say, but people will always leave jobs because of perceived poor pay and benefits. If they need to have work from home content or flexible working hours, and you can't offer them, then they must move. If you pay at the bottom of the scale for perfectly valid reasons and your competitor just up the road pays $6 an hour more then, chances are people are going to move. Keep in mind that what makes up someone's pay & benefits in terms of what is important to them is different for everyone. One of our clients for example created a range of benefits that people could select from that allowed it to be personal for them, they were all equivalent, so there were no issues amongst the team. Another did a deal with a local childcare facility to get better rates and guaranteed places for their staff.  

Even the best boss loses people

As a final example, let me tell you about the very best boss I ever had. He was firm, fair, fun, and his focus was building people. His measure of be a successful boss was that people should leave his team because he had developed them enough. Every year, at least 2 or the 10 people in the team would leave. Why? Because they were ready to go and do something with all the fantastic skills they now had, to share their knowledge with others and to stretch themselves. Sometimes he would have to take someone aside and say hey, it's time, you are ready to go for the next adventure. I know of one team member where the boss applied for a new job (internally) on their behalf because he knew they were ready and should be the person for the job.  

People Leave

People leave organisations, and most of the time it's a good thing, it's natural, think of it as organisational evolution and renewal. The key is to understand why they are really leaving and take it on board. Some of it is stuff you may have to work on as an organisation, some of it is the person just reaching the point where you should be helping them move with your blessing because they have outgrown your organisation. Be realistic about it and get the data points to help you understand and make better decisions about people, about your organisation. 

People don't just leave bad bosses, people just leave, it's incumbent on you as an organisation to truly learn why.