Issue 85 - Why Employees Leave
“You just can’t count on people.”
“All people think about nowadays are themselves.”
“These people seem to have conveniently forgotten about all that I have done for them over the years.”
“Let’s face it, there is no such thing as loyalty anymore.”
Have you heard comments such as these? Do they sound much too familiar?Who could be saying such things anyway? Managers and supervisors everywhere are saying these things–and much more. Such declarations are usually shared at the moment of a manager’s heightened personal frustration. Too often they are said loudly and directly to any and all innocent bystanders who might happen to be within earshot.
What might prompt such outbursts?
Maybe an employee has just called in to announce that he won’t be able to participate in taking inventory due to an ill child. Or maybe an employee has rejected voluntary weekend overtime in favor of a weekend camping trip with the guys. Or maybe an employee has just turned in her two-week notice, formally announcing her intentions to accept other employment.
Has the time finally come? Is it time to declare employee loyalty officially dead once and for all?
Why Employees Leave
A friend of mine recently gave notice to her employer of her intent to change jobs. She admitted that it had been a difficult decision to make. After twenty years of uninterrupted service, even thinking about doing something different was intimidating. However, my friend became convinced that the time had arrived to make a change. The new job promised a better salary, improved benefits and most importantly, new professional challenges and opportunities.
So you can imagine what happened when my friend sat down and shared the news of her planned departure with her employer. She was listened to,
congratulated for bettering herself and wished the very best — right? Wrong! Her employer became emotional and irrational. Because she didn’t like the news she was getting, she immediately attacked the integrity of my friend’s new employer. Worse still, my friend — her employee of more than two decades — was labeled as being disloyal.
How could such a thing happen? Is this an isolated incident or can you easily imagine it happening in your business? Let me offer some statistics that you might find interesting.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average worker goes through about nine jobs by age 32. In 1983, younger workers, men aged 25 to 34, averaged 3.4 years on the job, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute. In 2000, they were gone in three years.
I know what you’re thinking. These kids we have working for us today can’t
be trusted to stick around. How can we build a business with employees that can’t be counted on? We all know they will up and leave at the drop of a hat.
But wait a minute. Don’t be too hasty in your sweeping judgments. First my friend — the one that changed jobs — she had celebrated more than fifty birthdays by the time she decided to move on. And guess what. The statistics prove she’s not alone. Again, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute, from 1983 to 2000, the average tenure among older workers (men 55 to 64) plunged from 17 to 12 years. In fact, employment experts counsel that the person who has been with the company for fifteen years has a harder time getting a new job than the one who has had a half-dozen jobs during that same fifteen year period.
So what is the catalyst that will get an established, long term employee scanning the want ads, updating his resume and posting it to Monster.com?
Is it pay and benefits? Is it working conditions? Is it opportunity for advancement? Certainly, in isolated situations it could be any or all of those things. But the main reason people leave their jobs is (and always has been) the same — bad management. Management that ignores the needs of its employees — needs for attention, recognition, acceptance, appreciation, involvement — can expect employee defections.
Friends, loyalty is still alive and well, but as has always been the case, it still has to be earned. The best leaders understand that.
