Posted by Dave Konkin
The Culture of Quitting
Reviewed by Balboa Concepts, Inc.
In my 35 years of experience, I have experienced numerous different workplaces, cultures, and management philosophies.
I've also talked with countless other people, at all levels within small and large organizations, nationals, and internationals. People in the back of the warehouse, on the floor, sales people, office staff, administrators, junior and senior managers, vice presidents, presidents, CEO's and owners.
The number of them who have been dissatisfied with their employment and working conditions has truly been quite disheartening. I've quit jobs after talking to senior people about my concerns and having no real resolutions. I've quit to change careers as well, and also to move to another location or for a new challenging opportunity.
There is a "culture of quitting" that is growing rapidly.
According to the U.S. Department of Labor Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey Highlight, March 2014 ...
"Quits in the private sector also declined during the recession, starting at 2.7 million in December 2007 and reaching a low of 1.5 million in September 2009. Since the trough, the number of quits has increased by 52 percent, to 2.3 million in March 2014."
The rise of 52% in the number of people or 2.3 million who have quit their job since 2009 is a staggering statistic.
It is not that the unemployment rate is at an all-time low or high. Indeed according to the website Trading Economics...
"Unemployment Rate in the United States remained unchanged at 6.30 percent in May of 2014 from 6.30 percent in April of 2014. Unemployment Rate in the United States averaged 5.83 Percent from 1948 until 2014, reaching an all time high of 10.80 Percent in November of 1982 and a record low of 2.50 Percent in May of 1953. Unemployment Rate in the United States is reported by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics."
What is occurring that has these people leaving their jobs? It's not just about money.
Job satisfaction includes a number of values that are to be considered by anyone.
- Purposeful and emotionally involved work
-Wages
- Benefits
- Management style
- Job security
- Company Culture
- Ethics and values
- Corporate social responsibility
- Support and training
- Appreciation by others of work done
- Company loyalty to its employees
- Support with personal issues
- Coworkers
- Location
- Opportunity for promotion and advancement
It is a balance of pros and cons no matter where you go and things do change with time always. Our personal ability to adapt to change is significant as well and plays a large role in whether we will stay or go. Developing patience, understanding, improved communication skills and understanding life has ups and downs is certainly a responsibility for all of us.
If people are coming and going from your company and organization, change needs to be thought, spoken and acted upon sooner than later.
Review your organization on these values and others that you find are important to your current team.
1. Asking potential new hires their thoughts on all of these values during the new hire process.
2. Determine the changes necessary to create a better culture with these values in mind.
3 .Plan out how to incorporate change into the organization and involve people actively throughout the process.
4. Invest in your people. Take the time to develop and train the key people you need as part of the network to create a better work place.
5. Have managers spend real time with their teams to develop sincere relationships with them.
6. Make the fundamentals of real relationships the core of all you do with your people. They are real people and deserve to be treated as such. Offer them real trust, respect and open honest communication as to how you will work with every one of them.
7. Weed out and retrain or remove those individuals who are abusing the situation or a cause of "cultural rot" within the organization. That includes senior and all other managers or employees at any level.
8. Give reasonable time expectations for change. A solid foundation takes time to construct.
9. Continually seek to review and renew the vision and invest back into it again.
Every good plan in life involves time, patience and real costs. The face of doing business and the need for better cultures in the workplace are here to stay. If the cycle of the "culture of quitting" is to change there needs to different thought, speech and action to do so. The need to become real with dealing with people in the workplace is immediate, and is for those companies that are successful, and those that are not but strive to be.
We all need to make a living, and companies need to have profits, but we need to do it in a manner that leaves people feeling and knowing they are valued and part of something worthwhile.
Successful companies already do these things and they harvest the rewards from truly investing into their people and culture.
It isn't about organizations satisfying everyone. Abraham Lincoln already told us you can't please all the people all of the time. It is about improving productivity and creating some real engagement for people and not just managing but truly leading.
Just to let you know as well ...I like my new career and I am not quitting. I enjoy going there everyday, and the values I speak of up above are all checked off on my list under the positive column.
Those are my opinions and thoughts on putting an end to the "culture of quitting". Please feel free to share yours.
References:
Thanks to The U.S Department of Labor and Trading Economics
http://www.bls.gov/jlt/jlt_labstatgraphs_March2014.pdf
http://www.tradingeconomics.com/united-states/unemployment-rate
BALBOA Concepts, Inc. REVIEW:
Money isn't the only thing to be considered when thinking about job satisfaction. There are several other factors such as management style, security, opportunity for promotion and advancement, and several others as listed in the article. When you think about quitting, you think "Can I see myself working here 1,5, maybe 10 years from now?" If the answer is no, then odds are you will move on to bigger and better things. Unemployment rates are high, but a lot of that has to do with people leaving their jobs willingly due to low job satisfaction. Here at Balboa Concepts, Inc. we encourage determination, commitment, and hard work. Although we don't encourage quitting just for the sake of quitting, we do encourage people to go out there and find what it is he/she really wants to do! Once you find your dream job that satisfied all your conditions, you can be happy, more productive, and finally start living the dream you've always wanted!
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