Edition #9 — I LOVE REORG'S...said no one, ever. ??

Hi Neuros!

In a past job, I came to work one day as the Digital Marketing Strategy Director leading social media strategy projects across a brand portfolio. I left that day as the Customer Engagement Messaging Director leading a team of social media community managers and overseeing cross-channel messaging strategy.

If you don’t get WTF that means, it's understandable. It's an invented job title, but that's neither here nor there.

I had no say in my career path. I was a name…in a box…on an org chart.

Was my job perfect before that? No.

But when this happened, not only did I absorb a role that didn’t play to my strengths and accentuated all of my weaknesses, but all of those minor work annoyances suddenly became bigger.

I gave it a shot, but ultimately, I left the company.

I'm not alone. And this new research from MIT Sloan underscores this, as it points to reorgs as one of the TOP THREE reasons people are leaving their jobs right now.

TLDR:

1. New research out of MIT shows that toxic corporate culture, job reorg and job insecurity, and high levels of innovation are the top three leading predictors of attrition.

2. When work stress can no longer be compartmentalized, quitting feels like the only way out for some.

3. If you manage a team, be aware of the top predictors of attrition and what you can do to offer more opportunities.
        

Donald Sull?is a senior lecturer and researcher at MIT Sloan. He recently studied an?ENORMOUS data set?to understand better the U.S. workers who left their employer for any reason (including quitting, retiring, or being laid off).

Industry Accounted for SOME, Not All of the Trends in Attrition

• Resignation rates across the companies they studied were NOT uniform and ranged from 2% to over 30%.
• Blue-collar and white-collar sectors are equally affected.
• Industry accounted for some but not all of this variance. For example, apparel retail (19% industry attrition) and management consulting (16% industry attrition) were much higher than Insurance (7% industry attrition) and airlines (5% attrition).
• However, the industry did not account for all of this. For example…in media and entertainment, Warner Brothers is estimated to have 6.2% attrition, while Netflix is estimated to have 14.2% attrition.

Think It’s Money? Think Again

The research shows that compensation ranks 16th among all topics in predicting employee turnover.

Years of research confirm this, but how low down it was on the ranking factors surprised me.

The Top 3 Leading Predictors of Attrition? Buckle Up

Number one was obvious when I first saw these three, but the other two surprised me. But then, when I thought about my own experience, it became a lot more understandable.

Toxic culture usually exists in a subset of the organization:?While?toxic culture?(marked by disrespect, non-inclusivity, unethical behavior, cutthroat ways of working) seems like a DUH, what I found interesting in his explanation is that this isn’t necessarily organizational-wide toxicity. Instead, it's usually?pinpointed to a subset of the culture, like one manager or one division.

Reorgs suck for everyone:?In their sample from a previous study, employees talked about reorgs negatively 97% of the time, and the fewer people who mentioned reorgs, the higher the company’s culture score. What’s associated with this for people? The pace of organizational change, inconsistency in strategy over time, and lack of clarity on strategy lead the struggles with reorgs which may be systemic in theory but deeply personal in practice.

High innovation cultures are hard to sustain:?The more positively employees talked about innovation at their company, the more likely they quit. WUT. But understanding the data shows that working at high innovation companies makes work difficult to sustain due to the fast pace, long hours, and more stress.

My Take? Those 3 Make It TOUGH to Keep Work Stress Away from Home

There was a time when we could leave these frustrations at the office. We could compartmentalize work issues more effectively.

1. We just?physically can’t do that anymore. Thank God. As we’ve talked about a ton in this newsletter, our brains are fried from sustained stress.
2. The 24/7 nature of work, technology availability, interconnected teams, and global practices make?work messier?than it’s ever been.

So these experiences just can’t be left at work any longer; they come home with us. And when they come home with us and permeate our lives, it feels like there is?no way out?except to quit.

Great, What Do We Do?

If you?manage a team, keep these in mind (pulled from Sull’s data):

1. Provide lateral career opportunities?- more and more people do NOT want to take on management positions, but they want to try something new. Sull found that lateral career opportunities are 12 times more predictive of employee retention than promotions.
2. Provide remote work/flexible arrangements?- At this point, this kind of feels like a no-brainer. When employees mentioned remote work positively, they were less likely to quit, but it’s pretty modest. It’s only slightly higher than compensation as a predictor of attrition. However, it’s an important differentiator in INDUSTRY.
3. Plan company-sponsored social events?- If you’re addicted to productivity like I am or like me, generally try to stay away from people; you roll your eyes every time a “team-building” activity lands on your plate. In their research, though, it’s one of the sure-firest ways to strengthen employees’ personal connections.

If you are an?individual contributor, keep these in mind:

1. If you have a toxic leader?but feel connected to the organization, understand that all is not lost. Explore moves to other teams because one team does not indicate the whole company experience.
2. Be clear on what you’re looking for in your next role. While companies with high levels of innovation look sexy, understand what may come with that. For some, it’s a time in life when that is rewarding. For others, it will be too high of a price to pay.

Nice Answers: Readers’ questions, answered (leave me one on social media for the next issue!)

Can you give us advice on being less scared when negotiating as a new woman in the workplace? - @mspresidential
        

In 2021, women made 83% of what men did, and those numbers get even wider when we start talking about women of color. So this is such an important question, and you are not alone in feeling scared about negotiating.

Knowing what I know now, I wish I could go back to every role that I ever had and renegotiate because deeply ingrained societal roles are at the center of this.

So here are my suggestions:

1. Understand WHY you are afraid?- Women are expected to look out for others, think about the “team,” and are conditioned to be accommodating. Being uncomfortable is inevitable here.
2. Make friends with your discomfort -?We are biologically made to feel comfortable. Get curious when that discomfort rises and try to remember that it’s normal and a sign that you are on the right path.
3. Use your discomfort for others -?My sister taught me this trick. When she feels guilty about asking mom to help with her kids, she reminds herself that she is doing MOM a favor because our mom LOVES to help out. It’s how she shows her love. So when you can remind yourself that you are an agent for other women in the organization, this may be a way to hack your discomfort. Do it for the whole of women in the organization. It takes one person to create the momentum.
4. Be prepared?- Understand the salary range for the role and what is comparable in the industry. Always go to the highest or a little over it, but you need to be realistic.

GO.FREAKING.GET.EM.

My Latest Obsession

A?Work Timer?- When you get home, and you feel like throwing the middle finger to anyone who looks at you funny or God-forbid tries to speak to you, you’ve probably powered through the day a little too hard. TONS of research points to breaks throughout your day are key to keeping energy high and maintaining focus. Get one of these timers for your desk. When working at my best, I work in 45-minute sprints and then take mini-breaks like a walk around my building. Even if you don't feel like you need the break, TAKE THE BREAK. Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.

Sources:

• MIT Sloan |?Toxic Culture Is Driving the Great Resignation
• MIT Sloan |?Why Every Leader Needs to Worry About Toxic Culture
• Personnel Psychology |?Surveying the forest: A meta-analysis, moderator investigation, and future-oriented discussion of the antecedents of voluntary employee turnover
• Journal of Applied Psychology |?One Hundred Years of Employee Turnover Theory and Research