Just Because Your Organization's Ship is Leaking Does Not Mean You’re Aboard the Titanic

During a recent career coaching conversation, my client shared her fear of being left behind.? She said that many long-time colleagues were leaving or planning to leave her organization and that this signified to her not only that her employer’s ship was leaking, but that it was potentially sinking.? Should she take the hint and set plans in motion to leave too?

I would like to say that this coaching conversation was unique. But it was not. Over the past year, I have coached several professionals who have questioned the appeal of staying put after a rush of longtime colleagues departed. The potential of higher pay, better hybrid or remote working conditions, and more flexible hours has lured many from posts of significant tenure. But does or should their departure signify a deficit in the employer they are leaving? Not necessarily.

I have coached teachers who fled their classrooms for higher-paying corporate jobs in sales and training, some of whom were thrilled after the jump and others who realized in hindsight that they strongly preferred the currency of student impact to their new, higher salary. I have served as a recommender for graduates who pivoted from financial services to nursing, and from legal practice to education not because their work or salaries were untenable, but rather, because they could no longer ignore these vocations to which they felt long called. In this regard, the pivots that people are making in the guise of the Great Resignation can, indeed, be personal and not a working condition their employer could control.

This is not to say that employers should not do everything in their power to retain talent, especially in an employee’s market like the present where recruiting qualified talent can be exceptionally difficult. As I set forth in “A Respectful, Open Letter to Employers: Stop Blaming the Great Resignation and Start Re-Investing in Your Talent ,” some resignations are wholly preventable and largely due to workplace realities an employer can control.? But in those instances where life disruptions prompted by the pandemic jolt an employee to reprioritize their life plans, or an inner voice crescendos to a volume one cannot ignore, an employee will likely or eventually leave to pursue that “thing” regardless of their workplace benefits.

So if you find your inbox flooded with notices of and well wishes for yet another colleague who is voluntarily departing your organization, do not automatically presume that your employer is deficient, or that you should jump into the line of people disembarking the ship.? “Re-onboard” yourself with your organization, where new vacancies and compensation savings could result in more professional opportunities for you.? Reaffirm your loyalties to your employer, colleagues and clients, who likely (and hopefully) will implore you to stay if they catch on that you are contemplating leaving.? And if this process inspires you to undertake an inventory of what matters, and you, like those (now) former colleagues, decide to pivot, may your departure inspire others to do their own inventory and (re)affirm their path through or beyond the organization.