People quit jobs, not bosses
Patryk Suchy
Lead Recruiter @ 8Bit | LinkedIn Bottom Voice | LinkedIn Ghostwriter | Career Coach | Opinions are my own
Today I tackle one of the ongoing and most universally spread myths - that people quit bad bosses, not companies.?
Origin story
“People leave bad bosses, not companies”.?
It was repeated so many times it just has to be true, right?
I have a bad boss who makes me miserable, so I quit. Reasonable.?
But it’s worth noting that this famous quote is most likely coming from Marcus Buckingham. He is widely known for his work at Gallup and his book “First, break all the Rules” (which I do recommend, great read).?
Both Gallup and “First, break all the rules” are highly focused on management training and managers which makes a lot of sense to look at the world from this perspective.?
I do believe this phrase it’s true, but not as often as we think it is.
Let’s follow the white rabbit and find out why people really quit jobs.
Why do people quit jobs??
The obvious one first: Are bad bosses the most common reason for quitting a job??
Well, it depends on where you look and who you’d ask.?
Feeling disrespected at work is no doubt tied closely to people management. Low pay, no opportunities for advancement, childcare issues - all of that potentially can be addressed by your direct manager. But sometimes they can’t.?
2. In the research by CEB from 2015 The New Path Forward Creating Compelling Careers for Employees and Organizations you can find similar information:
Future career opportunities along with compensation were topping the charts with people management in the 3rd place.?
3. Then we have a survey done by Flexjobs in February 2022. They surveyed 2.022 people.
According to them, the most popular reasons people quit their job was:
So once again, we do have poor management high on the list, but not topping the charts.
(And yes, I know managers are heavily invested in creating a culture, but let’s be real here - we can’t expect one manager to change the culture in the entire company. And this is one example of why sometimes people quit companies, not bosses.)
I think you get the picture.?
How common are bad bosses?
We established that bad bosses aren’t always the number 1 reason when people quit jobs. Salary, toxic cultures, and career advancements are often before them.
But they are so high on the list it is worth asking - how common bad bosses actually are?
There's wonderful research from 2018 - How common are bad bosses??(Benjamin Artz, Amanda H. Goodall, and Andrew J. Oswald)?
They asked employees how they evaluated their direct managers in 7 areas:
领英推荐
Of course, this is individual and subjective. But they asked 28 000 employees from 35 countries and various industries to evaluate their managers in those areas, so the sample is pretty large.
According to the methodology used in this study, only 13% of workers have an actually bad boss.?
13% still sucks, but it isn't doesn’t sound so ominous, right?
Down the rabbit hole
Of course, sometimes people do quit horrible bosses.?
But there's a plethora of other reasons why people might quit their current job. We already covered the most common ones, but apart from the obvious there are also:?
There are literally dozens of factors in play when we are making this decision. And the boss is just one of them.?
Would you work for your current boss for 20 years?
Also, let’s say your boss is fantastic. Do you really, honestly believe you will work with them for another 20-30 years and NOTHING ELSE will convince you to change your jobs?
Given today’s world it sounds… unlikely.?
The second question to ask is - is it actually reasonable to expect your current company/manager to fulfill all your career/development needs?
If someone from my team would like to dive into marketing and social media, we could figure out how they could dabble in this area. But if they’d decide after a while that this is their direction we won’t magically create a new role for them because it makes no sense for us at the current stage.?
Why do people choose to stay??
Another question worth asking is Why are people who are considering changing jobs staying at their current workplace?
Is it because of their fantastic manager/boss?
You guessed it - not really. ?
For the answer, we go to consumeraffairs study .
The most common reason is their job security (34%) and comfort at their current job (32%).
The latter is tied with concerns about finances if the new gig won’t work out for some reason (32%).
They are followed by familiarity with expectations at their current job (28%) (which is a nice way of reminding employers that employees do like to know what is expected of them).
The last one is uncertainty about finding a job with better pay (28%).?
Those results aren’t surprising for anyone who changed a nice, cozy job to something new, exciting, and unknown. Everyone asks themselves will I live up to the expectations? How will I get along with new colleagues? Will my contract after the trial period be extended? What if I won’t be able to learn quickly??
So while a manager figure is very important in the employee's life, it isn’t the number one reason (or even 5th) when making a decision to stay. At least not directly.
Conclusion
Based on those findings, research, and from my daily work as a recruiter, motivation for change is very rarely only about a bad boss.
There are a lot of elements at play, different things are important to us at various stages of life, and in most cases, it’s hard to narrow it down to “just a bad manager”.?
I do believe your manager’s behavior and attitude are a factor when thinking about jumping ships.
But it is just one of the factors.
And often not the most important.