The “Great Resignation,” a term coined by a college professor, forecasted the mass movement of people quitting their jobs. The resignations represent the growing dissatisfaction with bad bosses, shabby treatment, lousy pay and the lack of future growth within the company.
The virus outbreak and accompanying devastation made us realize how precious life is and just how quickly it could all be gone. This existential crisis prompted people to reevaluate their work and lives. With a relatively hot job market, disaffected employees feel emboldened to take the leap, quit and search for a better job.
A 2021 Microsoft survey found 40% of the respondents said, “They are considering leaving their employers this year.” The numbers are staggering. In June alone, 4 million workers resigned. Instead of a “Great Resignation,” Indeed, the large job aggregation site, identifies this movement as a “Great Realization” of the innate need for humans to “find happier, more fulfilling work and, in turn, lives.”
As people leave their jobs, a new phenomenon occurs. The BBC referred to it as the “Turnover Contagion.” I’ve seen this happen numerous times, as an executive recruiter, but never heard of a term for it. It’s an interesting study in human behavior.
What happens is that some negative news or a difficult phase that an organization is dealing with prompts a high-profile, well-regarded employee to leave. Once that person departs, employees within her division get concerned. They wonder why she left. They ask, “What does she know that we don’t know?” The departing professional will publicly say that the move was for a better opportunity and assure the company that she loved working there, adored the people and learned so much. It’s the usual politically correct thing to do, so as not to burn any bridges. The opaque cliché rationale leaves the remaining workers concerned.
There is the presumption that there are big problems that haven’t been disclosed. The top A-plus players start to update their résumés, tap into their network, get busy on LinkedIn and reach out to recruiters, career coaches and résumé writers.
The Society Of Human Resource Management (SHRM) pointed to a study that confirms this phenomenon. The research showed evidence that “an employee’s decision to voluntarily leave an organization is influenced by the attitudes and behaviors of their co-workers.” This is largely due to “job embeddedness.” The term is a fancy way of saying that, at the office, we tend to have close ties with a small group of co-workers.
SHRM reported about the study, “An employee’s job embeddedness is the relative strength of their organizational network; weaker bonds or links are easier to break.” If an employee “is low on organizational connection,” meaning that they don’t have strong interpersonal relationships with others, they are likely to leave.
If a person who has strong connections with colleagues and “engages in noticeable job-seeking behaviors (e.g., talking about an application or interview, expressing a desire to leave, quitting, etc.) their colleagues are more likely to choose to exit the organization.”
Emotional contagion researcher Sigal Barsade wrote about this behavior explaining, “Employees routinely catch each other’s feelings when working together in groups.” This “can impact the decisions people make, including whether to quit.”
Rival companies and recruiters smell blood in the water. Like sharks, they come after the best and brightest. These folks have softened up, due to the initial departure, and are open to conversations. Invariably, a couple of other well-respected, high-achievers find new jobs. Now, everyone starts freaking out.
It gets worse if management doesn’t address the situation. Employees spend more time on searching for a job than doing their assignments. The work product slips in quality. The bosses get angry and blame the workers. This mistreatment spurs them on to look ever harder for an exit plan. To make matters worse, if the company doesn’t quickly find replacements, the staff is forced to pick up the slack. They’ll be required to work longer hours, weekends and take on tasks that are not within their scope of expertise.
The turnover contagion can last for a long time and spread to other parts of the company. It’s a domino effect. Nobody wants to feel like the last sucker hanging around when all of the top people jump ship.
Leadership needs to act. They have to explain what is going on. It’s time to be honest about any serious issues. It’s imperative to speak with the staff and understand how they are feeling. Find out what they need to do their jobs and what will make them happy and stay. If they don’t, the turnover contagion will continue.
If you find yourself in this situation, please don’t act hastily. Speaking with job seekers, they’ve told me that they regretted moving too quickly. The switch in jobs turned out to be jumping into a lifeboat instead of finding a role that is relevant and offers everything they wanted in a position.
As time wears on, they realize they moved too fast and are unhappy. Now, they’re stuck. The choices are either to ride it out for a time, so it doesn’t look too bad on the résumé and awkward in future interviews, or cut the losses and take your time and seek out a job that you really want.
Definitely don’t quit a job without another one lined up. For mid to senior-level white-collar workers, it could take three to six months to find an appropriate position. In light of all the rapid changes going on, we could see stock market sell-offs, another virus strain developing and other matters that would cause employers to put the brakes on hiring. It’s possible that you’ll be left in between roles without a lot of options.
