Why Some Companies Can't Keep Employees For The Life Of Them
Throwing pizza parties every quarter isn't enough to keep employees. Sorry, not sorry. Here are common reasons why companies fail to keep their employees happy.
Inconsistent management styles
Management can either make or break the job experience.
I've worked at least 6 different jobs since I started working at 16. I've seen how jobs work when there's a good manager that everyone respects versus someone who has a poor management style.
Some managers can be involved very little, but somehow feel the need to give the harshest feedback. Not that I'm speaking from experience.
One way to really look at a manager's character is how willing they are to support their staff. This is a common complaint I often hear in the workplace.
"They never support." "I never hear from them." "They suck at their job."
Now don't get me wrong, managers have their own thing going on. So I'll give them the benefit of the doubt on that one. But management is still a part of the team.
If the head of the team is not willing to coach their team, support where needed, and be an example the team will fall apart resulting in poor work quality.
Finally, a lack of appreciation from the management is a big one, too.
Does your manager rarely ever give you praise? When was the last time you heard a "thank you for all you do?"
When managers fail to make small deposits in their employee's emotional bank accounts, it causes a big disconnect. Not saying there needs to be a super-close relationship, but having trust at least is likely to keep employees from sending that two-week notice email.
And no, scheduled pizza parties still don't count as appreciation. We can literally get pizza from anywhere anytime.
Burnout
This is a common reason many employees quit their jobs. Getting paid is nice, but spending most of your time at work when you're tired out of your mind? Not worth it.
Overworked employees are likely to throw in the towel and call it quits.
No one likes to be overworked and miss out on life.
According to a research conducted by Gallup. 76% of respondents reported experiencing workplace burnout. While another study by Limeade showed 40% of employees stated burnout was a reason they needed to quit a job.
That's nearly half of employees, and these are just the ones that participated in the study.
As you can see from these two studies, employees that experience burnout are not very likely to stay and can affect their quality of life.
There are different factors like lifestyle, work hours, parenting, etc.
That's why it's important to also do self-care and make sure work isn't accidentally pouring into other areas of your life.
Toxic work culture
Going to work for 8-12 hours a day is already hard as it is. But beefing with your boss or co-workers? What are you even there for?
Again, not saying you need to be best friends for life with your co-workers but having established respect should be at least required as stated before.
There are a few things in the workplace that contribute to work drama. Sometimes jobs will deal with
work politics
favoritism among employees
cliques formed at work
This is why many people feel like they're back in High School in certain jobs. For some people, they haven't mentally left High School either.
There's also inconsistency across shifts. Sometimes things get miscommunicated by different employees. Or certain staff uphold the policies but others don't seem to care and do as they please.
This creates an unorganized work culture and can cause problems if not fixed.
Another example of a toxic work culture would be work gossip about other employees.
I'm not gonna hold you, I'm 100% guilty of this one. Especially if it's about an employee I don't like or clients I don't like.
There was this time a staff member that I got along with really well came to me to talk about another staff that got fired because their background check came back and they went to jail for cyberbullying.
I was so curious out of my mind, I couldn't help but indulge in all the "tea" and entertain it. We also didn't like this particular person either so it gave us a more reason to.
Does this makes me a hypocrite in some way? Yeah. But I'm slowly working on it.
It can be tempting not to talk about it. It's human nature to become curious and stick your nose in other people's business here and there.
But gossip doesn't create a safe space. I remember finding out someone I liked as a person and never saying anything bad about them was saying hurtful things about me behind my back.
Then I found out another person who I thought was cool was also talking bad about me.
Oh, I was finding all of this out from someone who was... gossiping to me at the same time.
See how everything came back in a full nasty circle? Every time you have the urge to gossip, ask yourself would I say this to them in person? Should I just tell them how I feel?
You'll minimize the habit in the long run. Myself included.
Conclusion
Jobs with one or all of these combined aren't worth it. Witnessing all of them was like another circus of its own.
My advice to anyone finding the "right" job is always to research before applying. Don't be afraid to ask questions during the interview process. Like a lot of questions.
Find out what their work culture is like. What are some difficult things for employees to learn? Is getting time off almost impossible?
Learn as much as you can before making the decision.
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