Employees don't quit their job, they quit their boss

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Why do people quit their jobs? Surely, there are a ton of factors: money, hours, location, lack of interest, etc. For Alison McMahon, an HR specialist and the CEO of TwoFold, the biggest reason employees jump ship is that they’re tired of working for lousy bosses.

By and large, she says, people are willing to put up with certain negatives as long as they enjoy who they’re working for. When that’s just not the case, there’s no reason to stick around:

Nine times out of ten, when an employee says they’re leaving for more money, it’s simply not true. It’s just too uncomfortable to tell the truth.

Whether that’s true is certainly debatable, though it’s not a stretch to say that an inconsiderate and/or incompetent boss isn’t much of a leader. If you run an organization or company, your values and actions need to guide and inspire your team. When you fail to do that, you set the table for poor productivity and turnover.

McMahon offers a few suggestions for those who want to hone their leadership abilities, though it seems that these things are more innate qualities than acquired skills. For example, actually caring about your workers or not depending wholly on HR thinking they can do your job for you.

It’s the nature of promotions that, inevitably, a good employee without leadership skills will get thrust into a supervisory position. McMahon says this is a chronic problem that many organizations need to avoid, or at least make the time to properly evaluate and assist with the transition.

But since they often don’t, they end up with uninspired workers. And uninspired workers who don’t have a reason to stay won’t stick around for long.