Ep 23: Why’d you quit? Anonymous Employee Interviews

Guest Bio:

5 anonymous top performing employees from 5 different companies across different industries from manufacturing to tech.

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Episode Highlights

Why'd you quit your job?

Interviewee #1:

“A big contributing factor to my decision to quit was promises that weren't delivered on. There was such a lack of transparency in how decisions were made.”

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Interviewee #2:

“The biggest reason I quit is I didn't feel like I had alignment with the executive team. Executives were giving themselves substantial raises amidst our supposed growth goals, and our line workers didn’t receive raises when they probably needed it more.”

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Interviewee #3:

“The reason I quit the first nonprofit, unethical management, the management was undermining the directors in the company to the point that it was creating negativity behind the scenes.”

“I love startups because there is a lot of energy and excitement with them. With that, however, there is also a lot of learning that comes from the CEOs of that company. Because it was a small company, there wasn’t any growth potential for me.”

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Interviewee #4:

“I am in the process of quitting, but it has been different than I expected. I poured my heart and soul into what I thought was a thirty-plus-year career to suddenly not being excited anymore. So, since it was sudden, I wanted to make sure it wasn’t just a fad feeling. 

In the finance industry, you operate on a small team in a bigger organization. The larger organization has gotten to its size and no longer wants to take risks. There are a lot of no’s being said. I noticed risk aversion in the people around me and myself. It reminded me of the phrase, “You are a product of the five people you spend the most time with.” I recognized that overall risk aversion wasn’t how I wanted to approach my life long term and it got me thinking about how I can explore my creative side and venture into a new realm of thinking.  I got an offer from them that worked out well to work part time at my leisure while I work on starting my own business.”

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Interviewee #5:

“I quit my job because I was hired to do specific things and there was a team that really didn’t know what they were doing. They brought me in as the expert. There were certain things that I recommended, and then I was told not to do them, that I was asking too much of the team. Then my supervisors would get in trouble and then they would be mad at me because I didn’t implement the stuff that they didn’t want  me to implement. Then, once my recommendations got implemented, my supervisors would take credit for all of it and eventually, instead of receiving praise, I got put on a PIP.”

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What could the company have done differently?

Interviewee #1:

“I love the people that I worked with, so if they had addressed some of those really toxic lack of transparency, accountability and recognition at those senior levels, that could’ve been something that may have encouraged me to stay.”

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Interviewee #2:

“I do think I would have been more likely to stay if the compensation piece was handled properly, although I still don't know if I would have stayed because there were other business ethics Issues that just didn't sit well with me.”

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Interviewee #3:

“Upper level management should be taking into consideration the things the directors were saying, since my feedback wasn’t an isolated case. There should have been more action and taking issues seriously.”

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Interviewee #4:

“In the long run, oftentimes the worst case is seldom the most likely. In hindsight, I’ve seen how the people you work with directly have such an impact on the outcome of your career, even more so than the company itself.”

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Interviewee #5:

“If I had been given credit for the changes I had made for the group, and if I had been allowed to implement the changes when I recommended them, that would have been huge for me to possibly stay.”

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