Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): All right, Our next interview is with an Interviewee #1. This was a manager from a professional services company with approximately 250 employees. So first question, why did you quit this job?

Interviewee #1: I think Matt there are a few reasons that I quit but a big contributing factor was promises that weren’t delivered on so I was made promises that I was going to be a director in this organization and they promoted my colleague who was also my friend to be my manager and take that director position, but they didn’t actually communicate that to me at all. So they promised me the role they promoted someone else into that role who was my friend and who later became my manager because of that promotion and they didn’t communicate that with me at all.

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): That makes sense. So expectation management sounds like a big issue there.

Interviewee #1: Yeah, absolutely. Very poor leadership overall.

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): And could the company have done anything differently or what do you think they should have done?

Interviewee #1: I think the way the whole thing was handled was quite poor. So what they could have done was communicate with me effectively as you mentioned earlier about expectations. They could have managed my expectations better in terms of Where I was going within that organization because once my friend was promoted to be my manager, I didn’t see another way for me to progress in that organization if he was there blocking that move essentially.

Interviewee #1: And I think for me overall the leadership there was such a lack of transparency in how decisions were made. There was a very toxic culture very misogynistic at the senior levels. So I loved everything about my job. I love the people that I worked with but the leadership so if they had addressed some of those really toxic Lack of recognition at those senior levels. I think that could be something that they could have done to encourage me to stay.

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): Okay, so I’m just gonna kind of play off of this a little bit. Let’s say that after this decision was done that other individual was put in that leadership role. You came forward and said, hey, I’m not very satisfied with this and they said how about we just give you a raise and you stay where you’re at. Whatever that number is. Would that have fixed it? Okay.

Interviewee #1: Yeah.

Interviewee #1: No, no, I was on very good money. I asked for more than I thought. I deserved to be perfectly honest and…

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): Okay.

Interviewee #1: they offered me even more and I knew that this new manager of mine was earning less than I was even with the promotion. I did inquire about what this meant and I was told in no uncertain terms that actually this promotion means that you’re a supervisor. He’s not really your manager and if you want mentoring support or advice and you need to go to his manager, which of course reinforces the really poor decisions that they made because why would I be reporting into someone who was essentially at the same level as me? So that’s a long way of answering your question, but no, I wouldn’t have stayed for more money.

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): Yeah, thank you for sharing your perspective. I think that’s super valuable and we appreciate it.

Interviewee #1: Thank you. Thanks for the opportunity Matt.

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): Our next interview is with a VP who left a manufacturing startup. So we’re welcoming him. tell us why you quit your job. Why did you leave this manufacturing startup?

Interviewee #2: So the biggest reason I left is I didn’t feel like I had alignment with the executive team and so what that looks like is They were making decisions with finances What I thought was our goal at the beginning was expansion and growth but they were pulling out a lot of money for dividends and for bonuses and all these things and so it paved me where I was like, hey, Let’s end. And that isn’t what I felt like was the executives’ vision even though at first that’s what we all agreed upon. That’s what we said we wanted to do, but as time went on that didn’t seem to be the case with their actions.

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): Interesting. Were you a part of that bonus structure or was it only like a few different people or did it feel equitable?

Interviewee #2: Yeah, I mean I got a normal end of the year bonus. I wouldn’t say it was a large bonus but the founding executive team who didn’t put any money into the company. They were just essentially gifted Equity. They were given some kind of dividend payout and then some people were given substantial raises from what I gather close to $50,000 which we couldn’t afford to give our guys raises. And so it’s like why are bigwigs getting dividends and boss men getting big raises? When we’re not giving a dollar to any of our line workers who are working overtime who work really hard who probably need the money more than we do, right? So that didn’t go well with me.

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): Interesting it kind of digging in that a little bit more. Did you feel like you were in a good way? Did you feel happy with your own compensation?

Interviewee #2: Yeah, I did. We had probably three guys on my same level and I felt like if we were going to make cuts anywhere it was in that group, obviously, we weren’t giving raises to anybody else. But I was like if you’re looking at it from an unbiased perspective on paper. It’s like our management. Bucket was our fattest bucket and for the size of the company, it wasn’t the right size correctly. And so I offloaded myself…

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): 

Interviewee #2: if you want to say that and…

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): Yeah.

Interviewee #2: when I left I said, hey give these three guys raises and give these guys the bonuses they never got and that’s what they ended up doing after I left which I felt good about but it’s just unfortunate that we couldn’t support the whole team and I felt the best thing to do was to offload my own salary, so

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): interesting what do you think the company should have done differently or what would have made you excited to stay?

Interviewee #2: Yeah, I don’t know why the executives were getting dividends at all because we were too young. We’re only two or three years old and not profitable. We were breaking even, I would say, so not only were we not growth minded keeping that money inside the company but it’s just like the big wigs wanted to pull out money as quickly as possible. They wanted, cash flow towards their own bank account and if we had

Interviewee #2: Maybe change that a little bit. I do think it would have been more likely to stay. There were some other factors too, such as just how upper management talked about the ground level employees, the words they used, how they treated them and what they expected of them. And so even if the compensation piece was handled properly. I still don’t know if I would have stayed because there were other business ethics or issues that just didn’t sit well with me.

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): That makes sense and thank you for sharing. We appreciate your input today

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): For our next interview. We have a director sharing some experiences from two different companies: a nonprofit and a startup. So first, why did you quit your first job? Let’s talk about the nonprofit. Why did you quit the nonprofit jobs?

Interviewee #3: Thanks. That sounds great. so 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 that the doctors then had to go back and clean up we were in the business of people so per se and to have that kind of an influence was just no longer something that I could tolerate.

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): Yeah, the negativity can have a huge impact. So what could have been done differently?

Interviewee #3: So one of the things that could have been done differently would be for the CEO and the heads of the company to take into consideration the things that the directors were saying that mine was not an isolated case. It was multiple directors in the company that were going to the management or the CEO discussing the issues that were arising. Unfortunately, those issues were not taken seriously.

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): So using feedback is critically important when it’s not that kind of Road trust. Is that fair to say?

Interviewee #3: Yeah, it did definitely erode the trust but also it eroded I don’t know. What word I’m looking for here, but the knowledge that you could continue with that company in a safe space.

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): That makes sense. Yeah, that’s critically important. Everyone is thinking about how they can go forward and if you feel like that’s capped or cut off because of not having that psychological safety and trust that’s huge. So let’s talk about the second coming company. Why did you quit the startup?

Interviewee #3: So there were quite a few reasons. I actually quit the startup. I love the company. It was fantastic. I loved startups because there’s such an energy there that it just blossoms. You can combine learning with youthfulness, because a lot of startups are by the younger generations and I really love their energy that they give there’s just a lot of excitement so that being said with that there’s also a lot of learning that comes from the CEOs of those companies a few of the items are not necessarily that bad but they were just things that I didn’t need to continue with it being the head of the position. And in that company there were no more opportunities for growth technically unless I was going to take over the company of course, but I was to the point where it’s a small company. So we were the heads there were no vice presidents. There was not a board of directors.

Interviewee #3: And the CEO was not willing to take any advice from Specialists about how to set up the business which was part of my position as well. I’m setting up the business for long term success.

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): Very interesting. Yeah, I feel like if you’re in a large 10,000 plus company, you can see growth in various different directions for career expansion, whether it’s specializing more in a certain skill set or people leadership, but that startup it’s just not really in the nature of the organization so that can be tricky and then paired with maybe an unwillingness to take some feedback on different ways to do things can be difficult. So would you feel like these experiences? Let me rephrase that.

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): Would you be more or less willing to share feedback in an anonymous review because of these experiences?

Interviewee #3: I would like to share feedback. Yes, but I also would share some positive feedback for both companies at the same time just because I resigned from the company for my own personal reasons doesn’t always mean that they deserve a hit and negative manner. if I’ve seen that maybe they have changed a few things. I don’t know but yes, I would share feedback. I wouldn’t word it extremely negative that it would damage the company though.

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): Okay.

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): I like that. Yeah, you’re a good person. Thanks for taking the time to share here as well.

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): We’re talking with an anonymous Cactus here who worked in the financial services industry at a company with over 200,000 employees and he was a manager at the time so we had chatted a little bit before recording this and so go ahead and tell us you tried to why did you try to quit your job at this company?

Interviewee #4: Yeah. There are a number of reasons why I tried to quit and prefacing to I am in the process of quitting. It’s just a lot different than I initially expected. I spent a good amount of time coming to the decision of hey, I’m gonna ultimately transition my career, but when it all came up, it was rather sudden I went from pouring my heart and soul into what felt like was going to be a 30-plus year career. to suddenly feel like looking at just a long-term and not being excited anymore. because it was so sudden. I wanted to make sure that it wasn’t just a passing fad. Because it takes me a long time to get there. So in time and a good amount of thinking I came to

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Interviewee #4: Recognize that yeah this new thought that I’ve been entertaining was one. I wanted to act upon the big reason being there’s in the financial services world. I work with you and operate within a larger organization in the small team that I’m a part of and this is highlighting. Why also I tried to quit and ended up being something that I would have never even imagined as a scenario. We’ll get to that eventually the small team I work with Unbelievable in a lot of people I work with directly. They’re great, but the larger organization. Has gotten to its size and it no longer wants to take risks. It’s very calculated. There’s a whole lot of knowledge that is being said. And I started to notice this.

Interviewee #4: Risk aversion permeating the people around me. And myself too beyond just the day-to-day work environment. I was feeling it outside and it reminded me a lot of the phrase you are a product of the five people that you spend the most time around. And the more I thought about it, I realized that a company culture is very easily one of those five people because you’re spending your time around a lot of different people, but they all are getting instructions from an overarching entity. So I was seeing that permeate people around me ultimately into me and recognizing that overall risk aversion wasn’t how I wanted to approach my life long term and it really got me thinking about. How I can explore my creative side.

Interviewee #4: How I can venture into a new realm of thinking. That’s why. I went down this path. Ultimately ended up getting an offer that worked out really well with a business that I’m gonna be starting where I’d have the opportunity to be part-time kind of at my leisure. So it ended up working out fantastically and that’s really just a testament to the direct team. I work with and they want the best for me and pretty much all scenarios. But that’s the overarching reason that drove all of this and kind of where I am today.

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): Okay, so it sounds like you’re really close to your immediate team and you had let them know that you wanted to leave and was it their idea to let you work part-time as kind of this transitional time frame or how did that come about?

Interviewee #4: Yeah, it was their idea because I never expected it as an option. I went into the conversation I had with them with the mindset of I could today be my last day. It can be two months. I gave them a two month framework. Just based on an event that I had coming up down the line. and I didn’t want to go in with the mindset of hey, let’s look at part-time because they were really looking at me is a key integral player that was gonna be a managing partner on the team and the not too distant future directing a lot more than just my managerial responsibilities were entitled at this given time. So I was getting groomed more and more to take on a partnership role.

Interviewee #4: So I didn’t expect them to also want me so intently for the facilitation and processes that I’m directly involved with our clients.

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): Makes sense. It’s amazing that you didn’t even envision this scenario you were expecting potentially. It was your last day and they paved the path that ended up benefiting your lead into the entrepreneurial World, which I think is amazing to have that part-time path. I think, talking with some of the other interviews about this. None of them have had this kind of scenario play out where you go to quit. And you expect that you’re just going to leave and go to your own thing. But then the company comes back with this kind of in between that ends up being better for both parties. How does this change your perception of the company in the long run?

Interviewee #4: Yeah.

Interviewee #4: in the long run I mean

Interviewee #4: I think I haven’t thought about it as much in the perception of the company. I’ve thought about it more in the perception that the worst case is seldom the most likely.

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): What?

Interviewee #4: I mean as it comes to the company as a whole though, because outside of our team directly. some other people that are involved with kind of just how our business is set up as we run our own practices and then we still have some other reports and everyone that I’ve reported to directly outside of our individual team is fully supportive obviously sad to know that I’m on my way out but I think it does speak to the fact that I do work with really good people.

Interviewee #4: Even though I don’t agree with the risk off mindset, the company as a whole does care about their employees. And it’s beyond just the individual team. They really do care. So I guess in hindsight. I would remember that I’ve seen bad reviews on different sites about the company. I work at and I hadn’t been fully aligned with some of what they had said. But I guess they emphasize that. The people you work with directly really have such a big influence on the outcome of your career. More especially a large company more so even than the company itself.

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): That’s powerful. Thank you for taking a few minutes to share your story with us. And have an awesome rest of your day.

Interviewee #4: Appreciate that Matt you too.

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): All For the next interview, we’re talking with an anonymous bunny who worked in the media industry at a company with a few hundred employees. She was a manager at the time and let’s hear directly from her. So why did you quit your job?

Interviewee #5: Yeah, so 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. So they brought me in as the expert. And so there are certain things that I recommended. And then I was told not to do them. That I was asking too much of the team and then they would come back.

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): That doesn’t feel very good.

Interviewee #5: My supervisors would get in trouble and then they would come back and they would be mad at me because I didn’t implement the stuff. They told me not to implement it. and then when they finally got everything going and it was looking really good. They took credit for everything that I did.

Interviewee #5: No, it was a very frustrating process.

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): I can imagine so was this kind of a one-time occurrence or was it kind of a pattern that you had observed over a while?

Interviewee #5: I would say it happens about every two to three weeks. About a year and a half.

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): So what was kind of the breaking point that made you want to finally leave?

Interviewee #5: I would say the breaking point was that when I had taken the team our group they had previously been negative as far as profit and I had taken that number and times five into profit. And then they put me on a pip.

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): What on Earth? Okay.

Interviewee #5: I was super frustrated. They said I’m managing enough. I’m not writing emails the way that they wanted which only occurred the first two weeks. I was there. different really weird things

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): do you think there was anything that could have changed to make you excited about staying or did you feel like it was a lost cause for you and you needed to just move on.

Interviewee #5: I feel like I’d been given credit. Or the amazing changes that I created for the group. And if I had been allowed to implement the changes when I recommended them, that would have been huge for me. but I think when it got down to the end and

Interviewee #5: I was just completely fed up with everything. It was a lost cause at that point because I felt like my leadership wasn’t gonna change and even if it changed for a couple of weeks it would just go back to where it was.

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): That makes sense. I guess the last question is are you enjoying your new job now?

Interviewee #5: Absolutely. Every job has challenges, right and there’s opportunities to learn and things to struggle through that’s not the issue. I would say that here I have amazing leadership. They listen to me. They love the changes that I’m making and…

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): It’s amazing.

Interviewee #5: They’ve gone to bat for me against other teams that are resistant to that and it’s been such a huge difference. I’m happy to be here.

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): Thanks for taking a little time to chat with us and have an awesome weekend.

Interviewee #5: Thank you.