4 Surprising Reasons Employees Quit Today

The reasons employees quit today are surprising … even for veteran HR professionals.

They run deeper than better pay, more flexibility, boss hating or job dissatisfaction.

According to a trio of researchers, people leave jobs — quietly, quickly or frantically — because their quest for progress isn’t working out in the way they expected.

At face value, that might sound like one solid reason for quitting. For example, “I’m not progressing up the chain of command” or “I’m not gaining skills and knowledge.”

Understanding Reasons Employees Quit

But what we need to understand better are the reasons behind their quests for progress.

“Progress is not just about bigger titles, perks and salaries,” says Michael Horn, a lecturer with the Harvard Graduate School of Education and one of the researchers. “It can look like more meaningful work for less money, using specific skills, better work-life balance, changing career paths, having more predictability, having less predictability in exchange for more autonomy, and much more. It’s different for each person and also changes for people over time.”

Horn co-authored the book Job Moves: 8 Steps to Make Progress in Your Career with Harvard Business School Professor Ethan Bernstein and The ReWired Group Founder and CEO Bob Moesta.

Here are the four biggest reasons employees quit. They want to:

1. Get Out

Employees who want to get out, can’t see a way to thrive in their job. Or feel like they’re in a dead-end job and aren’t supported or challenged.

Example: A salesperson worked in startups his whole career until he decided to take a position at a large tech firm with administrative support and a higher base salary. Almost immediately, he felt suffocated by bureaucratic systems, an overly prescriptive sales process and a lack of say in his performance targets.

“He was boxed in, miserable, and looking to get out,” explains Horn.

2. Regain Control

Some employees quit to regain control because they feel overwhelmed in some aspect of their life (it could be the work part, but it’s more likely personal life). They usually want to find an employer that lets them decide how to allocate their time and do their work.

Example: An administrator who worked in loan collections found that her latest role was a total grind — working from noon to 9 p.m. every weekday and adding more hours on weekends. She struggled to maintain personal relationships. She wanted better hours so she could regain time to repair a relationship with her significant other.

“She liked the career she was in, but was looking to regain control of how she did her work,” says Horn.

3. Regain Alignment

Employees who quit to regain alignment usually feel like their employer doesn’t value their experience, knowledge or credentials. They’re looking for an environment and a role where they can use their skills and be respected, acknowledged and reengaged. “They are focused not on how they work, but on resetting what they do,” says Horn.

Example: A job trainer spent much of her time driving high school students to volunteer jobs where they could gain work experience. She had taken the role to pay off student loans and hoped she’d get hired as a social worker in the same district. She performed well but wasn’t offered that opportunity or anything bigger.

“Bitter, bored, and feeling disrespected, she took a job farther away to put her education to better use” and regain alignment, says Horn.

4. Take the Next Step

People who want to take the next step have usually reached a career or life milestone and want an exciting place to move forward. They may want to take on more responsibility and move up the career ladder.

Example: A lawyer at a large firm knew he’d prefer working in public service but needed his company’s generous paternity leave policy to support a growing family. After his third child was born, he and his wife decided they wouldn’t have more kids. It was time to switch to the type of work he was called to do.

“Most might think of this as a U-turn,” says Horn. “But from his perspective, this was the logical next step for which he had always planned.”

Support Employee Progress

Now that you know why employees quit these days, you still don’t want your great employees to do it.

Instead, you want to stay on top of their desires to progress and take steps to ensure they’re engaged. Here are four tips to do that:

Interview employees early and often. Most companies have exit interviews, but think about it: If you talk to them on their way out you get incomplete — sometimes tainted — data that’s dated. Instead, work to understand why people join your company in the first place, the quest they’re on and the underlying forces that brought them to you. That way you can track and manage against those forces to keep them engaged and making progress.

Develop shadow descriptions. “Rather than long lists of skills and credentials required for a job, create job descriptions that state in plain English what people’s experiences will be on a daily and weekly basis so that people can find fit, and so you can adjust people’s jobs to make the progress that they’re seeking and that organizations need,” says Horn.

Give managers the tools to do this work. You want an ongoing system for managers to keep employees’ desire for progress and their actual work aligned so they aren’t doing it ad hoc. Instead, it’s personal and a fit for everyone.

Adapt. “Sometimes it’s the case that one person’s desired progress in their capabilities doesn’t fit a specific role or team or unit, but would be great for the organization,” says Horn. “That’s a place where managers and the broader organization can help shape a role for someone.

“But lifers are rare these days. When someone’s desired progress doesn’t match up with what the organization needs, employers should support that journey —­ no matter where it leads. Even if a valued employee’s current quest is get out, who is to say at this point that they won’t eventually want to “get back in” — what HR calls a boomerang? Or that their departure won’t create new opportunities for the organization?” says Horn.