I have spoken to two people in the past week who were unhappy enough with their current employer to choose to quit their job. One acted to save their sanity, the other acted to get out of a really bad situation. Both people knew that in this economy, their decision was a risky one. Yet both felt so aggravated about the situation they were in that leaving seemed the best option. I know both of these people well enough to know their decision was not made without careful consideration. These were not impulsive overreactions to a bad situation. Every month more than 500 people click on an ad I run on-line that simply says “Feeling Stuck.” It is designed to reach out to potential career coaching clients. 500 people and that number is increasing each month. That’s just the number that choose to click on my ad and my ad only appears when people are searching for career coaching. How many people might be feeling stuck in their job in your company right now?
I understand that not everyone is a good fit in your organization and for some leaving is the best option for all parties involved. That’s not true of everyone though. You know it, I know it. How productive is an employee that is feeling stuck likely to be? How many employees being half as productive as they could be can your business tolerate? What are you willing to do about it? We both know if you had equipment that was being half as productive as it could be you would invest the time and money to get it running at maximum speed. Why treat employees with less attention than our equipment then?
I am not taking a stand for either side (employee or employer) in this blog as much as I am taking a stand for talking with each other. For creating a workplace in which your employees can flourish. They win and you win when you get to that point. Act now, before the really good ones become fed up enough to leave.