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What to do when employees quit

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Re: What to do when employees quit

#51

Post by vacri »

unabridged wrote: post #38
kafkaesq wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Founder equity is typically on a completely different scale than that of employees (even first hires). So we shouldn't be surprised that their loyalty is on a completely different scale, as well.

Exactly. My main problem is that the CEO's stance is entirely hypocritical, because he would demand real equity or quit (probably even faster) if he was in the employee's position. Once you have access to millions in funding its tough to see people who have to work for a living as human just like you. You expect them to lovingly accept terms that you would be insulted at. Now if your talent is so great that you dwarf…

You have a considerable chip on your shoulder, and are projecting things onto the article that aren't there. The article spends a lot of time discussing how things are from the departing employee's point of view, and not (as you suggest) looking down from an ivory tower.

Re: What to do when employees quit

#52

Post by sheepmullet »

codingdave wrote: post #36
o_nate wrote: post #5

Seems like "pay them more" should be at least mentioned as a possibility here.

Tech people (in general) do not make job decisions based solely on money. They want recognition, good work, good teams, good leadership, a meaningful product, etc. If your solution to morale problems is to increase salaries, you have already missed the mark in some of these other areas.

> Tech people (in general) do not make job decisions based solely on money.

Actually, money is a huge factor for most tech people. I don't know many developers who wouldn't move jobs for a 30-40% increase in pay.

Not to mention salary is fairly closely tied to value within a company... unless you are getting ripped off. And once somebody realises they are getting ripped off they are likely to leave.

Re: What to do when employees quit

#53

Post by taurath »

xyzzy4 wrote: post #16
taurath wrote: post #9

This part is key: > Take the time, on a regular basis, to talk to your employees about their lives, goals and challenges. Ask them what they hope to accomplish, not just in the next week, but in the next year, five years and ten years in their careers. Listen intently to what they say, and think about how you can help them achieve that. And then act. Anyone who asks me those questions will get double the loyalty out…

> Take the time, on a regular basis, to talk to your employees about their lives, goals and challenges. Ask them what they hope to accomplish, not just in the next week, but in the next year, five years and ten years in their careers. Listen intently to what they say, and think about how you can help them achieve that. And then act. Ah, the dreaded one-on-ones. This would actually make me want to leave the company if…

By no means should anyone ever feel required to divulge them. If you are the private about yourself and your things, then thats completely fine. Maybe you want to quit in a year to go off the grid or something. Thats perfectly fine. But if someone is interested and you think the person wants to know and help out, maybe you tell them 2 months prior instead of 2 weeks. Thats still a big gain.

Re: What to do when employees quit

#54

Post by taurath »

rzzzt wrote: post #22
gohrt wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would an employee feel honest telling their boss their 5-year goals? What if it isn't "leading a larger team at this company" ?

What does a typical 5-year goal sound like? I always struggle to come up with anything when this sort of question comes up (not necessarily in an employer-employee conversation, just in general).

"Be managing a full project on my own", "Manage group of people", "Become an expert in X technology", "Build 2 products into production", "Get to 100,000 users" etc etc etc.

How do you want to grow? Do you want to stay in the same spot? Maybe for now, but do you want to be doing this exact same thing for the next 5 years? Not even minor improvements? Getting faster/better/stronger?

Re: What to do when employees quit

#55

Post by sheepmullet »

davidgrenier wrote: post #27

I know for some people that article may feel like this article talks about them one way or another. It may also seem a little self involved to think that it does if you are an employee. But a word of advice for such talented employee as some of the recommendations go both ways. I'm 5 weeks away from being done with a 6 months-ahead notice to my employer that I would be leaving because I knew nobody could enter "the k…

It sounds like you were given opportunities you wouldn't get elsewhere and in exchange you showed them loyalty and didn't leave them in the lurch by giving them 6 months notice. To me that's a great success story for both sides.

Do you feel like the advantages given to you weren't worth the 6 months extra you felt like you had to stay? Why?

The first company I worked for full time made me the solution architect for a 20 person project even though I only had 2 years of work experience at the time. Successfully completing that project put me an easy 5 years ahead of my peers in terms of career growth and very few of them have caught up in the 10 years since.

Re: What to do when employees quit

#56

Post by taurath »

angersock wrote: post #15

About to do an exit interview tomorrow, and this article resonates with me, in the general case. There are also the cases of pathologically bad employees, or just underperforming. However, in some cases, it is personal. It's not some growth stage for the employee--they could well be leaving an early employee role because you , the founder(s), have fucked up . You've found yourself with an employee putting out tremend…

Note that the amount of these questions these leaders will ask themselves is inversely proportionate to their own ego. I watched half an engineering team leave a company over 2-3 months and each and every time the 3 managers up the chain found ways to explain it that didn't involve their competence or methods. Last I saw they were circling the drain.

Re: What to do when employees quit

#57

Post by slavik81 »

taurath wrote: post #53
xyzzy4 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Take the time, on a regular basis, to talk to your employees about their lives, goals and challenges. Ask them what they hope to accomplish, not just in the next week, but in the next year, five years and ten years in their careers. Listen intently to what they say, and think about how you can help them achieve that. And then act. Ah, the dreaded one-on-ones. This would actually make me want to leave the company if…

By no means should anyone ever feel required to divulge them. If you are the private about yourself and your things, then thats completely fine. Maybe you want to quit in a year to go off the grid or something. Thats perfectly fine. But if someone is interested and you think the person wants to know and help out, maybe you tell them 2 months prior instead of 2 weeks. Thats still a big gain.

If you give your employer two months notice, there's a reasonable chance you will find yourself fired on the spot.

Re: What to do when employees quit

#59

Post by kafkaesq »

tikhonj wrote: post #39
kafkaesq wrote: post #19

Imagine getting punched in the stomach. And then, instead of recovering in a few minutes, imagine the shock and pain slowly turning into disappointment, anger and dread. Don’t you realize how important you are to the team? How could you do this to me? It was what I felt right then and there. Betrayal. Sadness. Despair about the future. Umm, companies pull the plug on employees all the time. In most cases with vastly…

That quote is really out of context. His point is that this is the wrong reaction, but a very natural one. Here's what directly follows this quote : > It doesn’t matter that these questions weren’t the right ones to be asking. It doesn’t matter that they weren’t even remotely accurate, and frankly, incredibly selfish. It doesn’t matter that they run counter to everything I’ve learned about managing employee exits sin…

Your right it is -- I didn't quite catch that when I was pasting, but it does sound a bit unfair, out of context.

So: apologies to the original author.

Re: What to do when employees quit

#60

Post by StillBored »

As someone who left, and is now hearing of the rest of the team leaving....

1st, if someone is so darn important, it is your job to have a backup plan for when they quit, or for that matter get hit by the proverbial bus. Anything less is managerial incompetence, spend a day or two reading about business continuity.

2nd, there are these things called golden handcuffs, if you don't understand the concept I refer you to the above.

3rd, if you don't have the money for 2, then you better not be seen driving around in your brand new lamborghini, or spending all your time at over the top expensive restaurants while your employees have a tiny fraction of the company, and slave away for 70+ hours a week eating crap ass food from the fast food joint they are paying for themselves. (This really happened!)

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