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Toxic culture is driving the great resignation

sloanreview.mit.edu

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Re: Toxic culture is driving the great resignation

#3

Post by Zenst »

Would be interesting in comparing the number of employee's indicating a wish to leave the company with the level of customer churn.

My gut feeling is that there may well be a correlation there. As happy customers make a happy company and the company is more than any stock market or accountant realizes the value of the all employee's and not just the the board and PR faces. As customers interact with those employee's, whilst the financial markets interact with the figure-heads. Hence a difference in reality perspectives.

But no hard data, just a gut feeling that there may well be more too this that is quantifiable, maybe even formulaic. Though not an easy data set to put together than it seems as not easy to find out a companies churn rate. Which may explain why it may just stay a gut feeling theory.

Re: Toxic culture is driving the great resignation

#5

Post by Hokusai »

H8crilA wrote: post #2

Aren't the same factors driving resignations always, not just during the so called Great Resignation?

But people being at home and able to distance themselves of the situation makes them realize how bad it is. When you are in the middle of the chaos, the day to day survival, the oppressive environment, to see others suffering the same that you, makes it hard to realize the situation.

The pandemic has allowed many people to step back and look at their jobs, and they did not like what they saw.

Re: Toxic culture is driving the great resignation

#6

Post by andrewflnr »

I've always guessed this was a major factor, though I still think too-low pay is a factor in a lot of cases, especially industries where pay tends to be anchored to minimum wage. However:

(a) This is public social media data, I guess? That seems like a noisy channel.

(b) Some of their suggestions are really dumb, and all miss the point in my view. If my boss is an ass, sponsoring a social event and expecting that to make things better is insulting.

The real solution theoretically doesn't have to cost any money: managers just have to be better people. For such famously bottom-line-driven organizations as large companies, it's funny how that zero-cost solution is so unlikely to actually happen.

Re: Toxic culture is driving the great resignation

#7

Post by foolfoolz »

> Our analysis found that the leading elements contributing to toxic cultures include failure to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion; workers feeling disrespected; and unethical behavior

I don’t really believe these reasons or at least they don’t match what i’ve seen. I can only speak for FAANG: I think this is more compensation based than anything else.

In an effort to level the playing field FAANGS establish levels. Levels have salary ranges. Salary ranges mean top performers, the people who drive the culture of the entire org, can only be paid some amount more than bottom performers. By keeping these bands too tight the top performers can get better pay elsewhere and leave.

When your first top performers are leaving each one hits hard. Once it’s regular the culture becomes different, this isn’t a place to stay and grow, it’s a place to be a launchpad for the next place. And without top pay you won’t attract top talent so when these great people leave you replace them with average people. This reinforces the beliefs.

The other side of pay is current valuations are insane. Many startups are getting A, B and even D rounds with 300-500x (i’ve seen higher than 1000x) revenue to value ratios. Your FAANG may hope to 2x or 3x in stock value while these startups promise 20-30x returns. So you have to pay even more to beat the potential earnings they could get at a startup.

My theory is not that all pay has to change to keep people, but as a FAANG you need to spend to keep and attract the best or you risk losing everyone. When you work somewhere and all the best people want to stay, or when you work somewhere and more good people join; it’s really hard to mess up that culture

Re: Toxic culture is driving the great resignation

#8

Post by csa »

andrewflnr wrote: post #6

I've always guessed this was a major factor, though I still think too-low pay is a factor in a lot of cases, especially industries where pay tends to be anchored to minimum wage. However: (a) This is public social media data, I guess? That seems like a noisy channel. (b) Some of their suggestions are really dumb, and all miss the point in my view. If my boss is an ass, sponsoring a social event and expecting that to…

> The real solution theoretically doesn't have to cost any money: managers just have to be better people. For such famously bottom-line-driven organizations as large companies, it's funny how that zero-cost solution is so unlikely to actually happen.

Actually changing management culture at a large organization is very expensive if it’s even possible. Very far from a zero-cost solution.

I mean, it would be great if the entire management team just woke up and saw the light one day and became good managers, but this happens approximately never.

Success is much more likely with a complete management overhaul. If that is possible, and it often isn’t, then it will be very expensive.

Re: Toxic culture is driving the great resignation

#10

Post by skrebbel »

foolfoolz wrote: post #7

> Our analysis found that the leading elements contributing to toxic cultures include failure to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion; workers feeling disrespected; and unethical behavior I don’t really believe these reasons or at least they don’t match what i’ve seen. I can only speak for FAANG: I think this is more compensation based than anything else. In an effort to level the playing field FAANGS establish l…

I'll never understand the American thirst for money for the sake of it. If HN comments are to be believed, top performer at your average FAANG easily earn $500k per year.

At that point, aren't you well past the point where more money brings more happiness, even in high cost-of-living places? What's the point? Why not find a job that's fun and fulfilling?

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