It happens every year at this same time.
Like clockwork, the news about annual raises and bonuses comes out. And like clockwork, right after that a wave of resignations occurs.
It has been this way as long as I can remember in the industry, and my memory goes back over twenty years or more. The release of the data may be different - December instead of January for reviews, once upon a time - but the results were always the same.
Obviously for most, this is not a "sudden" event. The groundwork has in some cases already been laid (although in this current market, it could be laid a great deal less in advance than before); in others, it is a reaction to what the see. The pre-thought comes out immediately after the letters go out and the bonus money drops in (or not); the stragglers will file out over the next two months or so.
One wonders how HR deals with this. Almost no-one will say "I expected my annual increase to not keep up with inflation and frankly, I was spot on and it was not enough" or "Really, I can go make more money doing exactly the same thing somewhere else". It will be couched in terms like "Trying a new field" or "I have done what I intended to do here" or "It is just time for me to move on".
Yet always, strangely, it happens right after the letters come out.
I am sure that this happens in all industries at whatever time of year this is likely to occur, and especially more now that we have an Employee's market. But it is always sad to me, on two levels. The first is that with every departure, we lose institutional knowledge of what has happened in the past. That can be devastating in any industry, but especially in knowledge based ones.
The other, of course, is that while I am happy for coworkers, I am sad to see them go. Having been there long enough that I am one of the "old hands" at the company, it seems so many that are leaving are those I have worked with - and in many cases, not seen now for two years. Most of the newer hands I know only as voices on the phone or signatures on e-mails.
This is the ebb and flow of industry.
I suppose, of course, I can take some sort of comfort from the regularity of it all: like Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter, there is simply the season of the Wild Geese, which comes every February.
I am lucky in that I have never experienced this too much. When I was young, it never happened because all my peers needed money and steady employment and we really didn't know any of the old timers leaving. Then in my middle years, I lucked into working for an Employee Owned Company whose stock option plan was magnitudes better than any other bonus I have ever seen then or since. The only ones that left there were those who once might expect at the end of their careers and so we had plenty of time to prepare and transition. I was the loner who bucked the system and in the process changed the system as since I left, a lot of my peers have done so as well. Like me, they wanted to cash in their chips before something happened and the chips all disappeared.
ReplyDeleteEd, I do not know how aware of this I was when I was earlier in my career. It does seem to have accelerated (at least in my opinion) in the last 5-10 years or so, but perhaps it was always so.
DeleteMost of the companies I have worked for have had stock option plans. They are wonderful for retaining interest - as long as the stock is worth something. If it falls or simply never is worth something, it becomes a paper chain binding people to the company instead of the steel chain management imagines it to be.
For years I cooked a wild goose (usually a Specklebelly) to go along with our turkey at Thanksgiving. These days I only see Canada Geese which often stop off at our pond, sometimes hanging around to nest for the year.
ReplyDeleteKelly, I cannot recall have goose although I am sure I have. I do like duck, but it is a rare occurrence (and cooked by someone else). We have had a pair for years at The Ranch that have nested, but have never successfully raised the goslings. Something always got to them.
DeleteWe have a supplier of duck so we eat it infrequently throughout the year. I used to eat geese when younger and invited to hunt them with friends but we’ve gone different ways and I haven’t had a goose in two and a half decades.
DeleteIt was always fascinating to me that it was a thing in 19th Century England that I never had any context or familiarity with.
DeleteBy my outhouse estimates, about 40% or more of the companies around here operate like that on a day-to-day basis. They have a revolving door for their employees. There is an inner group that is permanent and in place for the long haul - and the outer group is utterly expendable. They are paid and treated so poorly that they go a year or two, and then either quit in disgust, or burn out and get fired or find better work with a better outfit. Given the state of our economy right now that percentage is even higher right now. On the job boards it at least 60% of the same companies hiring. I have no idea how they operate but it seems to be a cornerstone of their business model ... and it somehow works for them I guess.
ReplyDeleteGlen, it might be industry based? It does seem like there is an inner group that stays through thick and thin and an outer group who on the one hand may be viewed as expendable (by management), but on the other hand is viewed as a paycheck and training to a better opportunity (by the employee). The mystifying part is I think for many, leaving a company is more of an inconvenience than staying, but for the company finding new opportunities and increasing wages is more of an inconvenience than replacing employees.
DeleteNo idea how one could build a business on that model.
It’s not what I’m seeing here, TB. I think the thought process is that if the outer groups are kept on - they are going to get better and better at their jobs… but they’ll want more money too. If all you need is a certain level of competence in the outside lower echelon teams, you can fire them regularly and keep your manpower costs lower with new hires?
DeleteIt was a huge thing up here in the 80s. All the corporations started firing or releasing the old hands because they were making big money doing jobs that younger and less experienced people could do at lower wages. Guys that had 20 years or more in with their companies found themselves out on the street. It happened to my father in law and at the time I just cruelly laughed at him. He had done the same thing to others and defended it as “nothing personal, just doing business…”. When it happened to him, after 31 years in with his company… his perspective changed a bit. Job volatility is right through the roof up here unless you work for the gubbimint.
It could be Glen. To be fair, I have an N of one industry to use in which, for the most part, the employment pool is fairly narrow.
DeleteThe only difficultly is that the support functions are also in short supply. We are having issues finding people to support roles such as shipping/receiving, purchasing, finance, admin, and the other parts of the business that keep a business running. Everyone is competing for the same skill set.