DO NOT QUIT. MOTIVATIONAL HACKS TO STAY AFLOAT AT WORKPLACE & LIFE

What Makes Quitting So Contagious? Much has been written about the 'great resignation' during the pandemic. Before you fancy 'goodbye from regular job' plunge, pause and don't just mindlessly follow the herd mentality. Take stock because your views matter…

(With inputs from New York Times)

Something infectious is spreading through the workforce. Its symptoms present in a spate of two-week notices. Its transmission is visible in real-time. And few bosses seem to know how to inoculate their staff against this quitagion. While there is a dearth of conventional jobs, the remote work culture has unveiled a plethora of options for professionals.

IT CATCHES QUICKLY…

“There’s a shock when you see multiple people leaving; it’s like, oh, is there something I’m not seeing?” said Tiff Cheng, 27, who left her job in digital marketing in July along with five of her close friends at the 40-person agency. “Is it my time to leave as well?”

Quitting rates were high in August, September and October 2021. More than 4.5 million people left their jobs voluntarily in November, a record high in two decades of tracking in the USA. In India too, such quitting trends were noticed, especially due to lack of support system to take care of the family while work by professionals suffered.

TOP TIP: Economists explained the numbers by noting that competition for workers led to better pay and benefits, driving some to seek new opportunities. Psychologists have an additional explanation: Quitting is contagious.

SEEK SUPPORT. TALK TO SOMEONE YOU LOOK UP TO

When workers weigh whether to jump jobs, they do not just assess their own pay, benefits and career development. They look around and take note of how friends feel about the team culture. When one employee leaves, the departure signals to others that it might be time to take stock of their options, what researchers call “turnover contagion.”

So quitting begets more quitting, a challenge that employers cannot always solve with raises or perks. Even a single resignation notice can breed a “hot spot,” said Will Felps, who teaches management at the University of New South Wales and was an author of a study of turnover contagion.

Felps and his team studied staffing at a hospitality company and a selection of bank branches, all in the United States, and found that one worker’s decision to leave is especially likely to inspire others who do not feel strongly embedded at the company. In a recent poll of more than 21,000 LinkedIn members, 59% said a colleague’s departure had led them to consider quitting as well.

The office has long been a petri dish for infectious behaviour. Lying, cheating and job satisfaction all tend to spread from desk to desk. Financial advisers, for example, are 37% more likely to commit misconduct if they encounter teammates who have done so, what researchers refer to as “peer effects,” noting that one case of misconduct results on average in an additional 0.59 cases.

TOP TIP: Employees also mimic the nutritional patterns of people they sit with in the cafeteria. Teammates are suggestible to one another in far subtler ways than they realize.

THE PEER EFFECT: DON’T LEAN IN

“When you walk by a restaurant and it’s full of people, it’s a clue this restaurant is pretty good,” Felps said. “Similarly, when the people you know, like and respect are leaving a job, you think maybe the grass is greener somewhere else.”

Cheng saw her inbox begin to fill with resignation notes last summer. Every other week she got an email from a colleague who was quitting her company, where hours were long and career advancement options seemed limited. She decided to turn full time to her own coaching business, which she now runs from Vancouver, British Columbia.

“It’s always really scary to make a decision to leave your job, and it was nice to be able to see other people were doing it,” Cheng said. “It didn’t feel as lonely, or like I was an outsider.”

A sense of workplace disaffection and restlessness started growing in the early stages of the pandemic for many professionals across Asia, Europe and USA. For some, social media became a therapy couch, a space to vent those employment frustrations.

‘Web-driven team meetings that could have been an email’ and lack of control over work from home schedule proved to be tricky indeed for most women and men.

TOP TIP: There is no one-size-fits-all approach to upending a career.

CHOOSE YOUR OWN RECIPE OF SUCCESS

“If you Google banana breads, there’s over a million recipes online, and they’re all going to be good, but they’re all slightly different,” she said. “You have to choose your own recipe.”

TOP TIP: It is the story of the pandemic: When people posted their banana bread photos, they influenced their friends to start baking as well. But like quitting, it was something no two people did the same way.

HERD MENTALITY. NOT FEELING ‘HEARD’ ENOUGH

Career coaches, meanwhile, worry that some people are being too easily influenced by the behaviours of their roaming colleagues. Kathryn Minshew, CEO of the Muse, a job search site, warns clients that a single employee’s desire to leave a company should not have too much bearing on the decisions that friends make.

“When one person announces their resignation, there are usually some questions from their colleagues and workplace friends,” she said. “‘Where are you going? Why are you leaving?’”

That Pied Piper trail will not always lead people to better options, and Minshew advises workers to assess their companies with the hyper-individualized approach they might take to building relationships.

TOP TIP: Has your colleague recently quit from their long-time job? Before you take inspiration from their new-found freedom, pause, breathe and then initiate. Chances are that you will find good reason to stay in the professional set-up because ‘You Matter’.