The so-called Great Resignation goes strong, and it’s not only for working stiffs anymore. Increasingly, managers also are leaving their jobs for greener pastures.
Data shows that managers are leaving their jobs at elevated levels, which even though resignation rates for workers overall have declined from their peak, plenty of people are still quitting their jobs. The breadth of quits could exacerbate an already tight market as quits in one area precipitate quits in another, and this cycle could make sure that the Great Resignation — also known as the Great Reshuffling or Great Reconsideration — won’t stop anytime soon.
Data on management departures comes from variety of sources. People analytics provider Visier found that resignation rates among managers went from 3.8 percent within the first half of 2021 to 5 percent in the first half of 2022, which represents a way bigger jump than for non-managers. Gusto, which provides payroll, benefits, and human resource management software, found quit rates among managers remained at the identical peak level in June as they were last year, while those for non-managers have declined. LinkedIn found that the speed of people leaving their jobs at the director level has been growing much faster than at those at the entry level this year. The departure of bosses was also evident on job platform ZipRecruiter, which said job postings for managerial positions are growing at a faster rate than job listings at large, and currently structure 12 percent of job postings, up from 10 percent in June of last year.
To be clear, levels of quits remain high across job types and levels. Data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics in the week shows that 2.8 percent of employed people quit their jobs in May. That’s slightly less than the peak of 3 percent last winter but still very high. generally , trying to find a different job has become a bit of a national pastime. the amount of people using top job search apps is at an all-time high, consistent with app marketing intelligence company Apptopia. Lower-paid workers always structure the majority of the workforce and a majority of the quits. As fallout from the pandemic also as existing trends like an aging workforce continue, however, the composition of the resignations has shifted to incorporate more tenured, higher-paid workers, and, increasingly, those in management roles.
A participant holding an indication at the protest that reads “Stimulus checks can’t cover NYC rents.”
“Resignation rates are creeping up and into ranks where it isn’t a foregone conclusion,” Joseph Fuller, a professor of management practice at Harvard graduate school , who leads its Managing the longer term of Work initiative, told Recode. “These are higher-paid workers who presumably have invested plenty in educational credentials, training or building their career at a corporation . They’re managers, and they’re leaving pretty good circumstances — that ought to be worrisome to companies.”
Their departures greatly affect the people that work for them and the companies they work for, both of which depend on managers to stabilize things in times of uncertainty. If managers are leaving, their companies’ CEOs will, a minimum of for a while, need to make do without them.
“It’s just like the military leaning on the non-commissioned junior officers,” Fuller said. “If all of a sudden the sergeants and generals quit, it doesn’t matter what the general’s big vision is for winning the war, someone has got to be down there taking the beaches.”
But at a bigger scale, high numbers of bosses quitting could usher even more quits among the rank-and-file workers also as other managers, making the phenomena of the good Resignation last even longer.
Why your boss is leaving
Bosses are people, too, and they’re subject to several of the same headwinds that are causing everyone else to quit their jobs, including burnout and therefore the reconsideration of work’s place in their lives. But their reasons for leaving also are ones unique to management, which is tasked with the increasingly difficult task of hiring and retaining workers at a time when people are quitting left and right.
In a survey of managers, the leadership software maker Humu found that retention and hiring were their top two biggest challenges last year. People are continually leaving their jobs for things prefer pay, remote work, and self-employment, and it’s management’s responsibility to exchange them, which isn’t very easy during this tight labor market.
Managers also are trying to lead their workforce amid unprecedented change — something that’s adding to their strain, since they could not be equipped for it.
“A lot of managers get put into management, not because they’re great people managers but because they’re great technical contributors,” Humu cofounder Jessie Wisdom said. “That doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve got the skills to manage emotions through difficult times and unprecedented levels of burnout and helping your team balance things that they’ve never had to balance.”
She added, “People are browsing hard times and, as a manager, you’ve got to help them through that. a part of your job is almost becoming being a therapist.”
A dispersed workforce is additionally creating new challenges for managers. The overwhelming majority of big corporations are adopting a hybrid model, where employees work both from home and therefore the office. Managing people across locations and trying to shepherd people back to the office who don’t want to travel is proving to be a major difficulty for management.
The manager resignations also are a result of lots of opportunity — both professional and personal — elsewhere. a 3rd of managers who quit in May did so for career advancement reasons, compared with just 19 percent in non-management positions, consistent with data from Gusto. the corporate also surveyed all types of workers on its platform and found that their No. 1 think about accepting or declining a job offer is flexibility. Nearly half said that the power to work from home some or all of the time would be a major or the most important factor in determining whether to accept a job offer in the future. Presumably people in management positions are more likely to possess jobs where they can work from home, meaning they’re more likely to truly get that flexibility — either at their current or future job.
Importantly, management, especially executives, are higher paid and thus more financially secure than their charges, in order that they have more mobility to quit.
“The pressure and therefore the demands on the C-suite continue to be pretty substantial,” Steve Hatfield, Global way forward for Work Leader at Deloitte, said. “And the financial position that they’re in is one that might give them the opportunity to think about doing something different.”
It could even be a case of monkey see, monkey do. As more people in management positions quit, the thought of quitting becomes more apparent as an option for other managers.
What this suggests for the future of work
Data suggests that quits among management aren’t just a flash within the pan, and can likely continue for some time. Deloitte recently found that almost 70 percent of the C-suite are seriously considering quitting for a job that better supports their well-being, compared with 57 for other employees. Research from Humu shows that the attrition risk for managers is 2 times higher than for non-managers — something that hadn’t been the case in years prior.
This could become a situation that feeds into itself.
When one manager quits, another is left learning the slack, which could further frustrate them and potentially lead them to quit. this might cause their workers, left without adequate management that’s ready to hire for unfilled positions, to go away as well, which makes the remaining manager’s job even more difficult. Additionally, shortfalls could force companies to market or hire people into those positions who aren’t qualified, further exacerbating things .
