If you have decided to quit a Job, what happens next is not fun. We have all been there before, ‘the HR exit interview’. HR usually sit you down and expects you to tell them the truth as to why you have decided to quit your job. By the stage of the exit interview, you feel angry, confused, emotional, and feel extremely vulnerable. Particularly if you don’t have another job to go to.

The feeling of excitement of being offered a job at the organisation is now a past memory. It feels like a poisoned challis and you can’t wait to get the hell out of there. Many feel the last thing they want to do is help the organisation by telling them the truth.

The stories I hear about HR departments leave me to question whether they are getting the balance right between satisfying management or looking after Employee safety, employee engagement, employee development, and the many other roles they have. Some HR departments do a great job and some do not.

To quit a job is a big decision. Before they quit employees will go through a stage of disengagement that can happen over years, months, and weeks. The disengagement is easy to spot and has been found to be as high as 76% in Australia according to a Gallup survey in past years.

5 Top Reasons to Quit a Job in 2023

1. Expectations of your job & the work environment don’t match your expectations

Unfortunately, when offered a job, many people accept the job offer without probing deeper into what the job involves. Without asking the hard questions at the interview may have you to regret taking the job in the first place. Expectations are often not communicated at the interview stage between the employers and the job candidate. Job candidates can lack self-awareness of what they want & need in a job, what their values are and future expectations over the next few years.

2. The job is not the right match for you

Without having any advice about career at the start of your career, lack of right job matching is a problem found in today’s workplaces. You need to be clear about whether the role being offered suits you as a person, what your story is to date, and what you want to strive for into the future.

Often recruiters are looking to match the skills of a job but miss the idea that they need to look beyond just skills but rather to the whole employee package. Simply, are they the right person overall for the deliverables of the job? What are their motivations, passions, strengths & natural talents as well as their skills? The responsibility to get the match not only lies with the employer but with the potential employee as well.

3. You are stressed out and have no work/life balance

Spending more time at work than you do with your loved ones is not healthy and in the long run, affects your well-being. A major illness is your first wake-up call to realise you’re overworked and you are working over and above your contracted hours.

If you are meant to finish at 5 pm, you start finishing at 5.30 pm, then 6.00 pm, then 7.00 pm and then 8.00 pm. Before you know it, it becomes a habit, eating away at your personal time and your employer doesn’t notice let alone care! It is not unusual for employees to be working up to 60 to 70 hours a week. This often becomes one of the main reasons to leave the organisation.

4. You have lost all respect for Management & Your Boss

Without a doubt, if key management doesn’t recognise & value the people they employ, their employees lose hope in the organisation’s mission and end up leaving. Employees want to feel that their contribution is valued and that they have confidence in management that they will make the organisation successful. Successful in a financial sense as well as making a positive difference by doing good in their local or wider world community.

Employees will make a judgment about management in times of major change at the organisation and watch how management interacts with their employees on a day-to-day basis. The level of care management has for their employees can make a big difference in whether employees choose to stay at an organisation.

5. Lack of Career Growth, Learning & Training

As human beings, we are designed to learn, absorb & grow. If this doesn’t happen, we lose interest, become bored & we stagnate in our growth. Our opportunity to advance in our career starts to look grim. Career advancement can take many forms, it may be promoted up the career pathway ladder, making lateral side moves across the organisation, or performing enriching diverse project work within our existing role. If an employee is not growing, they look for opportunities outside to nurture their growth.

Employee turnover rates are getting higher with Hays reporting that 2 in 5 employees plan to change their jobs. Employees are in the best position to seek a better career life for themselves if they take control of their own careers rather than expect an employer to drive their career for them. It is up to the individual to be clear about what they want and need from their career and how this blends with the rest of their goals in life.

When employees take control, this pushes organisations to lift their game in providing workplaces that are flexible, family-friendly, and nurturing & learning environments that can perform work for doing good in our communities in Australia and around the globe.

Written by Gina Bell

Gina Bell is a university-qualified Sydney Career Expert in Career Advice, Career Coaching, and Career Counselling. She also works as a Talent Development Consultant for commercial organisations. She is passionate about aligning a person’s work purpose in a work environment where they can find fulfillment & reach their potential.

Her qualifications include a Graduate Diploma in Career Development, a Graduate Diploma in Chartered Accounting, and a Bachelor of Economics. She is registered with the Career Industry Council of Australia, Professional Member of the Career Development Association of Australia, National Career Development Association in the USA, Asia Pacific Career Development Association & Chartered Accountants of Australia and New Zealand.

In her free time, she loves to travel, cook, and learn.

Follow her on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/gina-bell/