7 Reasons Why Employees Leave

“People join companies, but leave managers.”

Leaders have observed this phenomenon “again, again and again.” It is one as old as

Corporate America, and an enduring notion in varying economic times. It does not take

extravagant polls, studies or models to grasp, however, they do certainly prove it, that

“people join companies but leave managers.”

Fundamentally, the way this works is that many people seek employment at a

particular company because of its attractive reputation in the market, and after all, who

wouldn’t, right? That is because it is easy to get caught up in the elusive statuses and

lose focus on the genuine building blocks of any company – its people. I believe that

people are the most valuable assets in a company, and before proceeding any further, it

is crucial to understand that any given asset either appreciates or depreciates, that is

simply the way it works. Similarly, in recent days, human assets have been following an

aggressively depreciating trend. There is an epidemic of disengagement throughout the

private sector. And, disengaged, Branham states in his book “The 7 Reasons Why

Employees Leave,” are those employees who are not emotionally committed to the

organizations by whom they are employed, and hence, are likely to be highly demotivated

and exhibit subpar productivity. To shine some light, a research conducted from a Gallup

poll of over 350,000 workers proves a 70% level of disengagement between employees

and their jobs. Simply put, this means that 70% of the American workforce is not working

“as hard as they could be.” Furthermore, this productivity loss is causing the United States

a hefty $450 billion in annual cost. Which high-­level factors contribute to this epidemic?

This paper will explore, with contextual evidence and anecdotes, why the saying is true.

Many of us, at some point life, dream of quitting our jobs very loudly and telling our

bosses exactly what we feel. Well, Greg Smith, 33, Ex-­Goldman Sachs Vice President,

did just that. Goldman Sachs, despite the Credit Crisis of 2008, is still considered to be

the smartest, most profitable, and most politically well-­connected bank on Wall Street.

Expectedly, it also the toughest place to get a job…so why would Smith leave? Let us

first begin with a quote from Smith about his feelings that forced him to quit, he said “I

literally wanted to hit the Board of Directors over the head and say ‘listen I was proud of

Goldman Sachs, I worked here for a long time’” (CBS 60 Minutes). Smith ended his 12-­

year tenure at Goldman by publishing an op-­ed which exposed the firm’s “toxic” culture.

When Smith joined as a young, 21-­year old, he had different views. Earlier in his career,

Smith was selected to appear in a company marketing video where he says that one

principal he “really likes is [Goldman’s] reputation, which is built on integrity” (CBS 60

Minutes). In Smith’s exit story, one can link several emotions that Branham recognizes in

Chapter 3, such as disappointment, frustration, anger and betrayal. In the weeks leading

to the Credit Crisis, Goldman began selling hi-­tech, sophisticated products to naïve

customers, that the firm itself was betting against. Moreover, not only does Smith claim

they were cheating the client, but his seniors applauded such transactions. After all, Smith

says “promotions and big money went to people who sold such complex products and

unseen risks” (CBS 60 Minutes). This became an issue of ethics for Smith, and seeing

that there was not any being practiced, he felt betrayed by, and became disappointed in

his bosses. He also lost trust the reputation of his dream company. The trigger event

came 6 months prior to his flashy exit, when Smith grew even more disillusioned with his

bosses as they proudly celebrated manipulating their “unsophisticated” clients, dwindling

them out of millions of dollars by selling them hidden risk products. These were called

“flash sales.” Finally, there is such a high rate of turnover in this industry, the supply of

talent is much greater than demand, that Smith’s managers did not seem to care about

their practices or building a trusting relationship with their assets, their employees. Smith

eventually left for reasons of betrayal and disgust in his bosses.

Moving on, the case which I am about to discuss, hits “closer to home” than the

previous. My uncle was a former Project Superintendent at a marine consulting firm,

which we will call ABC Consulting, for the purpose of this paper. He began his tenure at

ABC in Mumbai, India. The company had an excellent reputation, and had locations in

more than 15 countries worldwide with over 3,000 employees. ABC seemed like a

perfect for my uncle given his background as Chief Engineer on multiple voyages over a

decade with companies