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By Alison Pole, Bangkok Post, Thailand (TNS)
Millions of people have left their jobs this year and many more are expected to join them.
The wave of resignations has posed a dilemma for workers on the way out — namely, how honest they should be with their soon-to-be former employers about why they’re leaving, where they’re going and what’s going on inside the organization.
In interviews with more than a dozen workers who recently left their jobs, some said their former employers seemed well-versed in the problems of burnout and wanted to know how to be better bosses. Several said their exit interviews felt perfunctory, as if the HR staff was going through the motions.
While it may feel satisfying to air work-related grievances, exit interviews aren’t meant to be venting sessions, says Jane Oates, president of WorkingNation, a nonprofit focused on the challenges facing workers in USA.
“A company that really wants to learn, grow and be a better employer will make this interview as comfortable as possible for you, so you’re fully aware that there won’t be any reciprocating efforts,” she says. The employer also documents what’s said, so it’s important to think carefully about what you want in your record and be as constructive as possible with criticism, she adds.
“You can be as honest as you like, but you have to be professional,” says Ms. Oates.
Several recent leavers said they wrote bullet points about their experiences to refer to during their exit talks because they were determined to raise the alarm to their soon-to-be-former bosses about what they perceived as a toxic work culture.
One sales associate at an Internet marketing company in Chicago says she’s talked about everything from a lack of paid time off to how the company’s internal memos about Black Lives Matter seem devoid of emotion. This employee says she doesn’t expect anything to change, but appreciates the opportunity to get it all off her chest.
A financial compliance professional in New York says she spoke candidly about poor communication during the pandemic about her employer’s return-to-the-office plan and policies for employees who tested positive for Covid-19. She says she felt compelled to speak up because she had colleagues who were hospitalized with Covid-19 and when they returned home they needed to find out if there was still a job waiting for them.
A sales manager at a Nashville retail store says he loved his job but was horrified that his co-workers didn’t always wear masks in the store and that his company forbade employees from asking each other about their vaccination status. In an exit survey, he said he wanted to work for a company that stood up for its values. So far, he says, he has not received a response to what he wrote.
HR experts say workers are not required to answer questions — such as where they will work or how much they will earn in a new job — during an exit interview. No matter what’s implied or even threatened, wages and benefits are governed by federal and state laws, and an employer can’t withhold your last paycheck if you don’t participate in an exit interview, says Barbara Holland, a counselor at the Society for Human Resource Management.
A survey conducted last month of more than 1,100 SHRM members found that 43 percent of HR professionals said their organizations had high or much higher turnover in the past six months, while another 43 percent they say the turnover was about the same.
Sharing insights about a bad boss or an abusive work culture may seem fruitless to an employee walking out the door, but those observations can prove critical to building the case for change, Ms. Holland says. If several employees leave for the same reason — or because of the same person — but only one speaks up, it can make it harder for HR to advocate for change, she adds.
Trier Bryant, CEO of Just Work LLC, says it’s possible to be both respectful and direct when it’s necessary to talk about a negative situation or culture. You can frame your reviews to show you care about the place you’re leaving, says Ms. Bryant, who used to work for Twitter Inc. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. before co-founding Just Work, which helps organizations and individuals create fairer workplaces.
In her own career, Ms. Bryant says she gave direct feedback during exit interviews, saying, “I’m sharing this because not only do I care about the company, but I also care about my colleagues that I’m leaving.”
Most people change jobs several times during their career. Even when an employee has mixed feelings about leaving a position or colleagues, Ms. Bryant says they can focus their exit interview on how their experience prepared them for their next role and emphasize the positive so they don’t burn out bridge.
“It’s good to be in a company, do great work, and then when you’ve contributed and done your part, move on,” she says.
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©2022 Bangkok Post Group. Visit bangkokpost.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency LLC.
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