I spent many years doing jobs I hated, merely hoping for the miracle of money that would come with the career I had pursued. One day I decide enough was enough, the amount of tears I had shed and soul destroying work I was doing - the time had come. My emotional state was a living nightmare. I never wanted to wake up in the morning, I never wanted to see people, I spent my time off in tears questioning what I was doing with my life.
I decided it was time to start my own business and do what I loved, to be my own boss and follow the passion I had for life before work became destructive.
I remember standing at a job, fighting for the rights of workers and having the worst altercation of my professional career with a chauvinistic, racist, useless "boss". I told him where he could shove his job - I packed up my belongings and left. By the time I had returned home and offered my services on LinkedIn, I had 3 offers for interviews. My name had become known for the person I was in the 5 years I had been working, and my resignation made it clear that I would never compromise what I believe is right. I stand up for my rights, and for the rights of the people doing hard labour every single day.
Whilst I am in a position (due to lockdown) where my income has taken a severe knock, I am extremely thankful that I am responsible for my own destiny. Not a boss. Not a CEO. Not an Employer. I am my own employer and I have managed to offer services to people that has kept food on the table for my family, whilst ensuring that my sanity is (mostly) intact.
People quit bad bosses - not jobs.
As with everything in this world, there are exceptions to the rule. However, in my experience the reason I have left permanent jobs and pursued my own business is because of bad management. The type of management that just doesn't care about the workers.
When I did my exit interview, one of the questions was a real kicker:
What is the primary reason you have decided to leave the Company?
My response left the Director somewhat uncomfortable.
My line manager is a lying, unethical, useless manager who doesn't care about the people.
The Director of that company is a great man - his second in charge unfortunately owned shares in the business which meant there was very little that could be done to fix what was truly wrong in the business. That business could have been successful, it could have shut multiple similar businesses down because of the potential it had to fulfil multiple disciplines.
When a company has a large amount of staff turnover, it's quite simple how to address it:
Working conditions
Happy employees will generally give as much as they possibly can to dedicate their lives to ensuring the success of your business, after all, the more successful your business is, the more opportunity there is for those employees.
If you are treating your employees like a useless expendable number, they are never going to give you their heart and soul. You will be the one losing. Why not give them that water machine? Why not listen to them when they tell you their PPE is broken? Why not truly listen to them when they tell you they have to go to a funeral? Why do you make their life difficult when they say they need to go to Mosque? Why do you refuse to allow an unconventional Mosque on their work site so that they don't HAVE to leave site? Why is YOUR religion more important than theirs? Why don't you care when a man is beaten on his way to work and says he is late because he was robbed?
The answer to all of those questions is simple: You're a horrible human being.
You fail to understand that work, jobs, money, business - it's not about you. It's about the people you hire, but you don't care about them because your life is sorted. You sit in your office with your water machine doing no physical work with your aircon on - they do physically hard work every second of the day and you refuse to give them a water machine and suitable PPE to keep them safe. You have a clocking system that alerts the HR when you have someone who has been into the toilet more than "necessary". Do you realize what type of person you are, and what you have created at your business? Do you understand that you are actually looking over someone's shoulder while they empty their bowels?
You don't. Because you don't care, and you never will - until it's too late.
Management
By hiring a self-centred human being into a position of management with zero knowledge of the fundamental problems the workers deal with, you will never achieve success in your business. Your best employees will leave, your worst employees will stay because they have no other options - and they will cause your business damage every opportunity they get. Why? If you don't care about me, why should I care about you?
Human Nature
There are some really horrible people in the world, but they are the exceptions. The majority of people will do anything they can to help someone in need. The majority of people will (without thinking) put themselves in danger to save a fellow person from being injured or dying - we do this because we have a conscience. We know right from wrong.
Why is it so difficult for the "bosses" of the world to understand the concept of looking after their employees?
Why did I write this?
If you are a boss.
I hope you evaluate yourself, your decisions, your actions. I hope you evaluate those who you have put in charge. I hope that you look very closely at your staff turnover, I hope that you realize that it is very possible you are part of the problem if you are having problems at your business.
If you're a good leader - thank you. You are one of very few out there, you're doing a good job, it's not always easy. Keep it up - your workers need you.
If you are an employee.
If you have one of those "bosses" - look elsewhere, or start your own business. You are worth more than whatever you are being forced to deal with. Plan your exit from that business, look elsewhere, secure another job and GET OUT. Your sanity is worth more. Your family will tell you what they told me - you're a much nicer person since you resigned.
If you have a leader where you work - go and say thank you. You are really lucky to have someone who genuinely cares about you.
Lead Image From: https://pixabay.com/users/geralt-9301/
A slightly different theme but I spent many years doing secretarial work because when I left school I didn't know what to do and my parents suggested going to college to learn how to type and do shorthand. When we are young we don't always know what we really want and it is only through making mistakes we learn what we really don't want.
I later worked in a supermarket after I had children because the hours were convenient and there I became part of their coffee shop cooking and waiting on people. I liked it so much and then trained to be a chef which is the job I really should have chosen at the beginning. I had a team of people working under me and I hope through my other jobs I learned to be a good boss.