Why people stay in jobs, why they leave and what leaders should look out for

Up to and including my parents’ generation (born during World War II), staying in the same job for life was not just accepted, it was the norm. In comparison, the average tenure today is dramatically shorter; in the UK, it is between two and four years. On this basis we can expect to work for up to 12 different organisations throughout a 50-year career.

Our desire to stay put varies by life stage and by our organisation’s life stage. Early in our careers we often value the accumulation of skills, experience and adventures; with mid-life, mortgages and/or young children, we may place a higher value on stability and predictability; and as older workers, passing on our expertise to younger colleagues and accessing healthcare and pension benefits make us minded to stay.

A company’s appeal to employees will vary at different points in its lifecycle: some find the unstructured dynamism of start-ups an irresistible magnet; others prefer the more corporate set-up of a larger, more established player.

Why people stay

From my research and conversations with leaders, the following considerations play into people’s decisions to stay in a role and with their employer:

1. “It’s the economy, stupid”: During economic downturns, job security ascends in priority as we feel less confident about landing a job elsewhere.
2. Stability: For some of us, familiarity and continuity matter more than ambition and growth.
3. Excitement: Another swathe of the workforce crave the excitement that comes from disrupting, innovating and making an impact.
4. Appreciation: If we receive high-quality recognition for our contribution and performance, we are less likely to leave our jobs after two years.
5. Identity: Our sense of identity is strongly linked to the job that we do, so changing jobs can be a deeply rooted, Pandora’s-box-inducing decision. Even when we hate our current job, it takes a lot to decide to move.

Why people leave

Switching voluntarily from staying put to saying goodbye is rarely a flash decision, thanks in part to a cognitive bias known as the sunk cost fallacy, where we stick with an unsatisfactory situation even when moving would clearly be more beneficial because we’ve substantially invested in our current set-up. It’s only when our frustration or needs reach a tipping point that we conclude it’s time to go. The following factors regularly crop up as the straws that break the camel’s back: