The Asymmetry of Talent Retention: Why Bad Bosses Hurt More Than Good Bosses Help
Netflix Tells Employees to Benchmark Themselves. I Did That. Here’s What it Reveals.
Netflix famously encourages its employees to benchmark themselves regularly against the external market. Not as a gun-wielding threat, but as a discipline so they’re aware of their worth (and stay abreast of what’s out there”. So, if they stick around, it’s an actual choice, not a theoretical one.
I’ve worked at Jack Hammer for almost thirteen years. That’s not inertia; I benchmark too. Yes, I’ve been headhunted to other professional services companies (no, it’s not a secret). And I’ve also been enticed by existing clients to work on some of their in-house projects (many people in our team have). So we know what our options are.
But I’ve also semi-consciously done some other benchmarking, which is backed by external data. The research on why people leave is unambiguous. Spoiler alert: it’s rarely the job. A DDI study found that 57% of employees have left a role because of their managers. A Gallup poll of over a million people reached the same conclusion: the number one reason people quit is a bad boss. For all the compelling titles, competitive salaries, pizza parties and “seats at the table”…none of it insulates you from a bad manager because people don’t proactively leave companies, they leave people.
If your gut told you that the reverse is equally true (bad boss drives you out, good boss keeps you in), your intuition would sadly be wrong. Instead you get a cluster (purpose, growth, belonging, autonomy, culture, growth, MONEY!) and different studies weight them differently, so the evidence isn’t as clean. In psychology speak, this is clear indication of negativity bias: negative experiences carry disproportionate weight. A bad boss is damaging, a good boss is more like a foundation and allows the other reasons to stay (meaning, growth, belonging) to be built on top.
In my niche experience, it’s that plus more. A boss who has your back. A culture where you can be direct without being political. Colleagues who challenge you without diminishing you. Work that feels like it matters (not in a poster-on-the-wall sense, but in the satisfaction of doing something well and impacting lives).
Jack Hammer at 25 is proof that profit and purpose need not be mutually exclusive. Yes, executive search pays the bills. But how we do it – with rigour, with honesty, with genuine care for the humans on both sides of a placement is a choice we make every day.
Author Info: Advaita Naidoo
