We're breaking up?

If you get a better offer, take it.

Sometimes, despite best efforts, things just don't work out. Sometimes, the offer is just too good to pass up. One of my new colleagues is heading back to his previous firm because, it was just too good to pass up, which is completely understandable. What was interesting was that before talking to his managers, he felt he should let me know first. Although a negative to be losing them for the company as they were nice and promising, this does show that my own enablement processes are on point and making an impression on participants. So, I will take it as a positive.

People come and go of course, but one of the things that I like about the company I work for is, I am yet to meet or hear of anyone leaving on bad terms, it is always for a new opportunity and that is rarely only money related. Generally, it is experience related, where they want to do something (like start a new business or head a department) that is not currently available internally. This is a good sign and position for a company to be in as an employer, as especially in Finland, a lot of the connections are word of mouth and through recommendations.

Places that are bad to work at have a catch-22 problem, because they tend to attract people who don't improve the situation, continuing as bad places to work. The people who are decent tend to leave quite quickly and spread the word as to why, and if they are "trusted in their network" it is taken seriously. Often, these conversations come up in future job applications too, and HR, as well as the employment networks are relatively small here - a bad reputation carries.

In the current job market climate, finding people is easy, but finding good people is increasingly difficult. There are a lot who are changing work places currently, but with a lot of work from home, the place they work doesn't matter as much, meaning they are making more decisions on money - in the short term. However, long term, the culture and opportunities within a company matter too, because even if you don't have to spend time with colleagues, having professional and engaged colleagues matter. People working for money alone are rarely engaged, and they will churn as soon as there is a better offer.

In my own experiences in industry however, at some point, those offers seem to dry up and people who had a lot of potential ahead of them, can find themselves scrambling for anything in positions and companies they wouldn't have chosen earlier. I know many people who have "left for more money" and 10 years later, are unhappily earning less than they would have had they stayed, but now have a track record that is a negative for employment and in places like Finland, everyone knows someone who knows someone else. The country is more like three degrees of separation and 6 million people are covered.

For the person today, I think what they were surprised at was at how supportive people have been of their decision to leave. It isn't always the case in companies, but how I see it is, if it is the kind of person you want working for you, it is also the kind of person you wish well, even if they don't work for you. And then, there is the reputation of the company to think about, where through word of mouth, word spreads and, negatives travel farther and faster than good.

A lot of companies tend to think of people as resources, but for example where I work and other companies, the HR department is now the People and Culture department and, they are actively looking to improve the processes and experience for employees, rather than just drive them to perform until their tank is empty. Of course, the ulterior motive is always to get them performing effectively and efficiently, but with knowledge workers, a large part of that means supporting them, not burning them out. Employee churn is very expensive and has knock on effects with the company operations as well, for example in regard to touch-point consistency for customers.

After speaking with the person for a little while, he of course felt this was the best decision for him and given his circumstances, it may very well be. However, there was also a reason that he left his old firm and it could be that the package they have offered now, might become less attractive once daily routines set in again. However hopefully, it is like when people leave the company I work for - the opportunity isn't money related, it is experience based. All the best to them.

A lot of people seem to dislike their work, yet ask many people and they define themselves by what they do for work. Because of this, I think it is wise to make good decisions and, doing it for the money rarely is enough to bring the feeling of satisfaction for long. There needs to be something meaningful as well. What that is varies from person to person, but if you get up in the morning dreading to go to work - you probably aren't in a healthy relationship with your employer. And they might feel it too.

Sometimes, it is better to break up.

Taraz [ Gen1: Hive ]