Leaving your job? It’s the boss effect

After all the theorising that goes on in management about how to make companies perform better, new research by Gallup shows that it comes down to basics: the quality of the boss. It turns out that people stay on in jobs if they like their bosses and leave if they don’t. Money, work, position, and ambition all come second. To many, the boss is as important a relationship as a spouse and considering the number of hours spent with a boss compared to a spouse, this is hardly surprising.

So does this mean that bosses have to get all caring to make sure that no one ever leaves? Apparently not; what bosses need to do is to spend less time on operations, systems, strategies and so on and more on people.

Of course, this won’t solve the problem completely. Some people are natural-born leaders and will always attract others. Some will have to work harder at it by being fair or aware while some will be aspiring to get into that boss role themselves by whatever means possible. And some will always be nasty Hari Sadus — as in that TV commercial — just to make lives more interesting. A counterpoint: if everyone loved their bosses, no one would ever need to switch jobs. How boring would that be? Management gurus would, of course, have a field day postulating new theories about stagnation caused by bosses who are too good for their own good!