Why Do People Hate Their Jobs?

Ilya Pozin, CEO of Open Me. Columnist for Inc, Forbes & LinkedIn. Serial Entrepreneur. recently noted 10 reasons people hate their jobs over on LinkedIn. It’s a good list, and a good thing for managers to keep in mind.

And, by the way, the #1 reason is exactly why good recruiters know that Wednesdays are the best days to get a passive candidate to take your call…. because you’re often within 24 hours from their most-recent 1:1 or staff-meeting… two great reasons to decide to either get a new job or shoot yourself in the face.

Here’s the list in descending order (from 10 to 1):

• They think the grass is greener somewhere else.
• Their values don’t align with the company.
• They don’t feel valued.
• Job Insecurity.
• There’s no room for advancement.
• They’re unhappy with their pay.
• There’s too much red tape.
• They’re not being challenged.
• The passion’s gone.
• Their boss sucks.

And, for what it’s worth, you’ll notice that “money” is smack in the middle, not the number-one reason as many people would suppose. This is because it’s NOT the money. It’s NEVER THE MONEY. Even if they SAY it’s the money, it’s NOT the money.

You’ll also notice that the top half of things are that feel out of the control of an employee and the bottom half which are things completely in the control of the employee. The bottom half reasons are the reasons high performers leave your company…. and those are the ones that hurt long after they’ve departed.

Given that these are the most frequent reasons why people leave and they are the reasons high performers leave, you better work on cutting out bureaucracy, challenging them appropriately (two birds; one stone), and making sure only the right people are bosses!