Why do good hands quit?

"People leave managers not companies," says, Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman.

Every company faces the problem of people leaving the company for better pay or profile.

An employee got an opportunity with an MNC, which had a great reputation and the offer was exemplary. The company was in the top list of Fortune 500. It had all the right systems in place employee - friendly human resources (HR) policies, a spanking new office, and the very best technology, even a canteen that served superb food.

He also got the opportunity to travel abroad twice. "My learning curve is the sharpest it's ever been," he said soon after he joined.

After six months, he joined, he decided to walk out of the job.

Why did this talented employee decide to leave?

He decided to quit for the same reason that drives many good people away. The answer lies in one of the largest studies undertaken by the GallupOrganization.

The study surveyed over a million employees and 80,000 managers and was published in a book called "First Break All The Rules". It came up with this surprising finding :

If you're losing good people, look to their immediate boss. Immediate boss is the reason people stay and thrive in an organization. And he's the reason why people leave. When people leave they take knowledge, experience and contacts with them, straight to the competition.

Mostly manager drives people away? HR experts say that of all the abuses, employees find humiliation the most intolerable. The first time, an employee may not leave,but a thought has been planted. The second time that thought gets strengthened. The third time, he looks for another job.

When people cannot retort openly in anger, they do so by passive aggression. By digging their heels in and slowing down. By doing only what they are told to do and no more. By omitting to give the boss crucial information. Dev says: "If you work for a jerk, you basically want to get him into trouble. You don’t have your heart and soul in the job."

Different managers can stress out employees in different ways - by being too controlling, too suspicious, too pushy, too critical, but they forget that workers are not fixed assets, they are free agents. When this goes on too long, an employee will quit - often over a trivial issue.

" Talented men leave. Dead wood doesn't. "Jack Welch of GE once said. A company's value lies "between the ears of its employees".

- Mani.