EDITOR’S NOTE: The August 3rd How to Manage a Camel post asked project and programme management practitioners to weigh in on the matter of candidate unrest with their working status. Specifically: Why Do People Quit Their Job To Find Another? Most of the responses we received have been formulated into our Tipoffs article due out with the August issue, in inboxes Thursday. New subscribers can sign up here for free issues. In the meantime, Camel contributor and PPSOSIG chairman Chris Walters gives his full, unabridged view on the question.
- The longer you spend in a company, the more time you understand how the organism works, and the easier you see flaws in senior ability, organisation design, products etc. Also, because you’re “part of the furniture”, you’re less able to influence change because you become pigeonholed or stereotyped, and therefore if you’ve never been a change agent, you’re unlikely to either get or make the opportunity.
- Change is good. No matter how much we grumble about it, changes can bring fresh challenges, which for most people gives them motivation. Stuck in the same old job, you see the same old problems year in and year out – it grinds people down, and damages motivation.
- Sooner or later, the critical mass gets close to intolerable and people start to look around, probably half-hearted at first – “testing the market”. “Grass is greener” syndrome leads to the temptation of a new job, whether or not you get the full picture of the underlying nature of the new company – “it’s different, so it can’t be as bad”.
- The “Honeymoon Period” – the first month or two when you’re trying to take in all that’s new, different and a challenge. There’s so much “data” entering your mind that it all appears good to start with, and you can’t process it quickly enough to get the real insight, so you gloss over the flaws in the new job. It takes a while for the rot to set in, by which time, you’re not the new boy any more, and you’re stuck in your ways… and so the cycle repeats!
- Work / life balance wrong
- Boss is unbearable
- No belief in the company
- No belief in the company’s products
- Companies ethics don’t personally resonate
- Fed up of all the corporate bullshit
- Bored
- Seeing no ultimate value in the job
- Too much travel
- Not enough money
- Victim of bullying
- Awful colleagues
- Not enough challenge in the job
- Finally – “Coz I got a better job so stuff you”
- Change jobs to stay motivated. Every two years is good. As a PM that might be as simple as taking a new project. Company moves are more dramatic changes, but sometimes necessary.
- Start a new job by being a change agent, and then you’ll have that “persona” and people will expect it – you will be able to do more to quieten your frustrations.
- Don’t be afraid to change companies, but realise that the grass often only appears green from a distance….
- Put work in the overall context of your life – how much does “work” matter as opposed to “funding the family” – when you understand your personal business case for going to work, you can take corrective action when the business case becomes breached.
- Find ways to make work fun. It makes the week go much quicker.
Chris is the chairman of the PPSOSIG (Programme and Project Support Office Specialist Interest Group), the next conference on the 15th and 16th September still has some limited spaces available – check out the agenda
