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When I began my career, I was taught never to “burn my bridges.”  It seems that advice has gone out the window during the pandemic and the ‘great resignation.’ Employers - having a strong need for workers to help run their businesses – are overlooking social media posts of employees quitting their jobs, along with gaps in resumes and job-hopping, to get people in the door.

Employees in record numbers are talking about how they said buh-bye to their employers on Tik Tok, and these videos are now being called Quit Toks. Reddit has a subreddit called r/antiwork where workers not only announce they are quitting their job but share the texts they had with their bosses when they quit. Many feel quite confident that they will get another job easily and quickly, and they are correct. The attachment to work and the place where they work appears weak and unimportant.

After reading some of the r/antiwork texts, I saw threads where the employee found the treatment by a supervisor helped make quitting seem easy. In one case, a supervisor at a restaurant texted an employee to let them know they would be discussing their attitude with them on Monday. (The employee chose not to come in on Monday or any other day.) In another, the manager insisted employees answer their phones on their days off or be written up. (The employee decided never to answer their phone – or show up – again.)

The top three things an employer can do to avert this behavior in their workplace is a checklist of cultural basics:

• Train supervisors to treat employees with respect and hold the supervisors accountable when they are out of line.
• Create a bond with employees, so they care about where they work, what they do, and understand how their job fulfills the organization’s mission.
• Have an easy-to-follow policy to help employees escalate complaints easily and train employees on the policy when they start and then annually or more often if needed.

Do you need help in this area? Employers Council has Organizational Development professionals who can help. Contact us to find out more.