noteworthy wrote:
Chris Loux:

People don't quit companies -- they quit managers.

I don't see that quote in the underlying article, but I've heard it before, and I want to say that I think thats utter bullshit. Its one of those memes that becomes popular with executive managers because it makes them feel good about themselves and sends a message that they want to send.

It makes them feel good because it makes them blameless - when talented people leave their company, its not REALLY because of the company's direction or the overall work environment, regardless of what they are saying when they go out the door. Executives can repeat this meme to remind themselves that the little people they lead don't really understand big things like corporate direction and strategy and the real reason they are leaving is because their first line manager isn't doing his job.

Corporate executives expect a certain amount of incompetency from first line management, because they think of themselves as being smarter than and better than first line managers, and this meme provides them a little confirmation of that feeling, every time the organization looses a talented person. It also allows them to ignore criticism of corporate strategy that is coming from below, especially when that criticism is so dire that people are looking for another job. In that sense, this meme is the sort of rationalization that bad leaders wrap themselves in as the ship goes down. It serves to isolate them from thinking about criticism and increases the rate of descent.

It also sends a message that they want to send - that first line managers, not executives, are at fault if the company cannot retain talented people and first line managers should feel that responsibility and fear the consequences of failure. It enables executives to put first line managers where they want them - with their backs against the wall, bearing all of the responsibility for what happens, but with no power to effect change.

I would line it up against: "Vision without Execution is Hallucination," alternatively attributed to either Edison or Einstein or Henry Ford, which is generally used in a "you employees better get to work on my vision like that smart guy once said" kind of way by executives. Anyone with two brain cells to rub together ought to realize that none of those people would have said something like that, and its absolutely cringe worthy to see such a modern phrase attributed to an ancient person by someone who expects to be taken seriously as a leader. The quote actually came from IBM executive Danny Sabbah in 2005.

RE: everyone quits so much