The Inbetweener: There are far too many resignations at my firm and management just doesn’t seem to mind

With the new financial year upon us and if you work in a churn-and-burn industry such as financial services, you may be receiving emails about the latest resignations. I am seeing a number of them in my office: at least one, if not two, a week. It’s now become so standard, that every time I get another email, all I hear is “well, another one bites the dust”.

It’s understandable when people leave for better opportunities, or because they become professionally qualified. But what happens if a firm starts losing back-office people who are competent in their jobs, but quit simply because they are unhappy? And what about those who leave within six months of starting? I have noticed this happening at my work. When you see several admin people – all of whom joined the company a year after you – leaving in droves, you become suspicious.

Not only are we losing a number of staff, but many of them are women. I asked our latest casualty about the reasons for her departure. Her response saddened me. It was the same reply I had heard a few times before: the lack of work flexibility, the boredom and, worst of all, the lack of respect from younger colleagues. The selfish side of me was angry that we were losing a valuable admin member of the team; the empathetic side wanted the best for her.

It makes me wonder: management can see that we are losing good quality people, so why aren’t they doing something, anything, to retain them? After all, with rehiring always more expensive than retention, why are they turning a blind eye to this ongoing problem and being so relaxed when employees leave?

One reason may be that some of our “immature” staff members are always the first to comment about how bad they think the departing person had been at their job. Instead of inwardly looking at how they could have made things work out better, they find it easier to moan to management about the absent person, who has taken control of their own career and left.

All I can do is roll my eyes when management gets frustrated as to why the support work that underpins our jobs just doesn’t get done. When will the bosses stop and ask the obvious question: what is it about our company that makes our best admin people want to leave? Is morale really that low?

The Inbetweener is a financial services profesional in Australia. The views expressed are her own and not those of eFinancialCareers.