SAN DIEGO — According to the 2022 Job Seeker Nation Report, nearly one in three new hires will quit their job in the first 90 days.
It’s happening so often that it now has its name – Quick Quitting.
According to the survey, the main reason people quickly quit is that the day-to-day role was not as expected. Selma Duran knows the feeling. “I was hired to be a buyer, and then I ended up doing coffee for the supervisor,” the 28-year-old said. Now she’s helping her mom sell jewelry in Pacific Beach.
Another reason people quickly quit – lousy leadership. Marcy Shappy has been there. “The owners weren’t great,” she said, reflecting on the experience. “They wouldn’t let me pee on the job. It was terrible.” She has two part-time jobs and says she has “no regrets.” A third of those surveyed said they'd quit without having another job lined up.
“I'm jealous of Gen Z,” says William Teacup, President of Recruiting Daily. “What I see out of both Millennials and Gen Z is they're not willing to put up with the same things I put up with,” William says. He’s finding that too many companies do a horrible job setting employees up to be successful on day one. “We spend so much money and time, money and energy in recruiting, which is romance. We want to romance people into this position, which is important, and then we drop them off at onboarding and go - hey - good luck!”
Claudia Huerta with the San Diego Workforce Partnership agrees that many companies need to do a better job of onboarding. “You need to help new employees feel welcome like they belong,” she said. But she also says potential employees must start asking questions during the interview to ensure they clearly understand the expectations. “What's it like to work here? What's a typical day look like? What does success look like in the first 90 days?”
Between gig jobs, like driving for a ride-share company, being a nanny, or dog walking, younger workers know they don't have to stay in a job they hate because there are several other ways to make money until you find that next great thing. Experts believe the pandemic played a significant role in this shift. “If you went through that and you didn't re-evaluate your life, something is wrong,” William said, adding that workers today seem to be better at dealing with ambiguity. They’re also more than happy to freelance while looking for that right fit. “Some of the opportunities are going to fail, and some of them will be wonderful, but they're going to learn a lot of different things rather than staying in a job that doesn't reward them, for a boss that isn't an advocate, for a company that they don't love.”
By the way, older workers are catching on to this too. 70-year-old Sydney Brumidis says she lasted two days at McDonald’s and just a day and a half at a car wash. “Life is too short not to follow your heart and do the work you're here to do,” she said with a smile.
You can register to download the full 2022 Job Seeker Nation Report referenced in this story to see all of the findings.
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