Some of the worst parts of being an engineering manager (EM) are letting people go and dealing with engineers who quit.
No manager relishes their team members' coming to their office with a resignation letter. When it happens, it can feel like a missing puzzle piece.
You might question:
- Did I do something wrong?
- How could I’ve avoided that?
- Are the rest of the team planning to leave?
- And what should I do with their work?
It stings when an engineer you’ve worked with for years hands in their notice. However, switching jobs is a common practice in every industry. It doesn’t necessarily mean you, as a manager, did something wrong.
Why engineers quit
As difficult as it can be to lose a team member, understanding why can help you better navigate these situations in the future. Here are some of the most common factors contributing to engineers deciding to move on.
1 - Another company offers a better salary
Many companies experienced this during the pandemic. For a few years afterward, tech salaries skyrocketed. Not everyone was prepared for the salary increase, and they were unable to keep up. Because of this, many companies saw their top talent leave.
While managers should always keep an eye on market salary trends to offer fair compensation, if you’re at a startup, you can’t always compete with the big tech corporations. You can always try to:
- Negotiate
- Offer other non-monetary benefits
- Or accept the situation and wish them good luck
2 - Cultural mismatch
Do most candidates read the values and mission statements of the company they’re applying to? Probably not.
Do most companies invest in strong employer branding and their identity development? Not always.
But it matters more than you might think. Let’s say your company invests a lot in community building. So, you organize:
- Regular get-togethers
- Company events
- And meetings to foster connections among employees
While this might work for some people, many engineers just want to work in solitude. And after a while, they might realize that they love the job, but can’t stand the culture. So, they look for a better match.
However, a company’s culture also goes the other way. If it’s the right fit, it can retain talent and motivate them to keep going even if the work is less desirable.
3 - When workflows don’t work
Most engineers are creative people. They love technical challenges and want to work on dynamic projects. However, not all:
- Technical work
- Projects
- Products
- And workflows
Are exciting. In fact, many can be repetitive and mundane.
Let’s say engineers are required to track the time they spend on different projects. Many companies do that – including mine. But, usually, there’s a common-sense approach. For example, if you need to work on another project for a few minutes, you don’t need to clock in and clock out every time you open a new tab.
However, some stricter companies require engineers to click a button every time they switch between projects, even if it’s just for a second. This can be distracting and frustrating.
It might seem like a small, insignificant thing. But there’s a saying: “Even small drops of water can break a rock over time.” Repeating these small but inefficient steps every day can drive an engineer crazy. So much so, they start looking for a company with less restrictive processes.
4 - Conflicts
Conflicts are inevitable in any workplace, and an engineering team is no different. Even strong teams can feel tensions, whether they are due to
- Technical decisions
- Personality clashes
- Differing opinions
- Or different working styles
For instance, you may have one engineer frustrated by another's repeated coding errors, despite previous attempts to address them. When conflicts continue to go unresolved, they can escalate, causing frustration and even ultimatums. Often, this can lead to one of the engineers parting ways with the company.
As an EM, your role is to mediate and facilitate a solution before tensions affect performance, morale, and stability. Addressing conflicts in a prompt and unbiased way is key to preventing situations where engineers feel the need to leave.
5 - Job hopping
If you were a manager during and a few years after the pandemic, you're likely familiar with the job-hopping trend. It almost symbolized prosperity and economic growth: “If you stayed in one job longer than two years, how can you expect to increase your salary by more than 10% per year?”
However, recent reports show that this trend is slowing down due to the cooling job market. The number of people quitting for better opportunities declined by 11% last year compared to 2023, and the trend is continuing.
Of course, everyone is free to do as they like, and there are usually no hard feelings. But it can be costly for companies to replace workers every year or two, especially engineers.
Software engineers often require at least a year to fully integrate into company processes. So, you’re investing in a new engineer for their first year without getting the full return. If you’re in the cycle of looking for new hires every year or two, it eats into your budget and slows down the work.
What you can do
It's normal to feel frustrated or disappointed when one of your team members quits, but dwelling on these emotions can also be unproductive. Instead, focus on improving your approach moving forward. And that starts with yourself.
1 - Don’t take it personally
Think of it this way: when you switch from one TV streaming service to another, you probably do so because the new service provider offers movies or series you want to watch. That doesn’t mean that the first provider is wrong or that the shows they stream are boring for everyone.
The same is true with team members leaving.
While I often compare management to relationships, your engineers aren’t married to their positions on your team. Most of the time, it’s just not personal.
All you can do is support them, wish them luck, and offer references if necessary. And you can still keep in touch and maintain a professional relationship or even a friendship.
2 - Deal with the aftermath
If one of your team members has left, you need to handle and distribute the workload.
I deprioritize the work the engineer left behind until we can find a replacement. I always avoid giving extra work to other engineers because it’s unfair to them. The team member's leaving is not their fault, so burdening them with the workload can lead to resentment.
Think of your team like a jazz band. Each engineer plays their instrument and knows their parts. When the saxophone player announces they're joining another band, you don’t ask a trumpet player to play both parts. You reorganize the ensemble without the saxophonist until you can find someone else.
3 - Optimize your hiring process
If people quit because they can't assimilate into the team or plan to leave when a new opportunity arises, you have to revamp your hiring process.
You can:
- Include an additional hiring step (interview, test, and so on) to measure compatibility
- Invest in sprucing up your career page and employer branding to emphasize the core values and mission
- Walk the candidate through a typical day or a workflow they’ll have once they start the job
I’m always honest and upfront about my expectations straight away, and I hope to get the same from candidates. That way, we avoid wasting each other's time. Of course, it's not always possible, but at least we increase our chances.
4 - Keep an eye on market salary trends
While your:
- Culture
- Mission
- And environment
Are all important, the primary reason people come to work is to earn money. They have to be compensated fairly for their efforts. More people will quit if you don't regularly adjust salaries based on the market rate.
Some managers don’t increase salaries, instead they wait for people to come to them. But not everyone is comfortable or assertive enough to ask for a raise.
To help your team, you can create regular performance reviews and salary increases to motivate your team. Reassure them that a salary increase is something to expect for good work, not something you have to haggle about.
5 - Focus on increasing retention
People quitting once in a while is completely normal – in most cases. But when you notice an increased employee turnover, it’s time to investigate.
If more than two people quit in a span of a few months, there might be an underlying issue such as:
- A disruptive colleague who instigates conflict
- General burnout from overtime or inefficient time management
- Or low salaries compared to the market standard
For example, we work with many fintechs. In the past, many people from the financial sector applied for positions. During interviews, most candidates said they wanted more freedom because they had none at their previous companies. After all, it's common for financial institutions to have stringent regulations and workflows.
However, our company is less restrictive. After a while of working in a less rigid environment, it was apparent that the very thing people were running from became their biggest obstacle. A few of the new hires brought up the lack of structure in their workflows and decided to leave. Afterward, we paid extra attention to cultural-fit.
The reverse can happen as well. If you’re part of a large corporation with a lot of structure and standard procedures, someone from a startup might not fit well into your team. So, be aware of cultural compatibility.
6 - Build trust
Recently, a company in India received backlash after asking its employees to fill out a survey about their stress levels, only to fire the staff members who reported being stressed. An interesting way to solve the problem, indeed!
However, those who were fired will likely be reluctant to speak up in their next company. Even without this scenario, some people are simply afraid to bring up issues and choose to quit before anything can be resolved.
If your team feels confident bringing problems to you and you listen, you’re less likely to be surprised by a departure. It’s like a relationship: if you keep sweeping problems under the rug, eventually, one of the partners has to say goodbye.
Building trust creates an environment where your team is motivated to do their work and happy to support your leadership.
You can do this by:
- Being consistent and fulfilling your job’s promise
- Communicating regularly with your team to reduce any potential anxiety
- Owning your mistakes and being accountable
- Being honest about what you don’t know
- Aligning with team goals, not just giving orders
- And showing that you care about your team’s interest
Now this doesn’t happen overnight. Consistency is key. If you continually demonstrate your trustworthiness and show up for your team, they’ll do the same.
The short version: people quitting happens, but you must take note
No matter how hard you try to resolve conflicts, create a great working environment, and be a supportive leader, engineers inevitably quit from time to time.
They leave for various reasons, such as:
- Better opportunities
- Mismatched culture
- Annoying workflows
- Conflicts
- Job hopping
As an EM, your job is to address the issues that could lead to someone wanting to quit. But sometimes, despite your best efforts, the situation is beyond your control. The only option is to accept it with grace and respect.
You can do so by:
- Not taking it personally
- Handling the aftermath responsibly
- Optimizing the hiring process
- Monitoring market salary trends
- Increasing retention
- And building trust within your team
Instead of focusing on what went wrong, shift your energy toward improving what you can do in the future.
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Originally published on Medium.com
Content in this blog post by Alex Ponomarev is licensed under CC BY 4.0.
