There is one exit interview that I recall distinctly from one of my jobs.
I was venting to the HR person about the insanity and brutality of the workload, the callous attitude of my manager (who has since burned out at that company and opened a successful small business) and the irreverence and more political motivations of my tasks, as compared to the stated and logical motivations of my job description. I.e. I was wasting time, not on building a sales channel that my bonus was based on, but on worthless and flawed tasks for the purposes of internal politics and corporate perception.
The thing that struck me dumb and infuriated me at the same time was that the HR rep doing the exit interview said “well this is a very high turnover position”. My response: ” Well why the @$^ didn’t you tell me that in the first place?, I would NEVER have taken the job if I knew that!”. I was younger and still in the season of optimism in my professional life.
So the exit interview highlighted two things: The first, and most obvious was their is the evil aspect of the company.. the burn and churn mentality… What makes it evil isn’t the churn and burn, it was that they hid the fact that it was a burn and churn job until after they had recruited me.
The second element was a good reminder on how companies can survive on corporate inertia. It doesn’t matter if the company is highly flawed or if they have inept and callous management. I they are in a market with very high barriers to entry or if they have a business model that has longer term lock in… then they can be dysfunctional and still survive for years or decades.
The below link just touches on these subjects.. but it’s a good reminder to anyone looking for a new job, the best thing to do is do your research before you start so your not just one more post on glassdoor.
via Exit Interviews: The 2nd Most Worthless Activity HR Has To Handle | TLNT.
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