A sudden exodus of employees is causing leadership to panic and suddenly puts me under a microscope with questions like:
- Are you going to leave?
- What can we do to keep you from leaving?
- Do you see yourself here in 1 year?
These are all semi valid questions to ask in the best interest of the company. But I’m curious how this information could be used.
This all got me thinking – at what point could – “no - I don’t see myself in a year” be used as a resignation with a 1 year notice – and then terminated after ~3 months and be ineligible for unemployment since you “technically” resigned.
It will vary by state, but generally:
When only one of the two parties is unwilling to continue the employer-employee relationship, it is obvious who is the moving party. If employment was still available to the claimant and the claimant refused to continue working, then the claimant is the moving party. If the employer will not allow the claimant to continue work, even though the claimant wants to, then the employer is the moving party.
@Vanth@reddthat.com is correct. I would just add that you should always apply for unemployment when you leave a company and do not immediately have new employment. Don’t disqualify yourself. That’s the job of your state’s department of labor.
Is this a “help I answered my boss’ questions truthfully and now I’m worried I may have sunk myself into some trouble” post? If so, you might want to share what you’ve said. (Like, if you said you don’t see yourself there in a year, maybe try speaking less in the hypothetical.)
If you’re asking for guidance for how to answer questions you anticipate being asked, the way I’d probably answer is:
- Are you going to leave? I don’t have any plans to leave.
- What can we do to keep you from leaving? Given my current situation, the main thing(s) I can think of that could make an offer from another company hard to turn down would be _______(higher pay, more vacation, travel benefits, better medical insurance, whatever). I wouldn’t have asked for such from you had you not asked me directly, but if you wanted feedback on what to focus on to be compeditive in the jobs market in this field, that would be my answer.
- Do you see yourself here in 1 year? I hope to be here in a year, yes. (If you quit within the week, you can say things changed between this question and your resignation.)
Try to smile, be polite. Chances are the people directly asking the questions of you will find it as awkward as you do. They’re only doing it because they were told to.
If you’ve already told them things like “I don’t see myself here in a year” (or something lesser like “I dunno” or “it’s hard to predict that far out” or anythjng), don’t sweat it. I really don’t think there’s much you could have said that could actually come back to bite you. “I don’t see myself here in a year” is not the same as “I won’t be working here in a year.” I doubt anything you’ve said could qualify as a resignation.
Appreciated - fortunately for my anxieties I don’t think I dug myself too deep before I raised this.
I’ll keep some of those comments in mind. My current mindset is to just leverage it for a promotion and run with that while I start working with my network to see what else is available. Ideally the promotion will come with a significant bump in base pay and not all be time based vesting instruments.
The only thing I can add to this excellent response is, don’t put anything in writing!
If you are fired during your notice period, in most US states, you’re still entitled to unemployment insurance for the time between when you were fired and when your notice period would end
The default standard at law is whether a reasonable person would interpret your statement as intent to resign. Generally, that means giving a specific date and not just a nebulous idea of some time in the far future. This would probably be down to a case-by-case basis. If you said “I won’t be here in two weeks”, that’s different than “I don’t see myself continuing to do this job five years from now.”
They’re doing “stay interviews” wrong.
All of those questions are entirely unreasonable, because they’re all manipulative.
Many years ago my old boss gave me an interview before I got a promotion and he asked me if I was still going to be working for the company in 20 years. And I lied and said that I thought I probably would. But why did he ask me? I believe he was trying to pressure me into saying that I would be there, knowing that I have integrity, knowing that if I said it then I might be less likely to quit.
Except that he didn’t have any integrity, and he had on other occasions promised employees that they would get promotions and then delivered them nothing, or even let them go when the contract ran out.
And that’s normal. Every medium to large sized company in the world has bosses like this.
Anyway, so if you’re in a situation where they make you lie, then you lie, and then you ask them to improve the quality of the workplace. You just said that you’re planning to stay there for many years into the future, so now you’re wondering what concrete steps the bosses are going to do keep your wonderful co-workers happy enough to stick around and build that bright future together with you, bearing in mind that the best way to retain employees is to pay them more.
Employees and employers are always in a war of information. Employers work together with their crony class traitors (like HR) to come up with plans to increase profits and mitigate losses based on what they can glean about employees. They are asking you all these questions as a form of intelligence gathering. Maybe they’re trying to get a handle on where they most need to begin recruiting. Maybe they’re trying to get a handle on why people are leaving. Maybe they’re using the information gathering privilege to intimidate people. Maybe it’s something else.
Either way, it’s rarely in an employee’s interest to provide accurate information like this to an employer. If they were actually worried about people leaving they could just raise salaries and figure out if there are specific working conditions to improve like getting rid of abusive managers or changing work responsibilities. But those aren’t the questions they’re asking.
The only question is how to avoud questions or lie. Avoiding is best. “I hadn’t really thought of that. What is your opinion?” is a good default. Or, “have other people been talking about that?” If they try to force an answer, just lie. You see yourself there in 15 years, whatever.
This may be a sign that they feel weak in their labor market, though. I think this is actually a good time to ask for a raise and promotion. It’s also a good time to start looking for other jobs, as a big exodus of people that they’re not handling appropriately means everyone’s working conditions are probably going to get worse. They seem to be in complete petty tyrant mode.
First, don’t say “you see yourself leaving” in one year. The question is a worthless. Give it an equally bullshit answer like " I hope I am still here in one year".
Second, even if you say you might not be there in as year, that is not a resignation. Never say that sort of thing in writing unless you are sending in your formal notice of resignation.
When answering “Are you going to leave?” or similar questions don’t say yes or no. Say you are always interested in whatever options are best for your career. If the business can continue to provide the best option then there is no reason for you to leave.
(But you leave that last sentence unsaid)
We’re incentivized to lie to our employers. If they ask where we see ourselves in X number of years, any answer rhst doesn’t involve that company is a red flag to management, and likely a reason to terminate your employment.
We live in an age where company loyalty and hard work translating into promotions & higher pay aren’t real things. This is not the 1970s anymore, despite what many of our geriatric politicians say to the contrary.
These days, the only way to get a promotion or a pay raise is to quit and go work for someone else. Employers don’t like to admit it, but that’s the hard truth. There is zero incentive to work hard for, or be loyal to, any company.
“A raise would help my loyalty”
At my company, we had someone who told us they were planning on moving countries within a year, but hadn’t given a firm date to leave. We interpreted it as we weren’t given an official notice until they confirmed the date.
Even after they gave a date, we still treated them as a normal employee, but we did tell them we expected that their quality of work wouldn’t drop during this period. I don’t know how that would work in positions where the policy is to cut off access after someone gives their notice.
That would be an ethical business, unfortunately they are becoming rare.
Start looking for a new job. The culture is going to change and the expectations are going to change. You can try and leverage more money or promotions, but you are going to be in a company we’re the majority are people that can’t leave.
And whatever you do, ask them the same questions. I prefer, “I don’t know, what about you?” That will usually kill the follow ups.
As a rule when talking to management you love the place you work, 5 years? You’ll be there in ten
I mean unless you have complaints you really feel you need to raise
They won’t tell you if they’re planning on firing you. You take the mandatory notice you must give as a target and never give more notice than that.
