A manager called me. He sounded worried: “Our admin wants to leave. They have been our best employee for months. All they said was that they want to work for themselves.”
I had hired this person through an interview and a review of several CVs. They were professional and excellent at the job. Two months after the project ended, I returned to review behaviour in the company. The manager was very pleased and thanked me several times. But at the end of the third month, the same manager heard the resignation.
What the manager did not know
I called the employee. They knew what they told me would stay confidential, and for the first time they gave the real reason. In one meeting, their work had been ignored, and as they told it, not carried out. More than once, during their break, they had been told not to rest that day and to do a task instead. Because they did it, the pattern repeated. When they suggested doing the task after the break, the manager refused. That was why they resigned.
One of the best employees in the company left just like that. All the manager had heard was one short sentence: “I want to work for myself.”
Why don’t employees speak up?
In my experience across projects, employees do not tell their managers much of what they think. The reason is usually not distrust but risk: if I complain, what happens to my relationship with my manager? Sometimes it is simpler: “There is no point saying it.”
As a result, a manager knows what is happening in the organisation like a page with missing lines. And that page is completed only when it is too late.
What research shows
In SHRM’s Q2 2026 Global Employee Monitor, career advancement and work/life balance are among the leading reasons for leaving, after pay. That finding is not about Iran, and a single case proves nothing general. But the story above fits the pattern: the root of the employee’s decision was work/life balance and respect, not pay.
The CIPD Good Work Index 2026 (UK data, not Iranian) finds that one in four employees has experienced conflict at work. Over half of them (51%) said they just let it go, and only 31% spoke to a manager or HR. A fifth of all employees (20%) have no voice channel. Among organisations with fewer than 50 staff the figure is 38%, against 9% in organisations of 250 or more. Among those who had changed jobs, the top reasons were better pay and benefits (29%), better work–life balance (23%) and unhappiness with leadership (19%). An employee’s silence is not consent.
A tool: the bi-monthly private conversation
Set aside one full day every two months for private conversations with staff. A few simple rules:
- 1The conversation should be held by someone who is not the direct manager, such as a coach or external adviser.
- 2Ask one main question: “From your point of view, has anything changed or not?”
- 3Tell the employee that what they say is reported only in general, without names, unless they give permission.
- 4After each round, fix one small thing and announce it. When staff see that their words have an effect, they say more next time.
Try it this week
Ask yourself: “When did a team member last tell me something I did not want to hear?” If you cannot remember, that is not a sign of a good team. It is a sign that the words are not reaching you.
A manager who can hear the unwelcome word is warned before the crisis.
Employees keep much of what they think from their managers. A regular private conversation brings it out before the resignation.
