{"text":[[{"start":6.3,"text":"For reasons I have no way to explain, March has been a big month for resignations. "}],[{"start":13.3,"text":"At least three people I know have decided to throw in the towel. One was poached by a rival company. Another went off to write a book. The third decided that, after nearly 20 years in the same job, he wanted to do something else."}],[{"start":28.84,"text":"More than 200,000 people in the UK have been resigning in the first three months of the year for more than a decade, so it is no surprise that I know a few of them this year."}],[{"start":42.269999999999996,"text":"But I keep thinking about these decampers in ways I have not before, thanks to a new book called Jolted."}],[{"start":50.16,"text":"Its author is Anthony Klotz, the American academic who correctly predicted that the pandemic would lead to what he called a Great Resignation of workers across the US."}],[{"start":63.349999999999994,"text":"As I wrote in 2022, Klotz himself joined the flood of bolters, leaving his US university for University College London’s school of management in the UK."}],[{"start":75.67999999999999,"text":"He is still at UCL, studying the same topic that has obsessed him for the past 15 years: how, when and why people decide to quit."}],[{"start":87.22999999999999,"text":"The book makes the simple but not very obvious case that one of the most under-acknowledged realities of working life is that quitting is often triggered by a single incident, or jolt. Indeed, Klotz writes, “most of us are one event away from leaving our job”."}],[{"start":107.46999999999998,"text":"He identifies a number of different jolts, from the horrible thump of failure, harassment or worse, to the “crossover” jolt of a health scare, divorce or other personal wrench that can shake you into thinking of the exit door. "}],[{"start":122.61999999999999,"text":"More positive jolts, like a big birthday, can also lead to quitting. Even a promotion can do it if it makes you think that: “Hey, I’m amazing. I could be doing better elsewhere.”"}],[{"start":134.82,"text":"The more surprising event, however, is the “honeymoon” jolt that happens when a new job falls so short of expectations that it turns new hires into new quitters."}],[{"start":146.85999999999999,"text":"These turn out to be far more common than I had imagined. Klotz quotes one survey of 56,000 workers that found 42 per cent had quit a new job within a year. Another showed 30 per cent went within 90 days. "}],[{"start":163.54999999999998,"text":"One reason: employers often oversell themselves to lure new recruits. Klotz gives the example of a student who joined a big consultancy that had promised generous paid holidays, only to learn no one actually took the vacations in their first year if they wanted to get ahead."}],[{"start":182.23,"text":"None of the three recent resigners I know had suffered a honeymoon jolt. Each had been with the same company for years. "}],[{"start":190.92999999999998,"text":"But what had led them to press the eject button? And, more importantly when considering the high costs of losing good people and hiring new ones, could any of their departures have been prevented? "}],[{"start":202.10999999999999,"text":"As Klotz’s book points out, it pays to have managers with enough skill and time to recognise when an employee has been jolted, or could be soon. "}],[{"start":214.04999999999998,"text":"Likewise, a good manager is more likely to spot the tell-tale signs of a potential plug-puller. Some are obvious: updating LinkedIn profiles; taking longer lunch breaks; scurrying off for private phone calls. "}],[{"start":230.24999999999997,"text":"But the behaviour that is more closely linked to an actual resignation can be more subtle. Being grumpier than usual. Not making so much effort to please a manager or do as much work. "}],[{"start":245.29999999999998,"text":"Spotting this type of conduct early has obvious benefits for an employer, and more than you might think for an employee. One big insight Klotz offers is that the one thing many people should do after suffering a jolt at work is nothing. There are more advantages to staying put and carrying on with the devil you know than we realise. "}],[{"start":267.74,"text":"Ask Bob Iger. When the Walt Disney boss formally handed over to his successor this year after nearly two decades in the job, he was described as one of the greatest chief executives of his generation. But he very nearly wasn’t. "}],[{"start":286.03000000000003,"text":"Iger nearly quit in the 1980s after the jolt of discovering his employer, the ABC-TV network, had been bought by a smaller company with a very different culture, Capital Cities Communications. "}],[{"start":300.27000000000004,"text":"He ultimately decided it was smarter to stay. Disney bought Cap Cities and the rest became a very successful history that is worth remembering whenever the inevitable work jolt strikes."}],[{"start":322.05,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1774856941_6249.mp3"}