It is often said that people don’t quit jobs, they quit bosses. While this adage captures a powerful truth about the employee experience, it doesn’t tell the whole story. Voluntary turnover is rarely driven by a single factor. Instead, it often reflects a dynamic interplay of motives: some employees leave to escape negative circumstances, while others are pulled toward better opportunities elsewhere. In this article, researchers (Hommelhoff et al., 2025) explore both aspects; they conducted three studies to determine what actually motivates employees to leave their jobs.
REASONS FOR TURNOVER
In study 1, the researchers reviewed 73 peer-reviewed articles from 2012 to 2022, recording how often and how strongly boss-related reasons appeared relative to other factors like stress, pay, or career growth. In study 2, the researchers surveyed 197 employees about their most memorable quitting experience and how honest they were when disclosing their reasons. In study 3, the researchers analyzed 312 exit interview transcripts from a software company to assess whether departures were driven more by opportunity-seeking or by a desire to avoid negative conditions like poor leadership.
Overall, findings showed that employees typically cite multiple reasons for leaving, with stress from work overload emerging as the most common. Although not the top reason, manager-related issues were consistently reported across all studies, reinforcing the popular belief that “people quit bosses.” Career advancement also surfaced as a key driver, suggesting the importance of both avoidance motives (e.g., burnout, poor leadership) and approach motives (e.g., growth opportunities). Notably, the reasons for leaving that employees share often depend on the setting, with critical feedback like boss-related issues more likely to be downplayed in formal or face-to-face contexts.
PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS
These findings highlight the complex and multifaceted nature of voluntary turnover, emphasizing both organizational conditions and employee motivations. To reduce preventable turnover and create a more supportive work environment, organizations should consider the following strategies:
- Design roles and workloads that prevent employee burnout; results indicate that stress from work overload is the most consistent and credible reason employees choose to leave.
- Invest in clear internal career development and advancement opportunities; the desire to seek growth opportunities elsewhere was a top approach-oriented reason for voluntary turnover across all three studies.
- Address managerial quality, but avoid overemphasizing the “people quit bosses” narrative; boss issues are important but not the primary driver of turnover.
- Take care in assessing and interpreting turnover data; employees disclose different reasons for leaving based on the context, depending on whether feedback is anonymous, face-to-face, or part of formal HR processes.
Hommelhoff, S., Keller, F., & Stemmler, M. (2025). Turnover reasons are more complex than “people quit bosses”: An approach-avoidance perspective. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 158(2), 104099.
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