People leave managers, not businesses A research-led perspective for managers

When employees hand in their resignation letters, senior executives often ascribe the decision to better salaries, overseas opportunities or a restless new generation. However, data gathered across continents tells a different story. According to a Gallup poll that examined more than one million exit interviews, three-quarters of voluntary turnover can be traced to an employee's relationship with their direct supervisor. Managers, not the entire company, shape the employee's day-to-day environment. They influence task design, team dynamics, recognition, and psychological safety. Their decisions and communication have a direct impact on how valued and capable employees feel. Pay packets and job titles matter, but the daily quality of leadership matters much more.

EVIDENCE FROM THE RESEARCH COMMUNITY: The Gallup finding is not an outlier; it sits at the centre of a broad range of common research outcomes.

DDI study: About 57 per cent of respondents admitted leaving a post specifically because of their manager, while a further 37 per cent had contemplated doing so. Poor communication, limited recognition and habitual micromanagement were the principal triggers for their move.

Chartered Management Institute report: Only 27per cent of employees rated their manager as highly effective; half of those who judged their supervisor ineffective expected to depart within twelve months, and 28 per cent had already done so.

LinkedIn HR leader insights: HR experts globally in LinkedIn shared that conflicts with managers, lack of recognition, and poor communication are among the top reasons employees leave, reinforcing the idea that people leave managers, not jobs.

Impact of Supervisory Support study (2024): Researchers showed that constructive feedback and practical help from supervisors lifted job satisfaction, which in turn reduced intention to quit.

Sewell's research: Toxic bosses do more than dent morale; employees working under chronically poor leadership faced a 60 per cent higher risk of heart attack, and more than half said they would decline a pay rise to keep an excellent manager. Facts like these are quite unbelievable but true. This means good bosses can keep the long-term company costs low as well.

BANGLADESHI CASES: Statistics are fine, but it doesn't compare with lived experience. A few examples come here. Raihan, a high-performing marketing professional at a multinational consumer goods firm in Dhaka, thrived for five years until a routine restructuring placed him under a new line manager. With his new posting under a new boss, he had many difficulties, such as the supervisor giving unnecessary work, micromanaging, scolding unduly in front of distribution house employees, etc. Raihan elevated the matter to human resources and requested a transfer. "I have tried to change my team and notified my supervisor's direct line manager, but didn't get any response. Hence, I looked for another job and moved from my company, although I loved everything else, to be honest."

The banking sector tells a parallel story. Mahmud Hasan, a recent entrant to a domestic commercial bank who graduated from a top business school in Dhaka, recounted, "My abusive boss was the reason I left the bank; he favoured my colleagues who loved to gossip with him, people who were buttering up their superiors rather than focusing on work. Also, his behaviour was super rough and made us stay much later than other people. If I took new initiatives, it wasn't appreciated." Such professionals exited organisations they otherwise dreamed to work for, confirming the research: people leave supervisors, not brands or companies.

Patterns of supervisory failure: The following are some of these subtle but powerful experiences that frequently lead employees to leave their supervisors, not just their jobs.

Unpredictable changes in expectations or feedback that only come during performance reviews can leave employees feeling uncertain about their role and direction. Or when something goes wrong, only the supervisor gives feedback. Not while doing a good job, or planning the task or keeping it on the same page. When individuals are excluded from important meetings or conversations about career advancement, it often signals that their growth isn't valued, encouraging them to explore opportunities elsewhere. Another common issue is micromanagement, where every action is closely monitored, replacing independence with mere compliance, draining creativity and motivation. Managers who overlook signs of burnout or fail to acknowledge hard work can make employees feel like replaceable parts rather than valued contributors. Then again, unequal distribution of opportunities, recognition, or overtime builds resentment and breaks the sense of fairness and unity that teams rely on. Disrespect and mistrust are also commonly voiced issues by professionals who are not satisfied with their jobs.

Why Bangladeshi companies miss the danger signs: Corporations in Bangladesh, particularly in family-owned conglomerates and local organisations such as banks, remain strongly hierarchical and sometimes without proper SOPs and managerial processes. Junior employees often hesitate to speak candidly, and HR units are viewed as extensions of management rather than neutral guardians of culture. Reporting lines, therefore, double as social silos; information about abusive supervision stalls before it reaches decision makers. By the time attrition data appear in quarterly dashboards, key performers have already accepted competing offers in other companies, or are leaving for higher studies or joining the gig economy.

A CORRECTIVE AGENDA FOR COMPANIES: Following strategies can be adopted.

Elevate the threshold for managerial appointment: Technical excellence should open the door to consideration, not guarantee promotion. Candidate assessments must cover emotional intelligence, coaching orientation and ethical judgement. Psychometric tools and panel interviews help, but probation period 360° feedback is indispensable.

Invest in continuous leadership education: One- off workshops cannot rewire entrenched habits. Design a mandatory curriculum delivering short modules every six months on active listening, conflict resolution, inclusive delegation and remote- team stewardship. Tie completion to bonus eligibility.

Provide a safe route to reassignment: Changing the manager or team must be framed as talent preservation, not disciplinary failure. A confidential panel within HR can review requests for transfer and decide within a month or so. Speed signals sincerity in the company.

Embed anonymous upward feedback: Quarterly employee pulse surveys that isolate questions about immediate supervisors give early warning. Correlate scores with absenteeism and voluntary exit rates; managers in the bottom quartile should receive external coaching, and persistent non-improvers should ideally move to individual contributor roles.

Linking managerial incentives to people metrics: Retention stability, internal mobility of direct reports, and team engagement ranking should carry weight equal to profit targets in performance reviews. Publicly celebrating managers who advance others sets behavioural norms more effectively than memos.

Strengthen HR independence: Give the chief human resources officer a direct reporting line to the board audit committee. This structure assures aggrieved employees that raising concerns will not shorten their careers.

Address local working hour culture: Bangladeshi professionals routinely talk about extended office hours as evidence of managerial disregard. Hence, management should enforce a transparent overtime policy that requires executive approval beyond a stated threshold, coupled with compensatory leave.

PRACTICAL STEPS FOR EMPLOYEES: Bangladeshi professionals are not powerless. Executives should keep documentary evidence of instructions and performance reviews; request written clarification when tasks conflict; seek mentors outside the reporting line; use internal job posting systems proactively; and, if necessary, engage professional bodies.

The argument that employees leave managers rather than employers is no longer anecdotal; it is an empirical reality verified by multicountry data and by the experiences of many talent profiles logged in Bangladeshi HR databases. Organisations that ignore supervisory quality pay in lost knowledge, recruitment fees and damaged brand equity. The solution is neither mysterious nor cosmetic: recruit leaders for their values, temperament and skills, train them continuously, hold them accountable for people's outcomes and, when needed, re-route careers away from damaging pairings. A company that gets those basics right will discover that retention programmes sell themselves, because respected employees seldom file exit forms.

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