Avoid Employers With White House Level Turnover

As much as potential employers might try to lure you in with big promises, one major red flag that indicates an employer to avoid is high turnover. Bad employers will give all kinds of excuses for why so many have left or been fired, and none of it was their fault, of course. It's all bad luck, bad employees, bad fit, but never, ever, that they're a bad employer.

I mention this, of course, in light of the White House's mind-blowing record-setting turnover rate that is rising as fast as I can type (two more today and counting). An employer with a 40+% turnover rate in a year is a bad employer. I guarantee that.

At some point, any reasonable employer has to take responsibility for the fact that they can't keep employees. Once the turnover rate is over 20% for an employer with at least 20 employees, that employer should start looking inward and addressing the problems causing people to leave.

Here are just some reasons employers have a mass exodus:

• Bullying: Allowing bullies to run rampant a la the White House leads to brain drain.
• Sexual harassment: Sexual harassment goes hand in hand with bullying, because sexual harassment is about power, not sex. Harassers are bullies with a specific agenda. Allowing harassers to run amok causes low morale and a frat house atmosphere, such as the Fox debacle. The harassers accelerate their behavior like Weinstein. Good people leave.
• Poor training: If an employer is claiming lots of employees are poor employees, just not getting it, don't have the requisite skills, the training may well be the problem. Throwing folks in without training and then complaining about it is the employer's fault, not the employees'.
• Financial trouble: Employers that don't pay people, pay late, cut benefits, have lots of layoffs, are in trouble. You don't want to give up a job to go to a place that will be out of business or doing another round of layoffs as soon as you start.
• Indentured servitude: Some companies have little or no work-life balance. They think salaried employees=indentured servants, and should be working 24/7. This is a great way to burn people out quickly.
• Poor hiring: If many people are let go because they "aren't a good fit," then poor interviewing, poor background checks, poor job descriptions, or other poor hiring processes might be the cause.
• Poor management: Ignoring staff, providing no growth opportunities, giving little feedback, messing with or freezing pay and benefits, credit hogging, general chaos, all can lead to people leaving in droves.

These are just a few reasons why an employer might have high turnover. Avoid employers with high turnover like the plague. Do your due diligence. Ask about your predecessors. How many people have held the position in the past 10 years? The past 5? What happened to them and why? Ask similar questions about the staff in your department and upper management. Check Glassdoor. Ask around in the industry.

No matter how much an employer tries to sweet talk, explain away, or convince you things will be different, don't fall for it. You won't be any different from the ones before you. I run into people who think they're superstars and it won't happen to them, or who fall for b.s. lines from bad employers. Or they think the job is too good or too prestigious to pass up (think White House or Cabinet).

So if the White House calls, don't be a sucker. Keep on looking.

If Your Prospective Employer Has Lots Of Turnover, Think Twice

All the craziness and turnover at the White House has many Americans wondering what anyone joining the Administration is thinking. But I see it all the time. Folks either desperate for a job or getting an offer that's off the charts decide they can handle whatever a difficult employer throws at them.

They're wrong.

First of all, let's look at that off-the-charts offer. It sounds too good to be true, but you have an offer. They promise a contract is forthcoming but it never does. You still leave your job or move across the country for this great opportunity. If the contract didn't show up before you started, it's probably never showing up. You were scammed.

Better yet is the offer to give you a piece of the company. It's verbal only, but you trust them. Still, they never put it in writing. Surprise! Ownership never happens.

At the very least, confirm any offer you get in writing before you accept. Just email them, with a read and a delivery receipt, something like, "Thank you for meeting with me on Thursday. This will confirm my understanding of your offer to me. The salary for the janitorial supervisor position is $10 million per year and I will be conveyed a 50% ownership interest in the company after one year. If this is incorrect, please advise me within 24 hours. I appreciate the opportunity and will advise you of my decision within 48 hours."

If they respond and say yes, that's the offer, then if you accept in writing you have a contract. Offer+acceptance+consideration=contract. If they call you to confirm, then put that in writing too. "This will confirm our conversation today where you confirmed that the salary for the position of janitorial supervisor is $10 million/year with a 50% ownership interest to be conveyed in one year."

Anything important to you, confirm in writing. If you are going to be made General Manager and right now you are a salesperson, put it in writing. If you are going to have relocation expenses reimbursed, put it in writing. If they guarantee that you will have a job for at least a year while you prove yourself, put it in writing.

That won't keep the boss from being a jerk, but at least you have something to prove what was said and take to someone like me.

Now, back to the jerk. It's hard to turn down a job in the White House or the corporate suite. But sometimes that's the best decision.

If you find out (and you should do some due diligence, like checking Glass Door, LinkedIn and other sources to find out about the company and its turnover rates) that there have been 5 people in the position you have applied for in the past two years, run. This is not a good place. Even if they all died of a mysterious illness, maybe you're dealing with a serial killer or toxic mold. Odds are, someone in the company is awful to work with. Maybe the job isn't what was promised. Maybe the boss hurls staplers at people and punches holes in walls.

Or maybe the boss just likes to scream, "You're fired!"

Try to avoid employers with high turnover. Your health and your resume will thank you.