Apparently the new trend is to quit without notice.. I have had TWO employees (on a 6FTE team) quit in the last month without notice. Normally I would immediately assume bad manager- but I am the manager and I know they have had a good experience. I am very mad at the way they’ve left and know that my team and I didn’t deserve it. Has anyone had this recently? My Gen Z employee made a comment that this is a new Fad in her generation and she hates it.

Although it’s nice to be considerate of your coworkers, we really don’t owe our lives to our jobs. If they were getting fired, would they have 2 weeks to leave…?

Question: Would you give a two weeks notice if you were letting them go??? No you would not. So what makes you entitled to a notice?

No one owes their life to a company, job, or co-workers, I understand the way you think, but you will not give them a 2 wks notice to be term. After reading you, I am wondering if you were actually the issue. It is funny how you said "Normally I would immediately assume bad manager - but I am the manager. I am beyond surprised as an HR of how do you think it's like to be a manager. I think you also have a lot of room for growth, learning, and coaching as well. That way of thinking I'm sorry but it's not working.

I read an article a while back about two weeks being an outdated practice. No job I have worked since college has been trainable within the two week period, even if a backfill was able to be identified within seconds of notice being given. This was much easier for line work back in the day. Also, I agree with the other posters, if companies had more loyalty to their employees and treated them better than layoffs whenever shareholder value was lower than expected, it may not come to that.

If companies gave notice of letting employees go instead of firing them immediately, employees would likely extend the same courtesy.

Well, employers fire people with no notice, so I honestly just think it is what is. It should have always been equitable on both sides. Why on earth should we have expected this 2 week notice if we didn’t give it in return? And…I am an HR Director with 22 years in. I am just looking at the human perspective of this. I think Covid put everyone in their place…especially employers

Yes, it sucks, but it's reality. The younger generations don't always adhere to social or professional norms. I also don't fault them for putting their well-being above their employer.

As someone who works at a small company and has a very small crew, any time we get new people, they don't stay long. They have mentioned it's because of the training, bi-weekly pay, or the job is too slow/fast. It may not be management, but some of this could be fixed within our management. HR is even aware of the problem and hasn't fixed any of it, but complains how hard they've looking for people that will stay.

No, haven't heard of this but not all that surprised TBH.

How many times in the past 6 months have we heard stories where employers cut off access, badge didn't work, etc when employees were laid off? The professional work place isn't what it was even a year ago. Maybe it's generational, maybe people are just fed up, or maybe you were unlucky with two people who had unique circumstances that couldn't provide notice.

Why would anyone stay in a job if they are unhappy, you don’t have ownership over people

It is a new fad because everyone (Gen Z) has a camera and wants to be internet famous. We had this happen in my office recently where our 24 year old MANAGER filmed himself quitting and posted it in TikTok as if it was cute. It’s not. Don’t take it personal.

They left for a reason. Are you paying them enough? Giving enough time off? Respecting them as adult professionals. Gen Z is leading the way in which we hire, work and set professional boundaries. When the vibe is off they bounce. And we should be listening.

In all honesty, there is always something deeper happening that managers don’t know. Mental health is tough for everyone right now but us gen Zers are the worst as we take the “flight”option almost all the time when it comes to jobs.

It sounds like you care about your team which is refreshing. The last place I worked I was let go without warning because the new director didn’t like me- I would voice my concerns when she would push on her work load onto team members and took on projects that could be a liability to the company while she was shopping on Amazon in her office. With that being said, it is common courtesy to give a 2 weeks notice but like others have said, companies at times do not so the same. If the company treats an employee well, I believe a notice should be given but if not then it is somewhat understandable why some employees just leave without any heads up. Seemingly enough, it’s a new trend employees are doing and they are only basing it off of “would the company give me a notice about being fired” not “the manager was good to me, let me talk to them”.

I recently had an employee quit with 1 week notice and then not show up at all for that week. They were in a role that was not duplicated so no one to step into the role but me and I had to figure out where everything was left off at and continue from there. That was in March and I am still untangling the mess. It took 5 weeks to find a replacement and then 6 more week to have her trained to the point of independence. Very frustrating but a good learning experience

From my experience, it isn’t the norm. I recently left a toxic workplace and 4 others left before me in the past 2 months. We each gave at least a 2 week workplace to prevent burning bridges and as a sign of respect.

From my point of view, that’s just unprofessional. Even if you have bad management people should be responsible to give at least 1-2 weeks notice. That just makes them look bad

I’d still ask them to complete exit interviews with HR. You’re partial in assessing if management or culture wasn’t a factor. It may just be odd timing, but as a manager, I’d make sure that’s absolutely accurate to prevent recurrence.

I’ve never seen any gen z folks do this actually. only Gen X and above so far and it’s happened three times within my year of being on the team

If the contract says "at will" it applies to both the employer and employees. Yes, it would be nice to have a notification before, but sometimes you have to play the game...
And sometimes people are just jerks. If you are aware of the kind of manager that you are, do not take it personal. Keep doing what you do best and the good employees would follow you. Concentrate on the team that you have now and check for any hints that they might give you in terms of needs and concerns.

Not a fad it’s just understanding your value and worth and how the company actually values you. They don’t give you a two week notice if you are fired or laid off. Your bills and life are irrelevant to their company and ways of doing thing so I think it is more of a you get what you receive. The two weeks notice is ridiculous when the companies don’t give you the same time window.

How can you assume they had a good experience? Lol. Just because you thing you’re a good manager, does not mean you are.