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Why People Quit & What to Ask Before It Happens

By 
Irena Macri
 - 
On 
Feb 25
 
2026
 - In 
Hiring advice
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Tech Events In Australia

People don’t usually quit their jobs on a whim. Most resignations come after months of feeling stretched, stuck, unheard, or quietly burnt out. By the time someone hands in their notice, the decision has usually been made long before.

We wanted to learn more about what’s driving people to leave, so we looked at a mix of Australian and global surveys, workforce data, and academic research (all linked to below). We identified 5 most common reasons and put together self-check questions that both leaders (managers, founders, CEOs) and ICs (individual contributors) can ask themselves as the primary levers for action.

Burnout

Burnout shows up in every dataset we reviewed, globally and in Australia. It’s rarely caused by one bad week. More often, it’s sustained pressure, constant urgency, and no real recovery. So what can we do to prevent burnout?

As a leader, ask yourself:

  • Are we running at “emergency pace” more often than we admit (or need to)?
  • After big pushes or incidents, do we actively plan recovery — or just move on?
  • Have priorities actually been reduced and communicated, or just reshuffled?
  • If the team worked like this for three more months, what would break?
  • Have I checked about workload and energy in my 1:1s?

If everything feels urgent all the time, that’s a system issue, not a resilience issue.

As an IC, ask yourself:

  • Have I clearly flagged that the pace feels unsustainable, or am I just coping?
  • Am I framing burnout as a delivery risk or carrying it quietly as a personal problem?
  • Do I know what could be deprioritised, or am I assuming nothing can move?
  • If this pace is temporary, what else can I do to balance things out?

Silence doesn’t protect you from burnout; it just delays the fallout.

Poor or Inexperienced Management

Research consistently shows that managers play an outsized role in whether people stay or leave. In tech and startups, this often isn’t malicious — it’s inexperience:

  • First-time managers with no training
  • Founders juggling people leadership alongside everything else
  • Feedback that only happens when something goes wrong or breaks

As a leader, ask yourself:

  • Do my team know what a good week looks like, or only when something goes wrong?
  • Am I making expectations and priorities explicit, or assuming they’re obvious?
  • When priorities change, do I explain why, or just expect people to know and adapt?
  • Do I give feedback early and often, or mainly when there’s a problem?
  • Do I give enough positive feedback?
  • Am I regularly cancelling 1:1s because “things are busy”? (That’s usually when they matter most.)
  • Do I default to fixing problems myself instead of coaching others through them?
  • When someone pushes back, do I get curious or defensive?

If people seem disengaged but nothing has been said, don’t assume things are fine. People don’t expect perfect managers; they expect care and consistency.

As an IC, ask yourself:

  • Have I actually raised the issues that are frustrating me, or only venting privately and hoping they’ll be noticed?
  • Have I been clear about what I want to grow into, or am I waiting for someone else to define it?
  • Have I asked for clarity and feedback — or am I waiting for it to appear?
  • If nothing changed in the next 6–12 months, would I be okay with that?

Speaking up won’t solve every problem, but it will tell you whether change is possible. And that clarity matters more than quiet frustration.

No Clear Growth or Progression

People leave when they can’t see a future version of themselves in the company or find a better opportunity elsewhere.

As a leader, ask yourself:

  • Did I set expectations around career progression when I made this hire, and are we following through?
  • Can I clearly explain what growth looks like for every team member here — beyond titles?
  • If someone asked, ‘What would get me to the next level here?’ — could I give them a clear answer?
  • When was the last real development conversation I had with each team member?

If growth is unclear, people will define it elsewhere.

As an IC, ask yourself:

  • Am I feeling bored, stagnant or stuck, and have I said that out loud?
  • Have I taken on bigger decisions or broader responsibilities recently?
  • Have I been explicit about what I want to grow into?
  • Is it clear if progression exists within the company?
  • Is there a role within my company that inspires or interests me?

If growth feels unclear or unfair, motivation drops quickly.

Pay and Fairness

Pay still matters — especially with cost-of-living pressure — but research shows fairness and transparency matter more than numbers.

As a leader, ask yourself:

  • If I looked at everyone’s pay side by side, would anything surprise me?
  • Have we checked whether newer hires are earning more than longer-tenured team members in the same role?
  • Could I clearly explain how pay decisions are made if asked tomorrow?
  • Are we addressing known gaps or hoping they won’t be noticed?
  • Are we expecting startup-level sacrifice without startup-level upside?

Unexplained pay decisions quietly damage trust.

As an IC, ask yourself:

  • Do I understand the pay range for my role and where I sit within it?
  • Am I bringing market data and scope comparisons to pay conversations?
  • Is the gap I’m feeling temporary — or structural?
  • Does the pay I receive match the flexibility and work-life balance I’m getting?

People stay underpaid longer than they stay feeling undervalued.

Loss of Trust, Direction, or Meaning

This one hits hardest in startups and scale-ups. People disengage when strategy changes constantly without explanation, or values disappear under pressure.

As a leader, ask yourself:

  • Are we changing strategy and making decisions with clear context behind them?
  • Do we openly name trade-offs, or oversell optimism?
  • Are we repeating directions often enough for it to actually land?

People don’t need certainty; they need honesty.

As an IC, ask yourself:

  • Do I understand the why behind recent decisions?
  • Does this direction still align with my values and goals?
  • Is the misalignment I’m feeling temporary — or a new normal?

If trust erodes, retention becomes a countdown.

Other Reasons People Leave

Not every resignation is due to burnout or poor leadership. Sometimes, leaving is simply growth.

A person may outgrow the role, the company, or the stage of business they originally signed up for — and that’s not failure, it’s evolution. Someone who joined to learn operations might later want to move into venture capital. A team member who thrived in early startup chaos may eventually crave the scale and structure of a larger organisation. In the short term, that exit can feel like a loss. Long term, it can be something to celebrate.

Healthy retention isn’t about preventing ambition. It’s about making sure people leave for opportunity — not unresolved friction.

Beyond growth, there are also personal, situational, and cultural reasons that matter:

  • Needing different hours, more flexibility, remote work, or reduced travel due to parenting, caregiving, health, or relocation.
  • Cultural misalignment — for example, a “boys’ club” or cliquey executive dynamic, lack of diversity, leaders modelling constant late nights, or a culture that feels transactional rather than supportive.
  • A role offering more money, stronger brand recognition, better learning exposure, or clearer progression.

These don’t automatically mean something is broken — but they’re worth pressure-testing.

As a leader, ask yourself:

  • Have we normalised flexibility through life changes — or do people feel they need to leave to adjust their lives?
  • Does our culture feel inclusive and sustainable — or dependent on unspoken sacrifice?
  • When someone leaves for a bigger opportunity, can we celebrate it without defensiveness?

As an IC, ask yourself:

  • Am I leaving to escape something — or to move toward something?
  • If flexibility or hours changed here, would I still want to go?
  • Is this new opportunity genuinely better — or just louder?

Sometimes leaving is the right move. The key question is whether it’s driven by growth — or by avoidable friction.

Why This Matters

For organisations, repeated attrition is expensive. It costs time, momentum, hiring effort, and months of reduced productivity. When good people leave quietly, the cost isn’t just financial — it’s cultural.

For individuals, frequent job changes also carry a cost: emotional strain, disrupted relationships, and the effort of rebuilding trust and influence from scratch.

There’s a concept known as “Shields Down” — the moment when someone becomes quietly open to leaving. Not because they’ve decided to quit, but because something internally has shifted. Once that happens, recruiter messages land differently. By the time a resignation is formalised, the real decision was often made months earlier.

That’s why the work matters before the exit. In clearer conversations. In honest self-checks. In surfacing friction early.

The goal isn’t to stop people from ever leaving — especially when leaving is growth. It’s to make sure that when they do, it’s intentional rather than inevitable.

Surveys and Further Reading

If you want to dig deeper, these are the reports and studies we referenced:

By 
Irena Macri
Digital content, marketing and SEO specialist helping to spread Lookahead love. I also cook and photograph food.
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