Where I work, we go for long periods with barely anyone leaving the business, then we seem to be hit with several at once. There’s been a few people leave recently when we announced we would switch from the standard Agile process to SAFe.

With this restructuring, some roles did change but I think it was mainly people that weren’t affected like Software Developers.

I was talking to one of my colleagues, and he said 

“Why are people leaving? it sounds like we will still be using the same technologies”

Developer

The thing is, Developers will leave if you make them use different languages, and Developers will leave because they want to learn something new, so you cannot win.

I think some people may be leaving because they don’t believe our new software will ever get finished, then they have used the news of the process change as a final trigger to leave.

It seems quite stupid to me though – a change in management/process often makes people leave, even though leaving means you are dealing with a new management/process anyway in your new company.

It happened when we moved from Waterfall development to Agile. It also happened when we moved offices, and we have moved 3 times; even though it’s always been 10 minutes walk at most to the new location. If you come by car, it’s not even a problem unless the parking situation is different.

“OMG IT IS DOWN THE ROAD, I AM LEAVING to an office further away”

Stupid staff member

I remember with one office move, I was in the new office kitchen and talking to a Developer who was leaving. He said “I’m sick of these office moves”. I pointed out that we were literally standing in the new office, so he has already gone through the hassle of moving. He said he was only here because he had to serve his 3 month notice period. Yet he was moving to a new job that was probably further away from his house, and would more likely to have more job pressure because it’s very relaxed where I work. Also, since we had moved office, you could essentially guarantee we would stay there for at least 2 years because of the building lease. At a new job, you will more likely have to move offices within that time period.

In my mind, a change should be an encouraging aspect to make you stay, unless one of the changes has a negative impact on why you liked the job. In my experience, it seems a lot of people don’t see it that way.