Three Reasons Employees Will Leave in 2026
It’s a new year. For many organizations and teams, that means the likelihood of losing employees is extremely high. There’s something about starting a new calendar year that reinforces the need for change at work. For employees working in toxic workplaces, there’s no better time.
This year, in 2026, I believe that employees will leave for three main reasons that they’ve likely experienced and evaluated all of last year: lack of recognition, lack of flexibility, and inefficient leadership.
79 percent of employees who quit their jobs claim that a lack of appreciation was a major reason for leaving (OC Tanner).
I’ve worked for organizations where the recognition that was given out appeared selective. The employees who regularly received recognition were usually higher-level managers, while the employees who really had their finger on the pulse of the work being were rarely praised, at least publicly. I walked away from many “awards” ceremonies, wondering if organizational leaders were under the impression that the managers who were being recognized were recognizing their teams and employees in other ways. In my experience, that was rarely the case.
Because of situations like that, I understand the importance of the simple act of appreciation. How impactful a genuine handwritten thank you card can be, or a quick team email spotlighting employees for their contributions to a recent project.
There are many organizational leaders who understand the importance of employee recognition, even without the statistics and deep research on its benefits. For those leaders who don’t understand either, there’s a high chance their employees have felt this and will seek employment elsewhere this year.
Millennial and Generation X employees represent the highest percentages of employees in the workplace with 36% and 31%, respectively, as of mid-2024, according to the Department of Labor.
This puts the two generations squarely in the center of what I call a responsibility sandwich. For many working people in those two generations specifically, there is the responsibility of taking care of themselves, but also their children, and sometimes their aging parents, concurrently. As a society where circumstances can change quickly, organizations would do well to make flexibility a permanent rule, not an exception.
With the ability to work from home continuing to dwindle for many employees who worked 100% remote even just a couple of years ago, there’s a greater opportunity for burnout, stress, and anxiety over the change. Leaving for a job that offers the flexibility to which employees may have become accustomed and in many cases need, makes perfect sense.
Research has shown that people don’t leave companies; they leave their managers.
Workplace environments where managers exhibit harmful behaviors such as credit-stealing, micromanaging, and unclear communication are unfortunately all too common in the lives of many employees.
Ineffective managers do more than create unbearable working conditions for their direct reports; their lack of managerial care or experience ultimately impacts the organization financially.
According to a report by Frontline Leader Report, 57% of respondents left a job because of their leader. In addition, 32% of employees stated they considered leaving their job due to poor management.
In 2024, turnover costs organizations between 50% and 200% of an employee’s annual salary, with the average annual cost of turnover being more than $36,000 (wellhub).
The patterns behind employee turnover aren’t mysterious, and they don’t have to be expected. Lack of recognition, limited flexibility, and ineffective leadership are all symptoms of deeper communication breakdowns.
I created the Communications Reset to help leaders identify where clarity is missing and how they communicate with all employees across the organization.
If retaining your people matters this year, our Communications Reset helps organizations address issues early by clarifying leadership communication and internal systems.