Majority of workers would quit because of bad management

An overwhelming 82% of workers have admitted they would consider quitting purely because of a bad manager, according to a survey from GoodHire - which also shed light on a trust gap between employer and employee. GoodHire's data showed that healthcare workers (88%) were most likely to quit their jobs because of management, followed by finance and insurance workers (86%), and then education workers (84%).

According to the report, employees admitted that their managers only do something that annoys them once a week, reflecting that while they do not feel terribly annoyed by their management, the "annoying days definitely add up."

One of the annoying traits mentioned in the survey is the complete disregard of managers to their workers' personal time, where only 46% of American workers saying that they feel their personal time and time away from work are "truly respected."

A need for managers?

The survey also revealed that 84% of workers said they could "absolutely, probably, or maybe do their manager's job," with 89% of surveyed healthcare workers saying they believe they are more qualified to carry out their manager's job.

"This is a massive number and one that clearly shows a potential lack of respect for management," read the report.

In addition, a majority of 83% also said they believe they can do their work without a manager, with finance and insurance workers (89%) emerging as the most confident employees even without managers.

Read more: Why the manager-employee relationship is dead

Trust issues

Another issue tackled in the survey is trust between workers and managers, regarding tasks and whether they think their employers are truly on their side in terms of career progression. According to the poll's results, only 22% of workers believe their managers "definitely trust them" to be productive amid remote work. Some 62% of them said their managers communicate virtually or digitally too much or too little, while 19% said remote work has led to less communication with managers.

Furthermore, only 32% of workers believe that their managers care about their career progression. Only 39% think that their managers are being completely honest about promotion opportunities, while 44% believe their managers are open and honest in compensation conversations.

Overall results

Overall, about 55% of workers said remote work has either worsened their relationship with management or it has not changed it. According to the study, it reflects that current manager-employee relationships are not getting better with virtual communication and adjustments must be made in the future. Despite this, 70% said they still strongly or somewhat enjoy working for their managers, with hospitality workers saying they enjoy working for their bosses the most.

GoodHire's COO Max Wesman noted that with the pandemic happening, workplace dynamics have "changed drastically" so employers must need to step up.

"Now, employees have more leverage so managers need to step up and work on being better managers, and that includes showing empathy, improving transparency, and keeping the lines of communication open. Our survey is telling us that when employees aren't satisfied, they'll quit because they see the thriving job market and other opportunities available to them," he said in a statement.

The survey pooled the responses of 3,000 respondents from various sectors, including education, finance and insurance, healthcare, hospitality, human resources, legal, marketing and sales, real estate, science and tech, and software.