• Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Right Attitudes

Ideas for Impact

When an Employee Threatens to Quit

November 12, 2012 By Nagesh Belludi 5 Comments

When an Employee Threatens to Quit

When an employee gets confrontational and threatens to quit in order to get a salary hike, promotion, or organizational change he demands, let him quit.

First, listen him out and consider his demands seriously. Beyond that, be resolute and ask the employee to stop threatening or feel free to leave should he disagree with your decision and insist on his demands. Communicate with the employee in writing and document the disagreements to protect yourself and your organization against a claim for wrongful termination.

Let the employee quit even if he is a valuable performer. Nobody in an organization—not even the leader—should be indispensable. The long-lasting success of an organization should never be contingent on the performance of one individual. (I cannot stress more how important employee succession plans are to an organization.)

Look, the first time you yield to the demands of an employee who threatens to quit to get what he demands, you set a dangerous precedent. Others in your organization will assume that they too could threaten to quit to get what they want. You could lose control over your organization if you concede to employee demands thoughtlessly.

Wondering what to read next?

  1. How to Manage Overqualified Employees
  2. The Unlikely Barrier to True Diversity
  3. Ten Rules of Management Success from Sam Walton
  4. Fire Fast—It’s Heartless to Hang on to Bad Employees
  5. How to Hire People Who Are Smarter Than You Are

Filed Under: Leading Teams Tagged With: Hiring & Firing

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Someone says

    October 30, 2018 at 11:17 PM

    Dispensable employee is a myth. The fact is that talented employees are rare. Do you think someone like Einstein is dispensable?

  2. Kyandi says

    August 14, 2020 at 12:06 PM

    No, but an Einstein type would be smart enough not to go around threatening to quit just to get their way. There are more productive ways to get things done, threatening to quit is just selfish.

  3. Matt says

    August 19, 2021 at 1:04 AM

    Einstein isn’t working at a day job very long at all. He’s going to do his own thing.

  4. Jason says

    February 14, 2022 at 10:25 PM

    This does seem to suggest that employees are always treated fairly and given the correct pathways to mediate their needs and requests in a timely fashion.

    Doesn’t seem to ring true for a lot of people.

  5. a name says

    April 15, 2022 at 5:39 PM

    this is retarded corporate propoganda

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

About: Nagesh Belludi [hire] is a St. Petersburg, Florida-based freethinker, investor, and leadership coach. He specializes in helping executives and companies ensure that the overall quality of their decision-making benefits isn’t compromised by a lack of a big-picture understanding.

Get Updates

Signup for emails

Subscribe via RSS

Contact Nagesh Belludi

Explore

Anxiety Attitudes Balance Biases Books Coaching Conflict Conversations Creativity Critical Thinking Decision-Making Discipline Emotions Entrepreneurs Etiquette Feedback Getting Along Getting Things Done Goals Great Manager Leadership Leadership Lessons Likeability Mental Models Mentoring Mindfulness Motivation Networking Parables Performance Management Persuasion Philosophy Problem Solving Procrastination Relationships Simple Living Skills for Success Social Skills Stress Thinking Tools Thought Process Time Management Winning on the Job Wisdom Worry

RECOMMENDED BOOK:
The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: Marie Kondo

Japanese organizing consultant Marie Kondo's bestseller has elevated the domestic chore of cleaning up into a process of emancipation and self-discovery.

Categories

  • Announcements
  • Belief and Spirituality
  • Business Stories
  • Career Development
  • Effective Communication
  • Great Personalities
  • Health and Well-being
  • Ideas and Insights
  • Inspirational Quotations
  • Leadership
  • Leadership Reading
  • Leading Teams
  • Living the Good Life
  • Managing Business Functions
  • Managing People
  • MBA in a Nutshell
  • Mental Models
  • News Analysis
  • Personal Finance
  • Podcasts
  • Project Management
  • Proverbs & Maxims
  • Sharpening Your Skills
  • The Great Innovators
  • Uncategorized

Recently,

  • Direction + Autonomy = Engagement
  • Beware of Too Much Information
  • Bollywood: An Escapism to a Happier Place
  • What to Do When Your Friend Becomes Your Boss
  • Inspirational Quotations #946
  • Look Back at This Time Last Year
  • Having What You Want

Unless otherwise stated in the individual document, the works above are © Nagesh Belludi under a Creative Commons BY-NC-ND license. You may quote, copy and share them freely, as long as you link back to RightAttitudes.com, don't make money with them, and don't modify the content. Enjoy!