Episode: 492

Episode Title: Leaving a Toxic Job

Gen Z knows what they want at work—and they won’t settle for a toxic work culture. Let’s talk about it, coming up next on The Perna Syndicate.

Ep 492 show:

Hello and welcome to The Perna Syndicate! As the Great Resignation continues, people are saying a toxic work environment is the number-one reason they’re quitting. Unfortunately, toxic work culture seems to be on the rise—or maybe workers are finally feeling empowered enough to call it what it’s been all along. 

And they’re not just taking it anymore. In a historically tight labor market, employees have more choices than ever before—and don’t have to settle if their current work environment is unpleasant, dangerous, or unethical. 

This is especially true for the younger generations. Job-hopping is no longer just a Millennial thing (if it ever was). Fully 65% of Gen Z stay in a role for less than a year, and they’re more than twice as likely as other workers to leave their current job within the next month. More than any other generation, Gen Z sees no shame in leaving a toxic job.

So what can organizations do to either fix their toxic culture or ensure they never reach that point? This isn’t rocket science: it all starts with listening to employees and making sure they won’t experience retaliation for what they share. 

Even if your work environment is a good one, it never hurts to implement whistleblower protection, ethics phone lines, or other internal incident reports that protect the employee. Maybe they’ll never be used—but having them sends a powerful message that a toxic work culture will never be allowed to take shape here. 

Tomorrow: No one plans to have a toxic work culture; it just happens. And that’s a key insight we will discuss on the next episode of The Perna Syndicate. See you then!