#1 Reason for Leaving Your Job: "Boss Dissatisfaction"

I had one boss who was incredible. He let you do your own thing as long as you got results, and he worked his way up from the bottom. He detested meetings and preferred to just drop by for a few minutes a week to make sure we were happy. He never bothered us about logistics, and we never told him what he wanted was unfeasible, mostly because he knew exactly what we could and could not deliver.

Contrast that with my current boss. He is leader of a failing group and knows it. He cannot relate to us because he spent so much time away from coding. He asks unreasonable demands in impossible timelines. He has no concept of how long it takes anyone to do anything. He loves meetings and fills up his schedule with as many as he can. He refuses to engage in "laissez-faire" management and constantly demands status updates, often in writing.

Guess why I am quitting. Guess which boss I am returning to when I quit.

I've had some great bosses and some awful bosses.

One of my favorites was the dev manager for a team doing web application development at a large company. I was the tech lead for the team. His opinion was that a good team manager was much like the manager of a band. It was his job to run interference for us with the suits (corporate business types or label execs/concert promoters), get us what we needed in order to take care of business (time, software, hardware or instruments and a van), help with high level scheduling (releases or tour dates), and stay out of our way. If we didn't do our job (coding or practicing) then we weren't suited for the team, and would be let go. It was a great approach imho. Wouldn't work so well for folks who NEED to be micromanaged, but if you're running a team of A list folks you just need to get them what they need and stay out of the way.

Maybe it's just me, but every boss I've had, has never really 'got it.' By that I mean they would never think outside of what they've been told to do, they would never focus on the bigger picture. They also had immense trouble relating to their employees, which is a big deal, as this is where the friction between employee and boss can build from.

I'd say I have gotten on with most of my boss's its normally the higher management that don't have a clue. 1 boss was crap she didn't have a clue about coding and would never fight your corner. In fact thats one thing I hate is spineless boss's who don't stand up for their people.

I currently am working on developing Talent Management software and I always cringe when I hear that one of the key selling points is that it can help increase employee retention rates.

I've always thought that Talent Mgmt software can only take you so far. Any system in place, no matter how good it is, still can never compensate for how a shitty manager interacts with employees.

In the end, its people working with people.

This reminds me of something I always wonder about: the importance of management in startups (once they hit, say, 8 employees).

For the most part, if you hire the right people they are self-motivated and in general the team has a clear direction. But at some point you need good managers -- when is that?

The article could have gone one step further and poised the question: what do you want to say to your new boss if you had to truthfully explain your interactions with your old one before you finally decided to leave?

"43% of workers in a recent survey said a dislike of their boss' performance would be a main reason for taking a new job"

I'm surprised it's only 43%.

Maybe I just a little jaded because I've never really had an acceptable boss...I would have guessed more like 90%.