62% Of Americans Name Toxic Company Culture As Their Main Reason To Quit Their Job

The U.S. economy has struggled through the “Great Resignation,” as more Americans continue to leave their jobs. The reasons are many, but a new survey found that most say they are doing so because of a toxic company culture.

On Wednesday, job search site FlexJobs published a study that examined the motives behind why so many Americans were leaving their job. What it found was that 33% of employees surveyed said they were considering quitting and 25% already resigned.

When digging into their motivations, most named "toxic company culture" as their primary reason for leaving. A total of 62% listed it as their main reason. Other factors included low salaries (59%) and low work-life balance (49%).

A toxic workplace is frequently described as dysfunctional and demotivating, nowhere an employee wants to spend a long chunk of their career. The Sloan Review at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology reported in January how both blue and white-collar occupations were equally likely to suffer from toxic workplace cultures, and that a toxic culture was a 10.4 times more powerful indicator for predicting a company's attrition rate than compensation.

“Of the top seven factors people consider when deciding to quit a job, six of them revolve around the employee experience,” Toni Frana, a career services manager at FlexJobs, told CNBC. “This speaks to how important it is to have a healthy company culture, with strong managers who really connect with and support employees.”

This research takes on added meaning given the weight of the current labor shortage in the U.S. economy, particularly on inflation. Last month, the Labor Department estimated that 4.35 million Americans chose to quit their jobs in February alone and that those who quit made up about 2.9% of the workforce.

Many analysts of the Great Resignation highlight that most workers who quit are moving on to new jobs rather than exiting the workforce completely. The FlexJobs survey's results reflect this, noting that 68% of those who quit said they are currently have another job lined up for when they quit their current one.