Why Some Introverted Employees Quit

As an introvert, I have had so many jobs dump on me because of my silent nature and social anxiety. I am a really great worker, I can produce faster work then most and I always put my best foot forward. Yet, here I am writing about companies that still aren't seeing the bigger issues or worse ignoring them.

I have worked for so many companies from small to big corporations, warehouses and even food service. In that time, I have observed and watched the patterns of how companies think everything is operating successfully, yet have a high turnover rate. Some can't keep a good employee after one to two years of service and have no clue why. I can show you some patterns of what I have observed over the years and tell you exactly one reason that I see. The majority of business owners or business leaders are extroverts, they have to be for the success of the company. Most times they are over someone at a company who is an introvert and well the conflict starts with two totally different personality types trying to work together in two different ways.

First of all, I will give you a current example of my situation I am in at the moment to hopefully enlighten you on how miserable a job can be that looked so promising in the beginning. I am an introvert and I seem to run into road blocks at so many jobs for this simple fact. I keep to myself unless I need something in order to gain my own energy, I try to be polite always and I do have panic attacks if I have to go to video conferences or public meetings in any way. Not everyone is a social butterfly and most people don't get this in the workplace. Why have twenty meetings and show your face to begin with if the work is what is most important on the production side? Social should be more of the face of the company as a choice, but never forced. This is my opinion of course, but I think most introverts would agree they do not like social gatherings even remotely. Why not ask your employee if they are social or introverted? Learning and operating according to their personality type could help production and overall work-place happiness.

Out of My Control

I remember one instance I had with one manager who would talk to me for hours about wanting to divorce her husband and another manager would get frustrated thinking it was both of us. When I finally had enough and after so long, I tried to just continue my work while she talked. I could see a change in her. She started to pick at my work saying I was not getting things done enough or correctly. Jaw Drop! It's funny how they liked everything before, but when you resort to your introverted self again, they turn on you. I couldn't tell her that she was the problem and I had no where else to turn, so I just put in my resignation to keep things at peace. There was no other way out, since she was the main manager. She had already decided she was not going to like me if I could not allow her to talk for hours about a topic I did not even agree with. I just wanted to work in peace.

Another social problem I run into is with people who aren't reaching out to me with changes privately, but would rather publicly humiliate me with comments of mistakes that I didn't even make. It was a lack of understanding from the social leader who wants to constantly be in contact with everyone in groups. I end up just letting it go, but secretly I want to shout "This is lack of understanding on your end, not mine!" If you speak up too much, then you are now a target. It was all out of my control.

Let's Learn From Other's Mistakes With Public Humiliation

Who told companies public humiliation is the best approach for everyone to learn? We should not feel like we are in high school all over again where you feel people step all over the quiet girl or guy who doesn't like to speak up as much. This is a workplace bully. They like to publicly humiliate workers to lift themselves up. Some companies actually practice this awful treatment. Why is this allowed at some companies? Why not tell the person their mistakes in private? What is the point in hurting employees with public humility if we all make mistakes to begin with? I normally cannot even focus after these happen. I didn't feel like being creative at that point and I made more mistakes then I normally would, because I had this on my mind despite originally being very excited about the project I was working on. It is simply an aweful workplace strategy to call out people publicly for mistakes you may or may not have misunderstood. They say it is for the fact to help people to learn from others. Not really, and you just put everyone under stress and fear especially the introvert and yet mistakes are still happening.

Some mistakes are happening in workplaces, because too much work is due in a small amount of time. You have no time to QA your own work, then your called out for any mistakes. If I didn't even make the mistake they just called me out on, then I will now have to spend twenty minutes trying to explain to everyone why they misunderstood the situation in the first place and gathering evidence to cover myself. Why not just come to someone privately out of respect to prevent all this?

Are You Watching Your Managers?

Sometimes managers in my experience are the one's who take full advantage of this control more often and like to humiliate people that seem different or more quiet. Are they doing it on purpose or blind to the fact we are all different? They like things done precisely and will reveal every mistake to everyone or make you feel like something is wrong because your not in contact with them for everything. Yet, do they realize we all make mistakes? Do they realize, there is too much talking and less production sometimes? We need the social employees, but we also should praise the introverts for their strengths in silent production. This is one major reason why some introverts leave silently. They are introverts and social managers/employees can be bullies in disguise to them! Not always, but most of the time it is introverts who are publicly humiliated due to their quiet nature or they are not treated fairly and are too afraid to say anything due to social anxiety as well as the fact they could get fired.

Things need to change in the workplace, because more people are going into depression or worse suicidal over work related issues. This can be resolved! One resolution could be to test all employee's to see their level of extrovert vs introvert and match them into groups accordingly with other introvert managers or extrovert managers as well as employees. Learn how an introvert operates compared to an extroverted personality type. This can resolve a lot of workplace misery and make more productive happy long-term employees. When I am happy and comfortable with a company, I want to give out so much more to help that company grow! The companies that make changes to resolve issues with employees, are the most successful due to positive happy workers. Pay attention to how your managers treat others secretly too. A job should not feel like prison.