“Survivor: Corporate Edition”

You’ve probably heard it before: “Employees don’t quit jobs. They quit managers.” Or, in this case, they quit the way they’re treated. And honestly, they’re not wrong. Haven’t we all been there? Haven’t we had a job where we said, “I love my job except for my boss?”
Think about it, most companies proudly plaster their values on the break room wall like inspirational posters from the ‘90s. You’ve seen it: Integrity! Teamwork! Innovation! But when it comes down to it, as employees we feel more like contestants on Survivor than trusted professionals, no amount of “Teamwork Tuesday” donuts are going to keep us around.
Here’s the deal: people don’t stay because their company has a ping-pong table , a Keurig with twelve flavors, or a Slack channel full of cat memes (although, let’s be real, cat memes do help). They stay when they feel safe—psychologically safe.

Psychological Safety: The Secret Sauce (Spoiler: It’s Not Ranch)
Psychological safety is the radical, almost revolutionary, idea that employees shouldn’t have to brace themselves every time they open their mouths in a meeting. Can you imagine it? Being able to ask a question, share a wild idea, or (gasp) point out a mistake without worrying about getting the corporate side-eye.
When people feel safe, they’re willing to:
• Speak up with ideas that could actually improve things.
• Admit when something’s broken instead of duct-taping it and praying.
• Take smart risks that move the company forward.
• Not spend their evenings stress-bingeing Netflix while rethinking their life choices.

What Makes People Stay (Hint: Not Pizza Parties)
I cringe every time I hear, “do well and you will earn a pizza party” . Are we not adults? Josh Rincon nailed it with his list. People want to be paid well, heard, trusted, supported, recognized, included, appreciated, empowered, and promoted. That’s not “fluff”: that’s culture! But here’s the kicker: all that rests on psychological safety. Without it, recognition feels fake, support feels conditional, and “empowerment” is just code for “do more with less.” If your team doesn’t feel safe enough to raise their hand and say, “Hey, I need help,” or “This process is a dumpster fire,” then all the HR initiatives in the world won’t keep us around. We will quietly polish up our LinkedIn profiles and bounce the second another company offers us an ounce of respect.

Retention Isn’t a Strategy—It’s a Side Effect
You don’t “strategy” your way into retention with fancy programs. Retention is what happens when people wake up in the morning and don’t dread logging into work. It’s what happens when employees feel seen, heard, and valued; not just as “resources” but as humans. So, the next time you wonder why turnover is sky-high, don’t look at your “employee engagement survey” with its suspiciously low participation rate (I personally hate it when I get one of these surveys).
Instead, look at your culture. Look at how safe people feel to be themselves, mess up, speak up, and grow. Because at the end of the day, as employees, we don’t quit jobs. We quit feeling like expendable extras in the corporate reality show. And unless you’re planning on handing out immunity idols at the next staff meeting, it’s time to build a workplace where people actually feel safe.

10/6/2025