Stop Quitting People

By SEANLAI MOYÉ

Seanlai Moyé is a CEO who has been featured in Forbes, INC. 500, and many other business publications. She has shared her life-changing research, Proclivities: The Science of Connection with many companies around the world. Seanlai is also a prolific writer who writes in many genres. Her children's book series, The Adventures of A

• Language: English
• Publisher: FFM Productions, LLC
• Release date: Feb 20, 2023
• ISBN: 9798987615416

Book preview

Chapter 1

I’m leaving you, Remi said as she buttered her toast.

This was an announcement that Herbert Silverstein never thought he’d hear from his wife. Herb knew they had been having problems, but he never expected she would actually leave.

For how long? Herb asked.

Putting down the knife, Remi said, I’m not sure. I’m going to my mom’s for a while to sort out my feelings.

Herb could feel a bead of sweat trickle down the back of his Brooks Brothers suit as panic took hold of him.

Without a word, Herb grabbed his computer bag and walked out of the house. Walking to his office, he barely noticed the Los Angeles backdrop. He didn’t see the palm trees in front of him, hear the teenager’s shouts as they skateboarded past, or feel the warmth on his face from the morning sun. He didn’t notice any of that because he was too lost in his own thoughts.

Before Remi’s announcement, his Monday morning had started off like any other. He had gotten up early, hit the gym, and figured he’d make up with Remi before she went to work, but she wasn’t talking to him. She was still angry about their argument over the weekend. He was ashamed to admit he’d gotten used to it.To him, it was just another argument in a succession of endless arguments. It was impossible to get through to her; he wondered how they had ever communicated before, when every conversation now had become a battleground. Her announcement this morning felt like the floor had dropped out of his world. He thought he could escape to the office but on his desk were not one, but two letters of resignation! Losing these two employees increased Herb’s total for the month to five. It was a new personal record.

Herb wasn’t prone to pity parties, but lately, it seemed like everyone was leaving him. The employees he’d hired and the huge client he hoped to work with, decided to ‘go in another direction.’ And the last thing he needed was Remi’s bombshell. He was scared she was not just going to her mother’s for a little while but that she wouldn’t come back. With the resignations mocking him, he knew that this time, he would be fired. Herb didn’t know when his life had ever sucked this much.

Picturing his boss, Gage Randall, he could only imagine his reaction. He’d always liked Gage; he found him demanding, but fair. Gage’s iconic success in the industry was due in large part to his willingness to question everything. He understood connecting with people was much more than conversation; and he didn’t shy away from tough questions or uncomfortable silences.

As the founder’s son, Gage had done every job in the company. Rumor had it that Gage’s father wouldn’t let his son start out as an executive in the company. He had worked his way up from the mailroom to the president of Proclivities: The Science of Connection Institute. He had a five-year waiting list of corporate clients, entrepreneurs, and even stay-at-home mompreneurs wanting him to work with them. Herb wondered if Gage would ever retire.After today, Herb was pretty sure he wouldn’t be around to see it.

Coming to LA was a long-time dream for Herb, and after meeting Remi at his first internship, he knew he wanted to spend his life with her. He wanted to make her proud and give them the kind of life they wanted and deserved. Herb had always been ambitious, eager, and driven, and making his mark on the world was almost as important as providing a beautiful life for Remi.

He felt like he had paid his dues and deserved to have success. In college, he had worked as an unpaid intern at the company, and he’d learned all he could. Now he was a Senior Vice President overseeing new business development.

Herb acknowledged he was a leader people left. He didn’t know why; it just seemed like he couldn’t stem the tide of quitting people. He thought he hired for talent. In interviews they would say all the right things. But then, the people would leave. Surely, it wasn’t his fault. They said they left for better pay, or benefits, or a million other reasons. It’s not my job to make sure they like their job, he thought. People just need to come to work and do their job, and that’s it.

His ability to bring in clients had always been so strong he never really felt the pressure to worry about employee turnover. Maybe the stress at home was showing up at work. He wasn’t sure what had changed exactly, but all of a sudden even long-term clients didn’t want to work with him.

He knew it was harder to bring in new clients with new employees. He knew it killed his budget, and he had to answer to Gage when profits from his group were especially low. Human Resources had been breathing down his neck about the number of people quitting and the extra expenses of training, loss of productivity, low employee engagement, onboarding—the list went on and on. How was he going to convince Gage that he could handle more responsibility and bigger accounts if he couldn’t manage the team he had?

At noon, Herb took his sandwich outside and thought about all he had done since coming to California. He thought about the employees he’d hired and lost in the last several months. But he was glad that there was never a shortage of starving actors willing to work for peanuts in LA. Suddenly that knowledge filled him with dread—no shortage of willing people, just a shortage of people willing to work with him!

Just when he thought his day couldn’t get any worse, Brock Stevenston was heading straight for Herb. Brock was Remi’s old boyfriend from high school and started working at the company about a year after Herb. Because Remi still considered him a friend, Herb tried to be nice to him, but he just couldn’t stand the guy. Remi couldn’t understand why Herb didn’t like himand he couldn’t tell her that Brock