Commentary From Crisis Management Expert Edward Segal, Bestselling Author of the Award- Winning Book "Crisis Ahead: 101 Ways to Prepare for and Bounce Back from Disasters, Scandals, and Other Emergencies " (Nicholas Brealey)

Corporate executives who are concerned about the impact of the continuing Great Resignation trend on their organizations should consider adding this to the list of reasons why employees might decide to leave: they find it hard to work with their colleagues.

Personality differences or clashes between employees can lead to low morale, reduced productivity and other crises for companies and organizations—and management headaches for business leaders.

The results of a new survey by CapRelo, an international relocation company, found that one in four respondents said that a coworker was the reason they left a position. People cited the passive aggressiveness of colleagues (33.7%) as their most offensive trait.

Other Disagreeable Behaviors

Other disagreeable behaviors that employees said they could do without from co-workers were:

• Making excuses (18.4%)
• Entitlement (15%)
• Gossiping (14.6%)
• Being a control freak (14.4%)

The survey of 2,000 Americans was conducted at the end of November 2021.

In contrast to the personality traits that turn off co-workers, survey respondents listed the characteristics they think make for great colleagues. Heading the list was collaboration (35.9%), followed by honesty (22.1%), adaptability (14.6%) and being communicative (10.3%).

Advice For Business Leaders

The Role Of HR Professionals

According to the website of the Society for Human Resource Management, "HR professionals can play an integral role in providing guidance and training to managers with difficult employees. HR should adopt the role of business partner and help managers look at the presenting issue and uncover the underlying issue.

"A critical step is getting the manager to recognize that a problem exists. Managers often avoid dealing with interpersonal issues because these problems can be very difficult to resolve."

"HR professionals can assist managers in identifying problems and strategizing possible solutions. Employers should ensure that conflicts are resolved early on as part of an overall organizational strategy to prevent workplace violence from occurring."

Hindering Long-Term Growth

Employment attorney Nance L. Schick is the chief resolution officer for the Third Ear Conflict Resolution company. She said, "Employees who are unable or unwilling to work with their colleagues must be freed to work somewhere else.

"No matter how good their results are in the short term, they will ultimately hinder long-term growth. When they are siloed, they are not part of the team and send the wrong messages about working together. When they are allowed to run amok, good employees who could surpass their success will leave," Schick commented.

"That has probably been as much a cause of the Great Resignation as low pay, long hours, and others," she concluded.

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