We pride ourselves in our our staff retention. At last year’s celebrations to honour those who had been with us ten years or more, we calculated that of the 32 employed by River Valley 10 years previously, 26 were still with us. This is why our company feels more like a family.
But in the last year we have had several staff members leave suddenly. Initially the reasons given were varied: sudden need to make large amounts of money; need to stay close to relatives; need to join spouse in another district; etc. But most of them soon after joined one of our competitors, namely Aptara, who are one of the giants of the publishing industry and who have an excellent reputation. We have dear friends who manage the company and there is absolutely no suggestion that they have “poached” our staff. This post is aimed at our staff, not at Aptara.
Some of the staff left without serving their notice and without handing over work smoothly (a clearly deliberate and destructive action in one or two cases), and their colleagues who remained with us had to work hard to rescue the jobs. This could have been very serious and some delays were indeed caused, but on the whole work continued as before. Our production and development has always been “distributed”, so that the sudden loss of one staff member does not cause a catastrophe. In fact, after the initial hitch, our systems are now working more smoothly than before the big departure. We can’t quite work that one out!!
We have always been ambitious in River Valley, and we have many plans for the future, technically, commercially, and socially. But to implement these plans we need the wholehearted, not half-hearted, support of the staff. So here is our plea to you. If you have any doubts as to whether or not you want to work in our company, or if you feel you would be happier working elsewhere for whatever reason, then we suggest you plan your departure as soon as possible. We want you to be in a happy environment, and if we cannot provide that, we will support your move to any that serves your needs better, even if it is a move to a direct competitor. Please be open and honest and say you want to leave and join another company. Do not give us creative reasons as to why you need to leave suddenly!
We invite comments and corrections from current and former employees, and indeed from anyone else. 
I just noticed that comments were not activated on this page. I have activated these now, so look forward to any comments.
Thanks for opening a blog on this subject and seeking responses. I am not trying to condemn anybody or correct your believes. It is below my dignity to explain again the situation under which I had to quit from RVT and justify my action. I am not depending on any examples to prove that I was right. I know myself and how I worked. I know that, I have been made guilty for leaving job without handing over the duties to somebody else. I could simply have done this if I was leaving the company to join some other company. A simple common sense will help to understand why somebody leave one job without having another in hand. Before putting blame on me for the deliberate action to destruct/delay the work, you should have any track record against me for such action that I did in past. On the contrary, I was the person who worked over-night (twice) not to loose company’s goodwill when all were on their pleasure trip. I had been a part of the team — working day and night (even 24 hours for some days) — for getting a client’s work. I would say that I was thrown out humiliated. Even after my quit RVT still haunt me. I lost two opportunities by a nose only because of the negative remarks made on my relieving letter.
I am sure that you can not prove what I said above wrong. The question is why people leave. The answer is known to almost everybody within the company. You only know what you were informed.
I will refrain from responding, Ganesh, as it is not right to “wash our dirty linen in public”. My post was not aimed at you in particular, but I do appreciate your courage to put your side of the story, under your own name. I look forward to any other comments.
You told that you pride yourself in staff retention. If the people are really happy then why are they leaving? Moreover, if people stayed with you for a long time, it doesn’t mean that they are happy. They don’t have another place to go. Now they have competitor so they started to move. If people leave without serving notice period it is not acceptable. I agree. But I really want to know whether something was mentioned about their notice period in the Appointment Order. you told that it is not right to Wash your dirty linen in public. but you have already done that and you are expecting/seeking comments from others, i mean from “Public”.
If people starts to leave think about a solution rather than threatening them by writing such comments. Last but not least you are promoting your competitor too in the above comment.
There must be something wrong in your concern. Look into this issue…take care….