Well, the above-mentioned situation has by now resulted in nearly half an entire Actuarial department quitting (including almost the entirety of the Personal side).
But perhaps the executives had a good reason for it.
ouch. Going to be tough to find that many replacements 
Wait: people quit before or after the demotions?
After. At least partly due to the demotions.
“everyone’s replaceable” holds better when you view it as “every individual person is themself replaceable.”
love to see the job postings. and the interview where candidate asks “so, why are there like 15 openings here?”
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Huh.
So, they quit in protest of their boss’s demotions?
Or because they now perceive their bosses as “jerks” that they hadn’t perceived before?
I’d say the resignations were for a variety of reasons, but the demotions were a relatively pivotal and primary reason, and served as a nucleation point of discontent resulting in negative feedback, which was ignored, resulting in some resignations, and more negative feedback shared, and ignored… and so on. Generally there’s no communication anymore.
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People tend to be more affected by their boss’ leaving than management expects. I was just talking to a coworker of mine where the boss left for a good reason (desired intercompany transfer, but then they quit for more money), and even though the initial move was a happy move not a sad one, they were still miffed that their boss just left. Now they are transferring too.
I remember when my boss left (for a not so happy reason) and everyone expected me to just not care, but actually I did.
A demotion is probably not the trigger here. The trigger is people leaving, which is often triggered by a demotion. (In fact, the only other demotion I know of caused someone to leave soon after).
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“Negative feedback” about whom? The execs, or the managers?
Just trying to work this out in my head.
Like, negative feedback was shared by the exiting employees in their interviews and some feedback given by existing employees. But nothing changed and nothing was addressed. Without the demotions having happened, things probably would have trundled along well enough, largely thanks to the effort of those two managers. With them gone, I think various people’s discontents, often targeted toward those responsible for the demotions, began increasing and a lot of people felt a lack of loyalty to the company.
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OK.
That is what I initially thought, but I needed to be sure.
Quick advice to all: “loyalty” is generally a one-way street. You, the employee, give it, and the employer, in kind, receives it.
In my old career as a teacher I was a head of maths. When I left, my whole team left within a term. At the time it was unusual to leave mid year through the academic year (common now as UK schools so bad to work at) so to lose a whole team was pretty bad.
- Were you forced out?
- Was your replacement unacceptable, and if so, how so?
Are you kidding? Actuaries are a dime a dozen, especially if you look for the ones who are in between jobs and you think “I can get them to take my job for less than market value.”
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Not sure about the US, but I have noticed an awful lot of contractors in the UK looking for permanent jobs now that the contracting space has shrunk considerably.
There is a glut in the market now where you have people with a lot of experience (10-20 years) looking for more junior roles due to lack of more senior level positions.
I do agree though that the vast majority Actuaries are fairly replaceable. The only caveat would be geographical limitations (found more in the US vs UK) which with WFH might be less of a problem.
- No, I left due to a lack of confidence in the leadership and was fed up acting as a shit umbrella
- My replacement was inexperienced and out of her depth. She was ultimately forced out.
Well, it was announced in front of all as two more employees quit, “We might have their replacements as soon as next week”
They had been searching for new hires for a while prior to the recent departures, but okay. Tell everybody else that they’re replaceable.
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Everyone should remember that they are replaceable. If you want to continue to work, you do your best to make it worthwhile to be more trouble to replace than keep. You can’t always defend against irrational reasons, but inertia can also benefit the worker.
Oh, I totally get that I’m individually replaceable. But when workers don’t feel valued at all and are told they’re replaceable, it’s not good for morale. Loyalty goes both ways.