Why People Quit Even with Good Salaries

According to HH.ru research, which was discussed at the SSC Club webinar,  more than half of the respondents experienced disappointment in their jobs in 2025. The most common reasons were burnout and deterioration of working conditions. Interestingly, last year, 29% of respondents cited leaving an unloved job as a positive career change.  

This is an important signal. For a significant portion of workers, success is now measured not only by income growth, but also by escaping an environment where normal work has become impossible.

Money is no longer a universal argument

The paradox is that the problem isn't just about dissatisfaction with pay. According to VCIOM data published in 2025, 79% of Russians are satisfied with their jobs, but only 56% are satisfied with their income from it. At the same time, respondents assessed the average "acceptable" income at around 97 thousand rubles.

At first glance, this statistic favors money: the demand for income levels remains high. But it also shows that job satisfaction is not the same as salary satisfaction. This means that quitting isn't always explained solely by paycheck size.

That's why people still leave even from companies with competitive pay levels.

Main reasons for leaving are internal to the company

HH.ru experts emphasize: people are no longer willing to tolerate toxic culture, overloads, lack of growth, and the feeling that the company provides neither value nor meaning.

Other studies confirm this. According to the Russian School of Management, at the end of 2025, 48% of working Russians reported symptoms of emotional burnout. The most common signs were constant fatigue (68%), regular stress and overstrain (62%), irritability (55%). Nearly half of respondents (47%) admitted they don't want to go to work in the mornings, and 43% said they had lost initiative and enthusiasm.

It's particularly telling that the main cause of burnout was not personal circumstances, but poor organization of work processes — 66%. In second place was too large a volume of tasks (51%). Followed by low salary (36%), overtime due to staff shortages (28%), and difficult relationships with management (21%).

In other words, many leave not for bigger money, but from chaos, overload, and disrespectful treatment.

Workers no longer want to overwork

The fact that overload has become a mass demand is also evident from reactions to overtime. According to VCIOM data published in February 2026, 41% of Russians mostly negatively view the idea of increasing the maximum allowable overtime limit, while 31% view it positively.

This is telling. Previously, overwork was often seen as the norm and the price of career growth. Now, more and more people see it as a sign of labor organization failure and a threat to quality of life.

Against this backdrop, the thesis "we pay well, so people should endure" works worse and worse. Especially if behind high pay there is constant fatigue, unpredictable workload, and the feeling that the employee has no space for either development or recovery.

Employers compete not just with salary

Competition is now not only for the specialist, but also for their willingness to stay in the system long-term. And this willingness increasingly depends on non-material factors: atmosphere, management quality, career track clarity, process predictability, respectful treatment, and the ability to work without chronic overfatigue.

In this sense, the market is indeed changing. If previously demands for a normal environment were mainly associated with younger generations, now they are becoming universal. This is evident from HH.ru materials: expectations related to comfort, non-toxicity, and work meaning are gradually spreading across the entire market, not just to young job seekers.

In 2026, a strong employer is no longer just one who offers competitive pay. It's one who can prove you can work there without harm to mental health.

That's why in the coming years, the question of why people leave will more often have an unpleasant answer for business: because they no longer wanted to work and live like that.