“I Put In My Two Weeks Notice!” Employee Behavior and Wellness Prior to Exit

Abstract

Previous research has identified four distinct “proximal withdrawal states” among employees. That is, employees can generally be distinguished by their desire to stay or leave (e.g., “stayers” or “leavers”) and their control over this desire (e.g., “enthusiastic” versus “reluctant” staying or leaving). However, little is known about how these withdrawal states impact voluntary behavior and employee wellness. Thus, we examined these relationships in US ( n = 516) and South Korea ( n = 414). Latent profile analysis indicated that there are two profiles of stayers (i.e., embedded stayers and detached stayers) and two of seekers (i.e., dissatisfied seekers and script-driven seekers) in both samples. US and Korean profiles were consistent, except seekers differed by country based on planning, job seeking, and socio-emotional reasons. We also found that profiles differentially predicted work behaviors and wellness outcomes, such that embedded stayers showed most adaptive behavioral patterns, whereas script-driven seekers reported the least wellness.