Why Project Managers Quit

The real reasons project managers jump off the hamster wheel

The Duffer's Diary
Better Programming
Published in
4 min readJul 3, 2021

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graphic of a hamster running inside an exercise wheel
Image by Please Don’t Sell My Artwork AS IS from Pixabay

According to the 2021 Project Management Report, at any given point in time and across all levels of experience within the project management profession, 34% of people are considering leaving.

At the same time, about 40% of project managers (PMs) are looking for their next role, so there is a hell of a lot of movement. That makes for a lot of hunger, effort, discontent, and disillusionment on top of undertaking an already stressful job.

I personally know a lot of people who have made the jump out of the profession. This was happening well before COVID-19 led everyone to reassess their lives and is an all-too-common situation. Too tired, too jaded, lack of career progression, lacking enthusiasm, and changing family circumstances are all factors that are dragging people away.

If project management is working well for you, it can be a fulfilling, stimulating, and exciting career path. If it isn’t and things start to go wrong, it goes to hell rapidly. I can say this with conviction because that has been my own personal experience.

There are a lot of factors that finish people off, but the main ones are as follows.

Work-Life Balance

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Mental health, parenting, politics, history and ranting at an indifferent universe. Sometimes funny. Just had an accidental 9 month hiatus from writing.