To quit or not to quit : voluntary turnover among Millennial English-language journalists in Indonesia

Abstract

This qualitative study investigates the voluntary turnover and job satisfaction among millennial English-language journalists in Indonesia in order to understand why young journalists leave their news organization or journalism altogether. It also examines the motivation to stay and the intention to leave among the current journalists. Using grounded theory, this study used semi-structured interviews with 18 participants from three Jakarta-based news organizations. The journalists left because of a combination of complaints such as burnout, declining journalism standards, management, mentorship, pay and transparency, personal growth, fit, problem with supervisor, and training. Meanwhile, the stayers still maintained their job because they felt that they were still on track with their career and personal goals. However, seven out of eight millennial journalists plan to quit, with three contemplating on leaving the profession. This means that news organizations will possibly lose institutional memory and may have to frequently make new hires. Elements of job satisfaction and dissatisfaction were layers that could increase or decrease depending on what the participants felt about their experience and expectation in the news organization, as well as their career and personal goals. The findings indicate that news organizations need to listen to the feedback from their employees to make transformation in managing their personnel, especially in retaining talented millennials.