Picture this first proper week back I've got my tea. Hazel's at my feet doing that little head tilt, like she's about to file a formal complaint. I open my inbox expecting the usual hope you had a lovely break. Nope, it's can we have a quick chat? I've made a difficult decision. Please accept this as my notice. And you just sit there thinking, is this just January being January? Or is my workplace culture quietly falling apart and I've only just noticed because someone's finally said it out loud. Today we're talking about the January resignation tsunami, why it happens, what it actually means, and what you can do before you lose half your team and your will to live. Intro. Hello, I'm Kate, and this is Buzzing About HR. Real life HR for real life small businesses. No fluffy nonsense, no where are family speeches while people are burnt out and job hunting in the loo. Kettle on, cake optional. Hazel is here too, and she'd like everyone to know she considers resignations to be deeply offensive. Why January is resignation season? January is basically the Monday of the year. People come back after a break, they've had a moment to breathe, and suddenly they can see their job properly again. In December, they were running on adrenaline, gilt, and mince pies. In January, they're thinking, hang on, is this really how I want to spend my life? Also, the job market wakes up. More adverts go up. People start looking. Recruiters crawl out, like it's mating season. But here's what I need you to hear. A resignation is rarely just about money. Sometimes it is, of course. People have bills. I'm not here to shame anyone for wanting to pay their mortgage without doing emotional gymnastics every day. But most of the time, in small businesses especially, resignations are about one of these: a manager problem. Workload and pressure, no clarity, no structure, no development, no future, not feeling valued, values not matching up, flexibility rows, hours, hybrid, life stuff. And if you get more than one resignation close together, that's usually not bad luck. That's a pattern. Is it January wobble or a culture problem? One resignation in January might be timing. Life change, better opportunity. Fair enough. Two or three, especially from the same team or around the same manager, is your cue to stop saying it's just January and start paying attention. These are the warning signs I see all the time. The silent suffering workplace. They stop bringing ideas. They stop laughing. They do the bare minimum to get through the day. I'm fine becomes their whole personality. Then they resign. Calmly. No drama, no warning. They've been gone in their heads for months. Two. Everyone's busy, but nothing ever feels done. If the workplace feels permanently frantic, people stop believing it will ever get better. January is when they decide they're not doing another year of this. 3. Managers are winging it. This is not a personal attack on managers, it's just a small business reality. Loads of managers got promoted because they were good at the job, not because they were trained to manage people. If your manager is inconsistent, moody, unclear, avoids hard conversations, or forgets to say thank you, people don't stick around for long, not in 2026. 4. No feedback unless something's gone wrong. If the only time someone hears from you is when they've messed up, you're basically training them to avoid you. And if they can't talk to you, they'll talk to LinkedIn. Or a recruiter. Or both. What to do this week, not in six months? You don't need a massive culture programme. You need a sharp little retention reset. Here's what I'd do in the next two weeks. Step one, quick risk scan, 30 minutes. Think about who's left in the last six to twelve months. Which teams feel tense or flat? Who's been off sick more than usual? Who used to be great and has gone quieter? Where you're constantly firefighting. If you've got data, brilliant. If you don't, use your gut. Small business leaders are usually right when they say something's off. Step two. Do stay interviews. Not exit interviews, stay interviews. Pick your key people and ask things like, What's making work harder than it needs to be right now? What would make you more likely to stay this year? Where do you feel stuck? What's draining you at work? If you were me, what would you fix first? Then do the bit most businesses forget. Write it down and act on something quickly. Even one visible change builds trust fast. Step three. If it's a manager pinch point, support them properly. If resignations are clustering around one manager, don't just go in swinging. Get curious, get facts, and support them. That might look like clear expectations, basic training on how to have proper conversations, scripts for performance chats, weekly check-ins for the next six weeks. Because if you pile pressure on a weak manager without helping them improve, you'll lose the manager as well. Two resignations for the price of one. Lovely. Step four, sort out workload and role clarity. January is when employees ask, what am I actually responsible for here? If their role has quietly expanded into three jobs in a trench coat, they will leave. Quick fix top five priorities for each role. What can be paused? What can be delegated? What can be automated? What you need to stop pretending is urgent. Step five reality check pay and progression. If you can't pay more, don't start promising jam tomorrow. People can smell that a mile off. But you can often improve at development and skills, clearer progression, predictable rotors, better planning, flexibility where possible. Recognition that is specific and genuine. And if you can adjust pay for critical roles, do it with a plan, not panic. The questions you're probably asking me right now. Should I counter offer? Sometimes, not always. It can work when the main issue is pay and they genuinely want to stay. It usually fails when the real issue is the manager, the workload, the culture, or feeling ignored. If you only become interested when they resign, they often still leave later, anyway. How do I stop it becoming contagious? Communicate early. When someone resigns, everyone else starts thinking, who's next? What does this mean for workload? Should I be looking to? So you need to calmly say what the plan is, what support is coming, and how you're going to stop the workload piling onto everyone else. Silence is where panic grows. If you want a simple tool you can use this week, download the lean resignation checklist. This checklist walks you through the essentials, confirm the last day, check the contract basics, sort handover, lockdown kit and access, and keep the team comms neutral. Plus, you get two copy-paste emails that save you loads of time. Because February is not the time to start. February is when you're already replacing people. January, resignations aren't always a disaster. Sometimes they're just the loudest, clearest message you're going to get. This needs fixing. And if you listen early, you can keep your best people and stop 2026 from becoming the year you spend your whole life recruiting. Right. I'm off to stop Hazel replying to resignation emails with absolutely not. Kettle on. Standards up. See you next time.