---
name: Exit Interviews
description: Learn from departures.
---
# Exit Interviews

Departing employees give the most honest feedback you'll ever receive — they have nothing to lose. Patterns across exits reveal systemic issues that internal surveys miss.

## Method
- **Listen, don't defend.** The instinct to explain or justify shuts down honesty. Take notes; ask follow-ups; say thank you.
- **Focus on systemic, not personal.** "What made you start looking? What could we have changed?" The answers cluster into themes over many exits.
- **Confidential where possible.** Honesty needs safety. Aggregate findings, don't attribute.

## Use
- Track themes across exits. One person's complaint is an anecdote; the same complaint from five exits is a problem.
- Act on it. An exit interview whose findings go nowhere trains future leavers to be polite rather than honest.