"Youth Quitting for Salary?"... Analysis of Resignation Vlogs Reveals a Twist

The Most Mentioned Keyword Is "Connection"

Workplace Relationships and Sense of Belonging Are Key Issues



Challenges of Human Relationships and Lack of Growth Opportunities

Systematic Organizational Adaptation Support Needed

The Korea Small and Medium Business Institute (KOSBI) has released the results of an analysis of vlog videos posted on YouTube that cover experiences of resigning from small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

On June 7, KOSBI announced the findings of a text mining analysis conducted on the text of 314 videos about SME resignation experiences posted on YouTube from February 2020 to February this year, totaling 530,594 characters. The report was featured in the latest issue of the institute’s publication, “SME Policy Research.”

The analysis found that the most frequently used word was the keyword “connection,” referring to relationships with colleagues, supervisors, and seniors. This keyword appeared 499 times, accounting for 36.9% of all the videos.

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The institute explained that these results show that the main reason people leave SMEs goes beyond simple factors like salary and is rooted in human relationships, such as feelings of isolation within the organization. It noted that unfair harassment by supervisors and rigid, uncommunicative organizational cultures push young talent out of SMEs.

The second most mentioned keyword was “job resources” (256 times), which refers to member growth and education. The institute interpreted this to mean that lack of growth opportunities and insufficient training are major reasons for resignation. Other frequently cited keywords included “sacrifice” (175 times), which covers annual leave and vacations, and “ease of exit” (165 times), related to interviews and job changes.

In contrast, the least frequently mentioned keyword was “fit,” referring to whether the company’s values align with the individual’s. This was cited 81 times, underscoring that immediate interpersonal conflicts have a greater impact on resignation decisions.

Additionally, among the videos that indicated employment duration, those who resigned after less than one year accounted for 53.6%, making up more than half of the cases. This indicates that most departures occur at an early stage. The researchers especially noted that new employees are often placed in the workplace without a systematic adaptation process. In the resignation vlogs, expressions such as “first” and “alone” appeared repeatedly, and there were many cases in which employees experienced emotional exhaustion after starting work without adequate guidance and support.

The report defined this phenomenon as “compound vulnerability.” It found that failure to adapt to the organization leads to emotional exhaustion, and this state of exhaustion in turn makes adaptation even more difficult, creating a vicious cycle. The researchers interpreted this as highlighting the need for SMEs to establish systematic organizational adaptation (onboarding) programs as a key task to prevent turnover.

Yonghee Kim, Senior Researcher at HN Consulting, said, “The reality is that SMEs lack dedicated HR management personnel,” adding, “There is a need to develop a standard onboarding model tailored to SMEs.” He continued, “The Ministry of SMEs and Startups could introduce related platforms, and it would be worth considering providing incentives to companies that adopt such platforms.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.