Heading to the office today, I heard a young man behind me say, “Well, I’d been there six-and-a-half years, so it was time to move on.” A few steps later, I heard him add, “Well, it was time for me to get health insurance.”

This random comment fell right in line with the just reported findings by Mercer’s October 2011, What’s Working survey. The survey finds that employees leave for a host of nonfinancial reasons as well, with a key factor being “how you are treated….”

When I’m leading training sessions for human resources professionals, I remind participants that in spite of the many laws they must know, if they will remember but one rule, they will usually get the law right, quoting Maya Angelou: “People will forget what you said, People will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

When workers believe that they have not been treated fairly they seek to strike back. Sometimes they vote quietly with their feet because of how they feel about their “work, co-workers, bosses and the general work environment,” according to Colleen O’Neill at Mercer.