Earlier this week, TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer resigned after only three months in the job, driven to departure by the political storm that ensued after President Trump had ordered the ByteDance-owned social video app to sell its U.S. assets or shut down on American shores.
Although a three-month stretch is rare, Mayer joins a list of high-profile C-level executives who have left their positions in 2020 after serving only brief stints at their respective companies.
While the reasons for these departures vary from company to company, the coronavirus pandemic, company reorganizations and the cultural uprising around racial injustice following the death of George Floyd have contributed to many of this year’s short tenures.
Jay Haines, founder of talent agency Grace Blue Partnership, says there’s a newer trend of “cutting the cord early when things aren’t working out.”
“We are now living in a world which can change overnight, as we have seen from the pandemic and the events that ensued. We hear from a lot of talent that they are no longer willing to wait out a situation that is not working for them. Similarly, companies cannot afford to retain staff who are not going to drive the business forward, so they are becoming more bullish on parting ways sooner rather than later.”
The average tenure of C-suite execs across industries continues to slip. A study from executive search and leadership advisory firm Spencer Stuart found that in 2019 the average tenure of a chief marketing officer was 41 months, down from 43 months is 2018.
Fast forward to 2020, and none of the following examples got anywhere close to that: