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Ask HN: Is the Great Resignation in tech real? If so, why?

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Re: Ask HN: Is the Great Resignation in tech real? If so, why?

#51

If you are a big employer but lack quality applicants due to labour market shortage. Could it be worth risking some churn, with the possibility of increasing new applicants by seeding the ' great resignation ' in the media?

This would explain a really strange news segment I heard on the radio yesterday. They were interviewing an alleged “HR expert” who talked about the “great resignation”. It seemed to me that this segment was tailored towards convincing people to worry less about leaving their jobs, but I could not discern any motive that made sense.

I noticed that many news sources were pushing the "great resignation" message.

At first it seemed logical due to covid/wfh movement so I didn't think much about it.. but then the articles kept appearing. It struck me as paid placement especially when mixed in with unrelated news sections. I should have taken screenshots.

Re: Ask HN: Is the Great Resignation in tech real? If so, why?

#52

anecdote: This year, I was on a team of 2 and my coworker left for Google for a little under $300k. I told my boss I was going to quit to do interview prep and said I was making onsites for companies offering $200k, and they offered me $200k to stay. That was a 90% raise for my teammate who left and a 60% raise for me.

> I was on a team of 2 and my coworker left for Google for a little under $300k

I had a coworker leave to be an L4 SWE at Google earning the same in 2017. I don't know if the anecdote is relevant to the 2021 Great Resignation if people were doing the same thing 4 years ago (unless your colleague got an L3 offer for that amount).

Re: Ask HN: Is the Great Resignation in tech real? If so, why?

#53

anecdote: This year, I was on a team of 2 and my coworker left for Google for a little under $300k. I told my boss I was going to quit to do interview prep and said I was making onsites for companies offering $200k, and they offered me $200k to stay. That was a 90% raise for my teammate who left and a 60% raise for me.

This was the only reason I considered resigning. I know I have to do interview prep, even for non-faang, and it’s hard to do it after a days work.

With that said, given how this is my plan no matter what, it has actually freed me from whatever circumstances can arise at work.

Re: Ask HN: Is the Great Resignation in tech real? If so, why?

#54
A lot of younger people out of college still live at home. They are free of financial burdens so they can easily switch jobs or take time off. There’s a lot less risk, and one of the better side effects of the overpriced housing/rental fiasco.

I also think the Pandemic has acclimated some families to the notion that one person may need to re-skill or look longer for a job (say your typical double income couple). One may need to stay home to watch the kids, whoever is out of work at the moment. It’s a shift in sentiment, one which once upon of time may have felt horrible. During the Pandemic, tons of families were going through this, so it didn’t feel weird or abnormal that one person was on the bench for a bit, as everyone in America was going through it. I think families are no longer pressuring themselves and actually opting out of not taking that crappy 6-month contract job, or that job at Wendys, and giving each other the latitude to prep for better jobs.

These changes are giving a little power back to the people. We expected the pandemic to be over in 2020 and it never happened, so we all had to learn patience and it spilled over to a lot of other things in life, including evaluating jobs.

Last but not least, many Americans have not gone to the theater, or ate in at a restaurant at the rate they were doing pre-pandemic. I haven’t stepped foot in a movie theater in two years, and have only eaten inside of a Diner twice in two years. The chip shortage made it so you can’t even buy expensive toys like a PS5 or that new graphics card. We were forced to learn consumption-reduction, and I think many people realized it’s not so bad. Expenses go down, and suddenly you are not so desperate to hop onto any job that comes your way.

Re: Ask HN: Is the Great Resignation in tech real? If so, why?

#55

I think inflation is a part of it. There is more money around but always the same internal reluctance to give raises that match the market. So higher inflation implies that more people have to switch jobs in order to take advantage.

sure we are seeing inflation now, but the last many years, we have seen none to deflation, its a natural correction.

Re: Ask HN: Is the Great Resignation in tech real? If so, why?

#56
Anecdote: Number of departures around me has increased but not significantly. At least half of the people who departed was because companies they wanted to work for no longer required them to move to new state (ahm.. California). Number of recruiters cold emailing me has gone up at least 2X. Open positions are harder to fill these days.

Re: Ask HN: Is the Great Resignation in tech real? If so, why?

#57
More than anything… being remote gave everyone a wide playing field. Both for employers and employees. Employers started to look out all over the country ( sometimes world ) to find talent and employees jobs. If it’s remote, you don’t need change your settlement and still make more money and further your career at convenience and from same office room.

Re: Ask HN: Is the Great Resignation in tech real? If so, why?

#59
post #39
post #36

I can see many incompetent/below average tech workers being replaced with offshore workers (e.g. India and Phillipines) once international travel is permitted again. COVID in countries that supply most of the offshoring has been devastating. Many people from India and Philippines resigning from their roles to move to Western nations to live a better life.

One word: Work Visas and Residency Permits.

That's at least 4 words.

Re: Ask HN: Is the Great Resignation in tech real? If so, why?

#60
My theory is that covid imparted a large amount of mental and emotional strain on the population at large, leading workers to contemplate big life changes, i.e. grass is greener effect.

However, not all workers share the same lateral mobility. In tech it’s easy to reinvent yourself, to work remotely, and to change your industry. It’s also a high paying industry, so many people are financially situated to quit.

So you have two catalysts, 1) covid imparts the equivalent of a mass mid life crisis, and 2) employees in tech wield a lot of power. I hypothesize that these events combined and formed a feedback loop of employees quitting, driven by big raises granted precisely by the staffing issues caused by the quitting. The more turnover, the more desperate companies became to not be left without butts in seats when the music stops.

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