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“Great resignation” wave coming for companies

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571–580 of 1001 posts

Re: “Great resignation” wave coming for companies

#571

I quit last June after 13 mostly consecutive years in tech. I haven't saved enough to be financially independent but I can coast for a while. Even at a company that seemed to have good work life balance, I couldn't take it so I have no idea how you FAANG folks do it. I don't know if I'm just not suited for the career or what, but working as a software engineer caused several stress related health problems that have e…

Work-life balance isn't bad at FAANG (not generally speaking at least).

Broad generalization: I've seen friends burn out due to overwork at Amazon and Netflix, but it seems less common at Facebook, Apple, and Google.

Would be interesting to see actual data.

Re: “Great resignation” wave coming for companies

#572

Remember how everyone predicted a baby boom in 2021 and instead we saw a 8-10% decline in birth rate [1]? It turns out that while people had more time to focus on their families, the financial uncertainty had a greater impact on their family planning decisions. The same thing happened in 2009 - there's a close link between the birth rate and recessions [2]. While I don't doubt that many people will change their jobs…

Instead, we saw a dog adoption boom.

So true!

Re: “Great resignation” wave coming for companies

#573

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe a western/northern european thing to do. In eastern Europe it's normal for your degree to take anywhere from 1-3 year longer than it should have for various reasons including "taking a year off to chill", but actual, planned gap years where you're not in education are basically unheard of. Let alone gap years where you travel around and spend money. I know a few people who signed up for master degrees in say Ge…

> I know a few people who signed up for master degrees in say Germany and found that almost everyone in the program is a few years older then them. Is that because of gap years, or an interest in actually getting industry experience before continuing academic education? I think I was about 6 years into my career before I thought I could really squeeze a lot of value out of a graduate program. (I didn't ever go back f…

The Bologna alignment in Germany created a lot of weird situations. The old Diplom degree varied a lot and could be counted as a bachelors or masters (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diplom#International_compariso...) leading to some Germans to go back to get a firm masters. Also if it was more than 10 years ago, some Germans I know did their first degree, then their conscripted service, then their second, which caused a 1-2 year gap.

Re: “Great resignation” wave coming for companies

#574

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not the original commenter, but this is the situation in Argentina. I would love to do a remote gig and get 100k a year. I am a programmer with over 20 years of experience and I can program professionally in over 10 different programming languages.

It is worth noting that software salaries are artificially inflated HEAVILY due to a general unwillingness or lack of interest in hiring overseas developers. The second this changes, the bottom drops out of software. I don't know if it will ever happen that big companies begin openly accepting overseas applicants but if/when it does, you can expect that it wont be for 100k. Suddenly when you consider the entire plane…

> It is worth noting that software salaries are artificially inflated HEAVILY due to a general unwillingness or lack of interest in hiring overseas developers.

Because it's been tried before and for the most part it was an abysmal failure. I was just starting out doing some basic web freelancing as a teenager in the 2000s and even I got roped in to clean up an outsourced project after being outbid a year earlier by an overseas firm during the first outsourcing wave. Lots of people on HN have horror stories of cleaning up from that era.

We've been here several times before - like literally just this past year of everyone saying "oh but now you have to compete with remote workers everywhere!" Salaries keep rising because software is an arms race. The companies making the most profit will continue to invest in getting the best people and outside of the odd global crisis, the industry will continue to grow as everyone else tries to keep up both in technology and in hiring. All those firms I cleaned up after as a kid are still around today and bigger than ever, yet on this side of the ocean we keep making more and more money.

I think we've got at least a century before software hits the diminishing returns that the industrial revolution did. My local lumberyard is still using DOS machines probably made before I was born.

Re: “Great resignation” wave coming for companies

#575

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Higher education is my main job - we're not seeing an influx like we expected of people returning to college, but we are seeing an increase in non-traditional (24y.o.+) students. They are, to paint with a very broad brush, folks who all worked in food service, retail, or other front-line sales industries. The forced time off last year made them realize they were killing themselves for not very much money, and they're…

There is currently a wild and IMMENSE disconnect from worker attitudes to beliefs about worker attitudes, and I don't know why. Largely because business owners are pushing the "$300/month is making everybody lazy" narrative. There doesn't appear to be much evidence it's true, at least not to the extend business owners would have us believe.

I wonder if there will be a sharp downward trend in per-worker productivity in those “$300/mo makes you lazy” jobs once everyone goes back to work. Boss makes a dollar, you make a dime and all that.

Re: “Great resignation” wave coming for companies

#576
post #455

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least where I am, companies are realizing that relying on people is unreliable, so they are investing more in technology.

Could you elaborate on your experience (as vaguely as necessary to protect your privacy)?

I don't work in this space currently, but have colleagues and former colleagues that do. So many companies still have people running around with clipboards or doing routine calculations in Excel or handing loan applications by hand or managing contracts by printing them out and filing them or having someone sit at a monitor and watch for an alert so they can tell someone else or manually processing reward point changes or fax out hotel booking confirmations.

This is ludicrous to people steeped in tech, but I have had former colleagues or classmates or even myself work on all of those in the past year and a bit.

Re: “Great resignation” wave coming for companies

#577
post #263

> Surveys show anywhere from 25% to upwards of 40% of workers are thinking about quitting their jobs. This number is meaningless without previous year trends. In my circles, everyone from 25-35 is simultaneously preparing to FIRE and no-one that's 35+ has actually changed jobs despite being 'financially independent'. Expressing intent to resign, and actually resigning are completely different things. (edit: to clarif…

> Suddenly, having good health insurance

Just think, we could all pursue our hopes, dreams and soul satisfying pursuits, if having good health insurance wasn't directly tied to having a "good job".

Re: “Great resignation” wave coming for companies

#578
post #263

> Surveys show anywhere from 25% to upwards of 40% of workers are thinking about quitting their jobs. This number is meaningless without previous year trends. In my circles, everyone from 25-35 is simultaneously preparing to FIRE and no-one that's 35+ has actually changed jobs despite being 'financially independent'. Expressing intent to resign, and actually resigning are completely different things. (edit: to clarif…

I’ll press y to quit.

I’ve been trying for years.

Re: “Great resignation” wave coming for companies

#579
During crisis decade post 1999, many shifted to better pastures, not content with being played like pawns and having bleak outlooks. Now, many developers having regretted biting the bullet for two f. decades are thinking the same, after quite a bit of introspection during COVID. Not saying everyone will jump on the same: Some went to work in kindergartens, just sick of everything java. However, this situation is exactly the spark that'll make people seek more of what they truly are meant to do in this life.

The best advice I can give is, treat other people as you yourself would want to be treated, or how you think they wish to be treated. Be kind and seek the best in others.

Re: “Great resignation” wave coming for companies

#580
post #537

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And yet, they still persist on presenting leetcode riddles that have very little relevance to the job being interviewed for. If they were hurting that much for devs, you'd think they might lower the bar a little by not requiring a years study of leetcode.

It's more expensive to make a bad hire than to not hire someone and move a bit slower.

So... they double-down on a poor proxy of effectiveness on the job?
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