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Poll: Why are people leaving their jobs?

news.ycombinator.com

211–220 of 773 posts

Re: Poll: Why are people leaving their jobs?

#211
post #54

I'll be departing my job at the end of the month. I had too many roles, affecting too many pieces of engineering, and my title didn't reflect my work. I needed to go down to a 4 day work week and have my title reflect my roles, but my manager attempted to call my bluff and essentially said it's not going to happen. I hinted about what my decision would have to be if these accomodations couldn't be made, but he didn't…

> I hinted about what my decision would have to be if these accomodations couldn't be made

I don't hint because it's too confusing. I try to very politely offer options, where one option is me looking for another opportunity. It's not as though it's a secret to either party that's always an option.

Re: Poll: Why are people leaving their jobs?

#212
I have enough money saved up, whereas I don't really need to work for at least 6 months.

This is assuming I don't even try to adjust my spending, push come to shove. I can probably last up to a year without a job.

I remain employed because frankly otherwise I'd be bored.

Once COVID gets under control, I think I'm going to probably live in another country for at least 3 months.

Re: Poll: Why are people leaving their jobs?

#213
post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who is making 150/hour and owns a house as a dev in Canada ? Nobody that works for Canadian companies that’s for sure

I thought Canadian houses were purely to be investment vehicles for foreign speculators. Canadians actually live in homes they own?

Older ones I guess. According to Stats Canada over 6/10 families own their home.

Re: Poll: Why are people leaving their jobs?

#214

My old boss Eric Carlsen used to say, nobody left because of money. They may get more money if they change jobs. But they start looking because they're unhappy. So when somebody asked for more money, he'd start by asking what was bothering them.

well, if you are massively underpaid... you will leave just for money

Re: Poll: Why are people leaving their jobs?

#215

My old boss Eric Carlsen used to say, nobody left because of money. They may get more money if they change jobs. But they start looking because they're unhappy. So when somebody asked for more money, he'd start by asking what was bothering them.

Yeaaaahhhh no. People leave because of money. People are leaving for money. And they would be stupid not to. Because companies have no loyalty. You are a human resource to be used up like any other. Like gasoline. The second they can save a few pennies this quarter you are gone. People used to stay for their pension. No pensions now. You have to fund your own retirement and that takes money.

I run my personal finances like a business. Whenever companies say "we're a family" or "we don't want someone only focused on money" I hear "we only hire morons". I an cognizant of cashflow, taxes, I'm very heavily invested and I take all of it very, very seriously in terms of structure, diversification, opportunity, tax efficiency, profits. Like any business should! Income is my biggest revenue stream and therefore the most important factor for my success a/k/a the success of my business (which is me). If I leave I'm leaving for money.

My relationship with my employer is a business one. I don't understand why managers / HR think it's some kind of therapy one. Your manager wants to talk about feelings? I don't write contracts for fun and friendship, they are for business and employment is a business relationship. I have an actual life that I am living and this business relationship is about money it is absolutely not my whole life and I'm more than happy to take my skills elsewhere for more.

I cannot fathom someone getting so wrapped up in their job as their identity that they literally pay money to the company to do it (by staying in a lower-paying position) but I guess it can happen, e.g. people go work for Apple which notoriously underpays as well as being kind of a poor work environment, but people still flock to them due to brand reputation. I don't have feelings about the companies I work for. I have strong feelings about the code I write, I strive for highest possible quality given the constraints. But who I am is the person who writes that kind of code, not who I write it for.

Re: Poll: Why are people leaving their jobs?

#217
For me, the proverbial final straw came when I delivered a dinosaur utility company it's first churn propensity score. Bit of background, my manager and their manager were non-technical and I had this thing running in evaluation mode for a few months with excellent lift in the top couple of percentiles. I had the statistics well grounded, and this thing was due to go in against basically nothing, renewal teams randomly calling prospects.

Anyway, before this thing goes live, I see a few managers printing out pages of Excel sheets and arranging them on a conference table to validate the model with literally pencil and paper. They didn't know what a percentile was until I explained it.

I handed in my notice the Monday following that weekend. Sometimes, if you're not trusted to do a good job, it's not worth trying.

Re: Poll: Why are people leaving their jobs?

#219

I left my job last may. I was a web developer at a branding /marketing agency. The office/people were great, no complaints about the work place at all. But after 5 years (and a similar stretch as an in-house before that), I just felt VERY burnt out. Every day was the same, projects were meaningless, coding wasn't challenging, I felt like an imposter and bored at the same time, I wanted to build my own 'thing' and fel…

I feel for you!

Quick question, what would you like your legacy to be? What words do you want people to say when they speak about you and the life you lived?

Re: Poll: Why are people leaving their jobs?

#220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would you pay off your house when you can keep the cash in an investment account making > 5% APR vs. the house loan which presumably is in the low 3s.

>keep the cash in an investment account making > 5% APR vs. the house loan which presumably is in the low 3s. One is guaranteed, one is not. Markets are volatile. I lived through 2001 and 2008 as a working stiff, that shit can drop on a dime. Right now, I have no debts. House and vehicle are paid off and I have an "oh shit" account that's pretty good. I can sit here as a hermit for at least a year or two, three if I…

This is something you can hedge against, which is known as a sequence risk [0]. There are investment vehicles with built in volatility buffers designed to avoid this https://paradigmlife.net/blog/episode/the-volatility-buffer-....

That 3 years of cash on hand would be better off in some kind of investment and if you're worried, supported by a volatility buffer.

[0] https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/sequence-risk.asp

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