Ask HN: How common is it for people to come back to a previous employer?

I've seen it, and done it. It seems common enough in larger companies. Most of the time, it only can work if the departure was not for negative reasons - if the person left to pursue a new job, go to school, have or care for children, or those kinds of reasons... why not call your old job back up when you are ready to return to work?

I've also seen it when people work in a specific niche, but do not want to work under specific executives - when that exec leaves a company, their former staff are willing to return. In those cases, even though the departure was due to negativity, everyone tends to understand and respect that some people just don't work well together.

It happens all the time. Large companies have specific processes for onboarding such employees, because you'd rather go in and reactivate all their old accounts vs creating all new ones again. Most will even add your past tenure to the years of service number (for benefits).

Yes, it's also an episode of Seinfeld when George quits and acts like he was joking:)

It happens. I also had a few people come back. An entire team quit (4 people) to go work for a competitor. Two came back when the competitor screw them over, offering higher wages just for 3 months, and then linking the wages to an impossible schedule. One manager quit because of stress and came back a few years later for a similar job with a few less responsibilities.

I think it's pretty common for a few reasons.

If you're in big tech and love your job and know you're in a position where nobody else does it as well as you, you might see a career jump as your opportunity to get "rehired" into a higher level. This is very common with companies competing for talent in the same locations.

I also think from the expectations perspective, some people don't know how good they have it until they join another company. This can be eye opening and you want what you once had.

Lastly, for smaller companies, this is very common. There's something about smaller talent pools where your "deal" can be negotiated better than most big tech ones.