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Ask HN: What are examples of companies dying due to many people quitting?

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Re: Ask HN: What are examples of companies dying due to many people quitting?

#501
post #114
post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have a link to said study?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29003986

I've put in a few classifications my job could fall under, and gotten RN for at least two. Perhaps there's just more nurses than people assume or realise?

Re: Ask HN: What are examples of companies dying due to many people quitting?

#502

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Considering that markets exist whenever 2 or more individuals gather, without regard to any other factors… it’s pretty much a fundamental force like gravity. In fact even ant colonies experience market forces so it’s practically impossible for it to not exist. Does it matter if a lot of folks have different definitions of gravity?

> Considering that markets exist whenever 2 or more individuals gather In the most general sense of "market", this is not wrong. However, you're talking from the point of view of a rather specific market theory. That market theory is not a fundamental force, it's just one of many ways of doing things. It also has a very narrow definition of "fair", which makes sense within its own world, but I would argue is not gene…

What's the 'rather specific market theory'? As far as I understand that is the dictionary definition of a market. Here's Meriam-webster:

market, noun, often attributive

mar· ket | \ ˈmär-kət \

Definition of market (Entry 1 of 2)

1. a(1) : a meeting together of people for the purpose of trade by private purchase and sale and usually not by auction (2) : the people assembled at such a meeting

b(1) : a public place where a market is held especially : a place where provisions are sold at wholesale a farmers' market (2) : a retail establishment usually of a specified kind a fish market

2. archaic : the act or an instance of buying and selling

3. : the rate or price offered for a commodity or security

4. a(1) : a geographic area of demand for commodities or services (2) : a specified category of potential buyers the youth market

b : the course of commercial activity by which the exchange of commodities is effected : extent of demand the market is dull

c(1) : an opportunity for selling

(2) : the available supply of or potential demand for specified goods or services the labor market

d : the area of economic activity in which buyers and sellers come together and the forces of supply and demand affect prices

Re: Ask HN: What are examples of companies dying due to many people quitting?

#503
post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that's how Anders Hejlsberg (creator of C# and Typescript) joined Microsoft?

Anders joined later as a couple of ex-Borland people kept pinging back on him, he mentions this in a few interviews. https://behindthetech.libsyn.com/001-anders-hejlsberg-a-craf...

Thanks, that was a great listen

Re: Ask HN: What are examples of companies dying due to many people quitting?

#504

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That was on the advice of my lawyer. You, however, probably need to consult your legal team.

This type of discussion is typical. If all goes well, no worries, Signed Language is so beautiful, how can I learn to sign? and so on. If there are problems, Deaf people are used to rough treatment. And if they complain they are told off not to be so sensitive, that what they say is not correct, or they get the silence treatment. It seems there is something like an impedance mismatch between Deafies and Hearies and s…

C’eat la vie.

Re: Ask HN: What are examples of companies dying due to many people quitting?

#505

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, you can call it IP theft, I can call it wage theft. The article quotes one of the devs as saying they had "unpaid milestones", which reads an awful lot like the "major publisher" he didn't want to name for legal reasons had violated the one term that mattered: the part where they pay for the game. The lesson to take away here, for management, is that you can't get away with everything forever. Whether you vie…

The lesson for 'management' is get better contracts and don't invest and develop people who will walk out with your stuff. Item 'A' is a bit more reasonable, people not getting paid is bad. But item 'B' is not. Sorry, you don't just get to ask for a better deal after the fact, because it finally worked out and now in 20/20 hindsight you want a cut.

But why not? Why shouldn't there be a process for renegotiating a contract? Especially in cases like this, where the employees are still producing things for the management--I would understand if you were renegotiating JUST on an existing product, because renegotiating on a deal that's already over makes the deal drag on unnecessarily, but these people were probably working on a new game while talking about renegotiating their contract. They weren't just talking about their compensation for the game they'd already finished; they were talking about compensation for every game they'd make in the future with that publisher.

Re: Ask HN: What are examples of companies dying due to many people quitting?

#506

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"The workers are easily replaced" and "Their compensation is fair" are two different statements.

It's exactly the same statement. Fair cost of something IS the opportunity cost of buying the same thing from someone else.

If I had a gun to the head of everyone in town, and everyone in town mysteriously agrees to sell their labor for free, does that mean that cost of labor is fair?

There are circumstances outside of the price which affect the fairness of the price.

Re: Ask HN: What are examples of companies dying due to many people quitting?

#507

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gaming abounds with stories like this. A friend of mine went to work for a small game studio in Oklahoma that'd gotten some acclaim for their quake mod pack. They took that momentum and started on their own novel IP as a quake licensee. They made a ahem mildly successful game named Medal of Honor. Some time down the road, the owner of the studio didn't want to share the wealth. As a result the top programmers, design…

>> That studio owner literally made a billion dollar mistake by not simply being fair early on to the team. Never, ever, treat a team that has achieved rare success as replaceable cogs. If they've shipped, they can find more money people any time they want. What prevented them from offering bad deals that are common today? Some examples I've seen: - give lots of equity, but vesting over long timelines - give no refre…

Thank you for the term "Equity Theatre"!

Re: Ask HN: What are examples of companies dying due to many people quitting?

#508
post #384

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Schmooze is a bit of a demeaning word, isn't it? If the CEO is learning from customers and helping the organization react accordingly, that sounds very valuable.

Schmooze comes from yiddish, and it just means to chat or converse. Seems fair to me. You can chat and converse idly, or with an agenda. Not demeaning at all, just descriptive.

> talk with someone in a lively and friendly way

Demeaning isn't the right word, but it sure seems condescending. Like calling programming "button pushing".

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