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When new hires get paid more, top performers resign first

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Re: When new hires get paid more, top performers resign first

#81

I just had a very valuable teammate quit this week from lack of salary progression. New-ish grads are making more than him for much lesser jobs. The business refused to do even a token salary increase because of the ‘economic climate’ Now a critical project won’t happen on time, which will cost the company many magnitudes more in revenue than it would have cost them with a token increase. Oops.

What do you mean “cost them money” I legitimately can’t think of situation where releasing a product behind deadline would cost a business money? Obviously they just allocated resources more efficiently because they have fewer people. Likely they made more money because of increased demand.

I have a product that can bring in $10,000 in profit each week. If I launch it four weeks late, I just lost $40,000.

Or I have a product that relies on certain hardware. I've already bought/leased that hardware, so I'm now paying depreciation/lease payments for that hardware. Every week I delay the launch I'm losing money on those payments because the hardware is sitting unused.

Re: When new hires get paid more, top performers resign first

#82
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the industrialized world, the fertility rate is almost universally below replacement rate, and has been for a long time. So, as boomers are retiring, there are not as many people replacing them.

[flagged]

Oh boy I could have a field day with this hot take.

Have at least three kids, don’t think about the rising healthcare, education, food, and childcare costs though.

Don’t mind the huge increase in car costs - basically a requirement to travel and work in the US.

Don’t mind the stagnating pay.

Don’t mind the coordinated reduction in pension and 401k benefits we are seeing, nor the steadily decreasing social security funds. You wouldn’t need that money you spent raising three kids on retirement or anything.

Nevermind the total lack of job security and universal healthcare in this country. While EU countries have very strict requirements for layoffs, the majority of the US is at-will and you can be laid off at any moment. You will not have healthcare after a paltry few weeks unless you want to spend a lot of money.

Did I mention the lack of healthcare? Let’s dive a little deeper. Do you have any idea how much it costs just to visit a hospital and birth babies? Various parts of the US have essentially 3rd-world death statistics for birthing mothers (especially minority mothers). A big part of that is cost to birth a child is too high and these mothers won’t trust or visit a hospital.

Why three kids specifically by the way? Standard starter houses are 3bd/2bath here. Guess mom and dad need a bigger house then.

Should I continue?

Re: When new hires get paid more, top performers resign first

#83
post #8

Can someone who understands economics better than me explain how the workforce can "shrink" in 2024? The number of people isn't going to dramatically decrease, are just a ton of people retiring? Or does this imply that there's going to be a reduction in the number of available jobs?

Developed countries have a low fertility rate, so fewer young people and tons of oldies. Perhaps is not going to be noticeable right away, but it’s gonna hit us hard.

Re: When new hires get paid more, top performers resign first

#84
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More curious about your story of starting your own company on a near-whim! I've been grinding out trying to do the same over a year or so without any traction at all and I'm finding myself almost back at Square 1 without any more solid ideas.

This just tells me you’re not well versed in sales and marketing. Learn those first (specially direct response) and the other pieces will glide into place with less effort.

What are some good resources to learn this?

Re: When new hires get paid more, top performers resign first

#85
post #52

I just had a very valuable teammate quit this week from lack of salary progression. New-ish grads are making more than him for much lesser jobs. The business refused to do even a token salary increase because of the ‘economic climate’ Now a critical project won’t happen on time, which will cost the company many magnitudes more in revenue than it would have cost them with a token increase. Oops.

Are you all extremely underpaid or something? Or how are new grads getting so much in a down market? I'm decently experienced saw lots of relatively low paying jobs in general

What market is down?

Re: When new hires get paid more, top performers resign first

#86
post #52

I just had a very valuable teammate quit this week from lack of salary progression. New-ish grads are making more than him for much lesser jobs. The business refused to do even a token salary increase because of the ‘economic climate’ Now a critical project won’t happen on time, which will cost the company many magnitudes more in revenue than it would have cost them with a token increase. Oops.

Are you all extremely underpaid or something? Or how are new grads getting so much in a down market? I'm decently experienced saw lots of relatively low paying jobs in general

The company puts A LOT of effort into its program for hiring new grads. But is horribly inept when it comes to providing a career path for individual contributors.

So unless you manage to get a promotion to a senior IC position (like me), your compensation stagnates.

Re: When new hires get paid more, top performers resign first

#87

I just had a very valuable teammate quit this week from lack of salary progression. New-ish grads are making more than him for much lesser jobs. The business refused to do even a token salary increase because of the ‘economic climate’ Now a critical project won’t happen on time, which will cost the company many magnitudes more in revenue than it would have cost them with a token increase. Oops.

I've seen this before so many times, and recommend people quit and sometimes even apply back at their same company.

I got my friend a 30% raise after he quit, worked at a new place for two months, it blocked implementation of key projects and the CEO started freaking out.

I asked him how much he would pay to fix the problem, and he gave me a number. I said if we paid that as the new salary to my friend we could have him working there in a week.

The CEO made the call in front of me lol.

Re: When new hires get paid more, top performers resign first

#88
What broke me was seeing new employees get the same option grants as those of us who’d been there before our product launched. We took on all the risk and the years of startup salary to build the thing, and new people walk in with the same ownership? What the hell. I couldn’t forgive that.

Re: When new hires get paid more, top performers resign first

#89
post #22

> Interestingly, even employees who aren’t actively looking for a new job may become more aware of shifting market prices when a new hire joins at a higher salary, sparking concerns that they may be being taken advantage of. Because being paid less to do more means they are being taken advantage of. That's blindingly obvious. It's just that it was thrust in their face by the new hire occurring.

Yeah, I'm struggling to understand how this could be noted as "interesting". "Wow, my employees think they should be paid for the work they're doing _without_ having to threaten me about leaving to get a raise? What a revelation!"

Re: When new hires get paid more, top performers resign first

#90
There was an article at Forbes that said employees who stay with the company for more than 2 years are underpaid by as much as 50%.

So why do they stay for so long? Humans are resistant to change.

Speaking of myself, when I was working as a programmer, finding a new job meant going through endless interviews with leetcode tests even though I had 15 years experience.

Turns out it was Joel Spolsky who invented that practice. I'm sure most programmers want to strangle that guy. Lol.

As for me, I became a contractor. All my underpaid overtime turned into a paid one. Plus my contracts lasted a lot longer than my full time jobs. But even that what I later found out is what they call "trading hours for dollars".

In order to really succeed I need to start my own business. Which required me to learn "direct response marketing and copywriting".

Because being an Engineer I sucked at selling, finding hungry markets for my products, creating products and selling them by the millions.

Once I figured that out, it's like a new world opened up to me. Turns out you can make as much money as you want. Unlimited amounts. It's up to you how much you want to make. I wish I would've figured that out earlier.

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