31–40 of 77 posts
It's like any abusive relationship[1], only compounded by the profit motive.
> It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.
― Upton Sinclair
1. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/224552.Why_Does_He_Do_Th...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> paycheck, flexibility, or even benefits At many, many companies, your manager directly decides or at least influences all three of these, so if you quit due to them, you're also quitting because of your manager.
Few direct managers have the ability to give you a raise that a new employer would, in cases where you're being underpaid relative to the market. They also rarely have much influence over work flexibility or benefits.
I'm usually very up-front with my reports on this. I make it very clear that I cannot compete with other companies on an immediate short-term compensation bump, so if they prioritize "money now" over everything else, then they should go out and interview.
However in the four years that I was a manager at my previous company, nobody on my team ever took me up on the advice to switch companies to get more money faster.
Based only on anecdotal evidence (and yeah the plural of anecdote is not data) I'd sugges that figure wildy, wildly underestimated. I'm trying to think if I know /anyone/ over 35 who hasn't? Maybe, but I have to think quite hard.
I was once fired because of my idiot boss. I didn't quit. Maybe I should have, but getting fired meant I could fight it just enough to get some severance pay out of it.
He fired me the day I returned from a month long illness. Before that, he was sometimes annoyed he saw me leaning back while watching my scripts write my code for me.
None of the jobs I quit were because of my boss. One was because I really needed to do something more interesting than maintaining a bunch of legacy sites. One where I volunteered to get fired was because I wanted to start my own company.
Based only on anecdotal evidence (and yeah the plural of anecdote is not data) I'd sugges that figure wildy, wildly underestimated. I'm trying to think if I know /anyone/ over 35 who hasn't? Maybe, but I have to think quite hard.
It also depends on how the question is asked. I've left jobs where I respected my manager...but not someone higher up the chain. At least once the manager left almost immediately after I did, for the same reasons.
That's cool because it means you can actually do that if your manager is bad. In some countries there are no jobs so all you can do about having a bad manager is... nothing.
That is true in the US for a lot of people, and it was especially true during the recession. The fact that we've been in a situation where most skilled workers can easily job hop for that last 5 or so years is an aberration, not the norm! And frankly, we should probably take advantage of the situation while we still can.
Are you talking about workers in general, or software development in particular?
In software development, I don't remember a time in the last three decades where a skilled dev couldn't find other employment with relatively little trouble. Of course, in some periods it was easier than in others.
Once you've been a manager you'll understand the other side of this.
Based only on anecdotal evidence (and yeah the plural of anecdote is not data) I'd sugges that figure wildy, wildly underestimated. I'm trying to think if I know /anyone/ over 35 who hasn't? Maybe, but I have to think quite hard.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
How did they instill fear?
Salami tactics. - Reduce flexibility over time - Every expense needs to be justified a hundred times - delaying approval of vacation days to the point that you take a vacation, and it is still not approved - Adding unnecessary process where none is required - Adding compromised people to the team (limited contract, needs the job desperately, needs a raise for kid's education etc) - Strict butts-on-seats policy - Cons…
Not everyone has the freedom to quit their job, small towns, limited skill sets, transportation issues, family issues, etc. etc. etc, otherwise the number would probably be at 75%.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
You might be interested in reading this: https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2011/10/14/the-gervais-principle-...
That is very long, what is the TLDR?