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“Great resignation” wave coming for companies

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Re: “Great resignation” wave coming for companies

#781
post #7

Im quitting and not looking for another job. Gonna use the savings to take a gap year, or a couple, work on some stuff I want maybe. Maybe more involvement in OSS is coming too? I've never had a gap year, it was all school, then immigration, work, university, more work. Any holiday time you fly back home. I kept hearing its not unusual for people in the west to take gap years, so thats what Im doing. edit: thank you…

I left my job in May and I'm hiking the Appalachian Trail now. I saved more than enough for living in a tent for 5 months (admittedly the tent was expensive but I already had it). So far it's been great. I've met a lot of folks who are burned out and taking some time to think. If long-distance hiking appeals, I'd be happy to discuss it. Long-distance hiking isn't for everyone but

Have you done something like this before or was this on a whim?

Trying to figure out how much training / prep one needs to do. I want to do long distance cycling, I am not concerned about the stamina. I am concerned about camping in the wild, packing and repairing the bicycle when it breaks.

Re: “Great resignation” wave coming for companies

#782

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You mean the Fed printed a ton of money and sent it to everyone making less than a certain amount, and the government guaranteed wages for those who no longer wish to work, and caused a labor shortage and inflation. Soon those benefits will be insufficient, due to inflation, if the government continues to print money, and the real wages of the existing wage earners who actually produce value for the good of society b…

Actually on gdp alone there is enough money in the US for everyone to have a living wage… checkout northern euros or Australia for example of what that looks like. The problem with the fed stimulus was the benefits too large corps.

That is too simplistic view of the economy. You can't allocate all revenue to payroll. That's not how business or the economy works.

Re: “Great resignation” wave coming for companies

#783
post #385

I've interviewed a lot of devs in the midwest (Columbus, OH) the past few months and everybody, even new college grads, expect $120k+ salaries. Mind blowing to me as I know devs who've been around ~10 years in the midwest who are only approaching those numbers.

I have about a decade of experience, I live in Dallas, and I've spent my entire career working for local Texas companies.

I never saw a six-figure salary—not even close—until I got the offer for the job I'll be starting next week. It's a remote position working for an east coast company. Even if my soon-to-be-ex-employer allowed me to continue working from home forever, I'd be an idiot to leave this salary on the table. I should've done this sooner.

Re: “Great resignation” wave coming for companies

#784
post #263

> Surveys show anywhere from 25% to upwards of 40% of workers are thinking about quitting their jobs. This number is meaningless without previous year trends. In my circles, everyone from 25-35 is simultaneously preparing to FIRE and no-one that's 35+ has actually changed jobs despite being 'financially independent'. Expressing intent to resign, and actually resigning are completely different things. (edit: to clarif…

back in 2015 or so, I was complaining about how having to study for leetcode is not sustainable for someone to live, thus this makes tech a horrendous life choice as a career. Because having to keep doing this throughout our life when we get families and other life events going on is not a sustainable path. I was downvoted, told if you want to make money what's the big deal, etc etc. During the pandemic, the companie…

Studying Leetcode is no fun to be sure. But, you'll never find a greater return on investment than preparing well and interviewing well. It often results in a major pay raise, a new and often better company, a new and often better project, sometimes a promotion.

Even better, the people that are the most averse to Leetcode cramming are often the ones that will see the greatest benefit, since they usually entered their current position with a single offer some years ago, and would be getting multiple offers in a very hot market today.

Re: “Great resignation” wave coming for companies

#785
post #263

> Surveys show anywhere from 25% to upwards of 40% of workers are thinking about quitting their jobs. This number is meaningless without previous year trends. In my circles, everyone from 25-35 is simultaneously preparing to FIRE and no-one that's 35+ has actually changed jobs despite being 'financially independent'. Expressing intent to resign, and actually resigning are completely different things. (edit: to clarif…

I can’t get over how much the financial media drumbeats the idea that companies compete with better working conditions. They do not on any appreciable timescale - the best you get is a bigger signing bonus or one time benefit. At the top 1% they compete on perks, but the rest simply do not do anything about the fact they can’t hire, despite their complaints. It’s a particular dissonance that I think must come from MBA and business school cargo culting. The world would be such a nicer place if companies actually competed for labor instead of collectively kept all wages and benefits at their absolute minimum. This of course doesn’t happen, but to hear that it is somehow is extra infuriating.

Re: “Great resignation” wave coming for companies

#786

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Real Translation: Covid has made people miserable in their jobs. Small quibble: Covid has shown people how miserable their jobs have always been. All it's taken is a slight shift, a small perk, here and there, and people see it clear as day, and they want out. White collar workers got work from home: actually, it turns out I can give legal advice while planting basil in my backyard and no one on the conference call…

>I think lots of myth and propaganda about work got blown up in the last year. Many years of corporations "boiling the frog" and slowly lowering flexibility and not improving pay have been reset. People hadn't noticed, and now they have. It'll probably happen all over again, but at least there's hope for now.

Don’t get caught up in the fantasy that it’s stopped in any appreciable way. The hammer is just starting to fall as vaccination rates go up. This is the start of the first battle, not the second act.

Re: “Great resignation” wave coming for companies

#788

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You mean the Fed printed a ton of money and sent it to everyone making less than a certain amount, and the government guaranteed wages for those who no longer wish to work, and caused a labor shortage and inflation. Soon those benefits will be insufficient, due to inflation, if the government continues to print money, and the real wages of the existing wage earners who actually produce value for the good of society b…

> for those who no longer wish to work > to those who don't wish to work > those who choose not to work at all > the same for working and for doing nothing, that people choose the latter You're making my point for me with the arbeit macht frei dog-whistles here. So let me be clear: if "work" is defined as "millions of white and blue collar professional lives before Covid, lives replete with Kafka-esque meaninglessnes…

> those who no longer wish to work

This reminded me of an old political cartoon I saw at the Abraham Lincoln museum: https://www.loc.gov/resource/pga.04994/

It shows Lincoln with his (supposed) supporters and their requests, one of whom is depicted as saying, "I want a hotel established by government, where people that ain't inclined to work can board free of expense, and be found in rum and tobacco."

Re: “Great resignation” wave coming for companies

#789

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Real Translation: Covid has made people miserable in their jobs. Small quibble: Covid has shown people how miserable their jobs have always been. All it's taken is a slight shift, a small perk, here and there, and people see it clear as day, and they want out. White collar workers got work from home: actually, it turns out I can give legal advice while planting basil in my backyard and no one on the conference call…

>I think lots of myth and propaganda about work got blown up in the last year. Many years of corporations "boiling the frog" and slowly lowering flexibility and not improving pay have been reset. People hadn't noticed, and now they have. It'll probably happen all over again, but at least there's hope for now.

>> Many years of corporations "boiling the frog" and slowly lowering flexibility and not improving pay have been reset.

I think it depends on where you work and how the executives care or don't care about their employees.

I was working at a large corporation during the 08' recession. They took away all of our perks (free coffee, free milk, bottled water, bonuses, christmas parties with bonuses, etc) all in one year and then never brought them back which resulted in a steady flow of people quitting.

Likewise, I was at a much smaller family run company shortly after the aforementioned big corporation (less than 300 employees) and we had amazing Cadillac health care, yearly bonuses and generous salary increases and four weeks of vacation (double the norm at any other company) to start. Most of the company employees were 'lifers' for obvious reasons.

Right now? I work at a huge health care company. Its somewhere in the middle. We get a lot of technology perks, three weeks vacation, decent salary increases and yearly bonuses that are competitive. The health care plans ironically are some of the worst I've had, but its offset by the other things I get.

Everything is relative and I think people just need to find what works best for them. Its also a great time for all the people complaining they can't seem to find work anywhere. LOTS of mid tier gigs right now for those who want to get out there and find a solid gig, instead of staying home and collecting unemployment to the tune of $1,200/month.

Re: “Great resignation” wave coming for companies

#790

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Consumers are not buying iPhones because of charisma. They are not using Gmail because of charisma. Some VC pump and dump companies get by and make some headlines by being a fad electron app, but I am referring to those that stick around for years and develop products that require R&D. I have a hard time believing that people who work at companies that have transformed the way we live over the past few decades are "l…

So, I wasn’t thinking Apple or Google when I wrote this because those are giant companies that hire globally. Most of Apples profit comes from products produced far from the valley. That said, I’ve worked with lots of veterans of Apple and Google and there quite literally is no correlation between having worked at those companies and being good. I believe that the current hiring environment in software is so broken t…

I would say my claim is that offering more money or the chance to make more money does make it possible to end up with a workforce of people with a higher than average skill level.

And if certain geographical locations are known for being places where the chances of making a lot more money are significantly higher, then I would say the skill level of people there is probably higher on average. The proof would be the numerous leading companies and products coming out of these places.

Of course, those locations can change, and maybe widespread access to broadband will cause that to change that or reduce benefits of agglomeration. But it remains to be seen.

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