Poll: Why are people leaving their jobs?
There has been quite a lot of press about the 'great resignation,' with employees leaving jobs in droves. This is likely hyperbole, but it does seem that there are a large number of people switching jobs.
If that is something you have done or are considering doing in the near future, why?
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[ 4.1 ms ] story [ 387 ms ] threadHappy you found something that works for you, but you're overgeneralizing.
I'm not saying remote/no-remote is right for everyone, just talking about what works for me/the ones close to me, YMMV obviously.
I knew that I was looking for something else but I hadn't consciously realized it had gotten that bad.
not respected, not growing, not strong trust.
learning - some, but I don't like some of what i'm having to learn (not terribly useful outside this project).
fulfilling... occasionally, but more often not.
It's not 'that bad' for me yet, but have been trying to watch out for these signs. I've been in your shoes - where it has gotten 'that bad', and often you don't realize until you're already there.
Good luck to you!
It's easy to use something like compensation or new challenges as a post-hoc rationalization for making a move too, even when the real reason you started looking is perhaps different and requires some introspection. As an example, you might not start looking because you want more money, but it's fairly socially acceptable to say "I left because I was made an offer I can't refuse" as a justification when you do actually leave.
They may get more money if they change jobs. But they start looking because they're unhappy. So when somebody asked for more money, he'd start by asking what was bothering them.
I feel like this quote is relevant, if slightly off topic:
"The market can stay irrational longer than you can remain solvent."
i.e. You may run out of good candidates long before your competitors stop offering 20% more than you.
Perhaps some people start looking because they're unhappy and then learn they're underpaid but I personally know many people that started looking because of money—not the other way around.
I grew up poor - and judge me however you'd like - but I'd put up with less ideal conditions if the pay was worth it.
Reminds me of in college when I was a waiter - I typically didn't mind a table's behavior if I knew they were going to tip well.
They are called golden handcuffs for a reason. I think for the majority of people, they will do this. I know I will.
If you worked at a company for a few years and they went ipo, that's a different situation.
Most of the time things start from there and then the unhappiness snowballs to other areas of life
Its very rare to get 2x to 4x TC unless you switch to faang, which is not the majority at all.
It doesnt matter if it's the majority. It only matters on a per individual capability.
I am capable of FAANG and thus to keep me my employer(s) must both give me work w/ high value and compensate me accordingly.
You're switching the topic to be about you and your individual ability. You're obviously the center of this conversation. Good for you.
So what would 2,3,4x mean. Do you mean that much over your current salary, or over the 'market rate'. If someone paid me 2 or 3x my market rate as a principal backend infrastructure engineer, I would take it, but a year ago when I was interviewing, the offers from the big guys were not that different.
Having said that, yes I agree it does seem that at higher levels companies are a lot better about fitting compensation to that of competitors.
I also see people really early in career 10;years getting principal jobs and I think that's just from competition.
But sure. My question was more about the meaning of principal where you are. At some places it's more like just another grade of senior engineer. While at others it's equivalent to a decent rung of middle management and part of a different salary range, to which the current discussions about tech employee pay may not apply so much.
* Employee is happy (enough)
* Recruiter reaches out saying "we'll pay you your_current_comp * 2"
* Employee thinks "hmmm that seems **ing crazy, I wonder what's going on"
* Checks resources like levels.fyi or their network and realizes that they could _theoretically_ make (current_comp * 1.5), and probably pretty easily make (current_comp * 1.5)
* This leads to bitterness in some cases, or frank discussions of how to get paid more in others
I don't necessarily think that this is a bad thing fwiw but it requires employers to anticipate comp issues as benchmarks change.
The poll makes it pretty obvious that compensation is the biggest reason folks leave, and it's the thinking of the old generation who doesn't know how to retain talent (they do, but they keep throwing pizza parties / sending out merch instead). It's a real "it can't be helped" mentality around retention.
Look at the poll and think on this statement:
"The majority of people leave a company because they are unsatisfied, not because of compensation."
The poll statistically verifies the above statement as true. Its just divided in a way that makes you think compensation is the main reason.
Still what the poll does show is that compensation is a significant factor, more than ever before.
(Added in case you were being mis-interpreted, e.g. the downvotes. I think its an important and insightful point)
This is a leading question to expand on why compensation matters. Personally, I fall into the group where I could probably make more but really like my group. So, there is risk with leaving (bad boss, toxic culture, too much work, etc) vs making more.
> There is a threshold where you have enough money.
You've answered your own question.
Related is the sustainability of work: I don't want to need high earnings past 40. I want to retire into a second career I'll find more fulfilling but which might pay dramatically less. Higher pay now is the only way I can achieve this.
Go buy a house that will increase by >5%/year, but then don't pay it off any sooner than you have to.
Make the minimum payments, and invest in something that will return a stable 5%+ with your remaining income.
Just because the house itself increases in value, doesn't mean you should pay down the ~3% interest rate loan any faster than you have to.
And really, once you've built enough via this strategy, you should either invest in a more expensive house or buy a house to rent afterward.
This is all the consequence of inflation and easy money/loans, but the smart money move is to never pay off low interest rate loans. This is particularly true when inflation (acknowledged anyway) is 6%.
Using the 6% number, you're actually gaining (on average) 3% on a 3% loan just by using the cash.
Make 3 columns, "mortgage paid," "investment", "no-mortgage". Pretend the house is $100k. With the mortgage you get to keep that money and invest it, so first row in "investment:" should be $100k. Put $0 in the "no-mortgage" column, put $-421 * 12 in the "mortgage paid" column. I got that number from a mortgage calculator, assuming $100k loan and 3% interest over 30 years.
Then in row 2, "mortgage paid" cell should be previous cell - $421 * 12. You will keep paying this for 30 years.
"investment cell" should be previous cell * 1.05. We assume the investment return is 5% over long term.
The no-mortgage column stays 0. You spent the $100k to pay for the house, so it's gone right off the bat.
Repeat this for 30 rows (years). Then at the end look at the difference between investment vs. mortgage paid columns.
And then get back to me and tell me if you still think that is a "smaller total return" :-)
Source: https://www.straight.com/news/canadian-home-prices-have-rise...
The worst ever 20-year return for S&P 500 was +6.4% per year for the 240 month period ending in May 1979.
https://www.thebalance.com/rolling-index-returns-4061795
One is guaranteed, one is not. Markets are volatile. I lived through 2001 and 2008 as a working stiff, that shit can drop on a dime.
Right now, I have no debts. House and vehicle are paid off and I have an "oh shit" account that's pretty good. I can sit here as a hermit for at least a year or two, three if I really hunkered down and pinched pennies. It's a good feeling; one less thing to worry about.
Now if I put all that money into the market and shit hit the fan, not only would I not be willing to sell stocks due to their price plummeting, I would still have a mortgage and car payment. I'd be in this situation for 6 months to a year. Not a great situation.
Ensure your freedom / ability to live first, then invest heavily, IMO.
That 3 years of cash on hand would be better off in some kind of investment and if you're worried, supported by a volatility buffer.
[0] https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/sequence-risk.asp
I asked someone that in my mid 20's. He said "It's nice knowing I can support my family working at McDonalds if I have to." That stuck with me. Something fundamental changes in your life when you become debt-free.
This to me is the only legitimate criticism, and it really boils down to risk-reward.
If you're holding cash for say a backup fund, great! That's good security and everyone should aspire to that. But also acknowledge that with 6% inflation, you're actually losing 6% on that backup fund.
Inflation is insipid. You _must_ take risk with your funds just to not lose the value of it.
This certainly seems to be the case, but it's fustrating. I can think of no fundamental reason why it should be so. Other than speculators and govt policies backfiring to destroy the safety of alternative places to keep your money besides cash.
Then add to that the fact that you're taxed on `gains` for investment.
So buy an ounce of gold. 1 year later sell it for 6% more than you paid. Cool, beat inflation right?
Well, no because now you pay capital gains on something that isn't really worth more than when you bought it.
Inflation _is_ a tax...
> govt policies backfiring
Yeah sure, they're `backfiring`...
The stated goal of govt seems to be low (but positive) levels of inflation and high growth. The current situation with high inflation and low interest rates makes even tax-free govt bonds undesirable. And they will need to raise rates. So I'd say policies are backfiring, yes.
> The stated goal of govt seems to be low (but positive) levels of inflation and high growth.
Yes, and I disagree with that position too, but people are taught Keynesian economics, so even beginning to unfurl that mess is asking for a downvote storm.
The same people that will argue inflation is beneficial for growth tend to believe they are also open minded, free thinking, and well `educated`. It makes for a difficult argument often resulting in a lot of pointing to `authorities` on the matter.
At least monetary wealth can be diversely invested; so you have some control over it. Most of the risks that come from owning a house are completely out of your hands.
Being able to pay off a debt at anytime is equally freeing, for me at least. Paying off a loan with an interest rate significantly below inflation is not a great use of money[1] (and an opportunity loss). Putting that lumpsum into bonds (any bond with interest higher than the loan) is better, or even investing in stocks with a stop-loss. If I lose my job and have to flip burgers, that's when I'll pay off the loan and get a little extra from the investment/bond, thanks to the power of compounding interest.
1. Its the equivalent of someone offering you a 6- or 7-figure loan payable in 20/30 years at 2-3% when inflation is 6%, and you decline.
How is a bunch of money tied up in debt, and an equal amount invested to hedge that not a huge opportunity sink?
Let me remind you that in 2008 things were so screwed up, some lenders lost track of who owed what. Having a hard copy document that shows a debt was close out is not the same as having assets that could pay off the loan. Keep in mind too that it was also not a good time to trade investments for cash.
There are risks in every approach. I can't imagine taking out a loan on a property today and investing the money thinking it will beat the interest payments over the next couple years. At other times, it's less risky but the rates will probably also be higher at those times.
You can save up so that you have enough money invested to cover all the remaining loan payments and consider that having paid off the house. But don't send the money to the mortgage company, invest it into something stable that pays more than the mortgage interest and you're better off.
(Not historically always possible, but with today's interest rates pretty easy.)
I'm just old enough to remember what the financial crisis did to people's pensions. I'm happier to take risks with the rest of my money if my home isn't exposed to them.
During a crash I'd expect to lose on both earnings and investments. Losing my home as well would suck.
You never know when they're going to pull the rug from the infinite growth market. Maybe Crypto will do that? Maybe a few more years of lockdown? Who knows?
I agree that it's an unlikely scenario, but I'd rather be poorer and own my house than be dependant on a bank - even if that means compromising on its size or location.
US companies pay 2-3x as much at the top end (if you relocate, probably less for remote). With that kind of gap it's pretty hard for pay not to be a major factor.
I'm not making $150 an hour though.
I also don't live in Toronto, Vancouver, or Victoria.
Is this a serious question?
But I'm hesitant to describe my salary needs in terms of my household costs. I want to get paid by the value I bring first and foremost. And, similarly, what the market clearing rate for an engineer with my capabilities is. Not "market rate" unless I'm truly a median engineer, especially since companies tend to be underinformed about market rates.
I'm sort of in the same position as the parent. I've crossed the threshold, a little more money or a little less money makes no difference to me. I don't buy stuff I don't need. The amount of money that'll completely change my life is like x10 so likely won't happen (so moving from the "have enough" to the "mildly rich" category) and really I'm not sure that would mean anything to me anyways...
I want work that I can enjoy, with good people, that challenges me, and pretty much all the pay in the world won't make me go work for some sucky place (ofcourse everyone has their price, but my price would be higher than what they'd be willing to pay).
In other words, I think the results can only show motivating factors, but can't satisfy it as a sufficient condition for departure.
Retirement savings (and to a lesser extent because the numbers are way smaller, college savings) drive the need to accumulate 25x your annual expenses.
I have a sign "The Goal is to not have to work" right above my monitor in my home office. Every career/learning/spending/saving decision I make is in furtherance of this goal.
Money will always be a concern for the majority.
That said, I agree that once you've bought a house, you can cover your expenses and holidays, who cares about making more money. It's just not a very common position.
A publicly traded company I left some years ago had dozens of different little "things" they offered instead of better salary and/or better hours for the salary paid. They're now worth a tenth of what they were when I departed.
FIRE. Money buys a lot beyond your monthly food and rent.
> I fall into the group where I could probably make more
If you don't know for sure it's also hard to judge if you're making the right decision. I also wouldn't risk a nice and stable situation for a +5%, but recent threads on HN have been mentioning way higher bumps lately, hence compensation #1 (again on HN, SV-centered etc.).
> there is risk with leaving (bad boss, toxic culture, too much work, etc)
The chance goes both ways though, there's also a chance you might end up at a better place on top of a better compensation. If you're risk-averse that might not be for you, but there's probably a compensation bump at which it makes sense even if you're risk-averse.
When $PREV_EMPLOYER closed the office in early 2020 and everyone shifted to remote work, I learned how much I depended on coworkers for daily social interaction. My friends live far away, so the last two years has been extremely isolating and lonely.
That lack of socialization meant work rapidly deteriorated into "just a paycheck" territory, and once that happens, there's no going back.
If you view this multi-answer poll from the opposite perspective, the question is, when would someone leave for a lower compensation job? I suspect that would be an extremely low number. Higher on HN because of the demographic, but still low.
> $150/hour as a dev
That's about $25k/mo gross. Minus ~50% for taxes and vacation (hourly pay means you buy your vacation). So call it $13k net.
> housing costs $1m+
If you live in a top 10 major metro in the US, this is your city. So call housing ~$4k if you have a family. Now you're at $9k. Buy health insurance for $1500, tally at $7500. Did you mean to save 15% of your gross income, as is the guidance? Minus another $3,750. Tally at $3,750. You haven't bought food or paid for transportation, vacations, clothing, etc. yet. You're not an intense saver, so you need to be confident you can earn at this level for decades to come. You probably are in the process of eating the inflation of '21 & '22 as your contract is not going to re-price automatically, so your earning power is being eroded.
This is why people are pushing to earn more. If you are fortunate enough to have a spouse who is also a high earner, great.
$150 an hour is a charge out rate for a professional engineer not in programming or IT, and trades are closer to $100. $150/hr on salary you probably are in business consulting with a phd and charge out at $400/hr.
$9k usd/mo after paying taxes and for housing is not something that’s readily available here, I don’t think even in IT.
Even a 10% pay raise was meh with that in mind.
How many engineering companies are prepared to give 15-20% pay raises to keep up with these kinds of conditions? How many are handing out 7% adjustments proudly?
Motivators actively cause job satisfaction. Things like finding personal fulfillment, meaningful work, and other top-of-Maslow's-hierarchy stuff.
Hygiene factors cause dissatisfaction in their absence, but aren't standalone motivators. Salary probably fits in this bucket - if you learn that you're underpaid, you're likely to feel demotivated and look for work elsewhere. If you learn that you're overpaid, that can cause dissatisfaction too (feeling like you have to serve out the rest of a prison sentence until your shares/options vest is pretty common in our industry).
Compensation isn't everything, but if it seems unfair, it's absolutely enough to motivate people to make changes. I think we're seeing a reevaluation of labor market expectations with the whole Great Resignation thing, where those who are in demand are realizing just how demanded their skills are (and getting pissed off that they're undercompensated in their $current_job), and the old generation you speak of is trotting forward with their fingers in their ears, blinded by normalcy bias to the fundamental shift happening in front of them - a big labor market awakening.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-factor_theory
Some people will leave a low stress/low-moderate wage job for a high stress, high wage job, but end up with a drug habit/in a mental ward/jail and then wonder for years what the cause of the trouble was. I've seen it happen a number of times.
I can think of the following, and there are probably others:
1. To know your market value so that you know what to ask for during your compensation review at your current company.
2. To practice interviewing skills when you don't need them, so that it's easier when you do
3. To network and learn about companies that might be relevant for you in the future (as in, you wouldn't accept an offer now, but if it looks nice you might apply again later, and if it doesn't you might consider it only as a last resort).
2. especially makes sense for coding interviews, and I've been advising the following to a few friends: ideally, one year before you actually want to apply, apply everywhere you can with such interviews. Your results won't matter anyway, you'll be able to apply again one year after, but you'll get a lot of real-world practice and an idea of what you might want to work on.
It is not because of loyalty it is because we are risk averse, a new job is a lot of risk. Many things can go wrong you may not like that new job, or even purely financially it can be risky as a new company may not pay as promised, shutdown, you get fired pretty quick and may not find a job at same compensation , or variable/ equity compensation wasn't as good as promised/imagined. All of these scenarios have substantial financial risk.
To take that risk(even if only financial) there has to strong motivation.
A large amount of assets yielding healthy levels of passive income will.
You don't have to look around to know that you're underpaid, just talk to people from industry and they'll tell ya
I was not actively looking and the thought of leaving hadn't crossed my mind.
Otherwise I have quite high job satisfaction.
I've never changed jobs over money. In fact several times I've taken new jobs that pay less on the promise of it being more fun.
Which is not to say I'll work for unreasonably low pay, I talk comp ranges with recruiters first to know if it is worth continuing the discussion.
But beyond a reasonable point, more pay doesn't make any difference (well, unless it's like 20x more, but nobody is offering that). A pleasant working environment, interesting projects, ownership, sane management, being respected, work/life balance and vacations; all of these are to me a lot more important than +/- 100K of pay.
Even in tech there are a plenty of people paid less than 80 or 90k. On top of that these hefty student loans and high rent , steep mortgages that today's emerging work force is burdened with, it is not easy to ignore even small financial incentives when they are always trying to make ends meet and have to make basic quality of life sacrifices.
---
Basic needs is somewhat commonly used term [1], while what is basic in one location or country is not same everywhere and there are degrees of subjectivity to it. It is quite politicized and US Census threshold of $25,000 /year for family of four is ludicrously low as defined today. [2]
While there can be arguments on what the number should be and even what constitutes basic needs, the idea of basic needs itself shouldn't be controversial
IMHO that in locations where traditionally you get a tech job it is higher than even 80-90k factoring in mortgages and student loans, things that are not included in U.S. Census Bureau methodology.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_needs
[2] The reasons for such low bar is political, the methods used reflect that, one example is using a single number nationally is an insidious choice. Cost of Living in NY or the Bay Area,CA does not compare to say rural Montana . A sizable portion of the population lives in high density high cost of living parts of the country (jobs are there) and the number does not reflect that or is weighted by where the population actually live. There are plenty of other criticisms, on what is being included with what weight etc.
I'm willing to bet that if ~90% of posters on HN would take a ~200k pay cut they'd have to pay their employer money.
You're most likely living in an entirely different world to regular folks.
When HN has comp discussions, everyone points out that approximately everyone with any experience is making way more than 500K with levels.fyi offered as the evidence. I've sometimes expressed some doubt about those numbers but I'm always labeled as uninformed. Ok so I guess everyone truly is making more than 500K.
Startups don't pay very well, so if > 500K is the norm for FAANG-level, then certainly 100K or 200K or 300K++ pay cut is the norm as well for going into a startup?
Even FAANGs don't pay that well except for maybe 10-20 select locations.
My point is that most devs worldwide, even with experience, make less than $200k in total. More like less than $100k.
After all, why not? It's not like you have to take a day or two off to potentially fly out for the on-site these days. It's been years since I played the interview game, so I need to keep my skills sharp. And if I get a better offer at a company I'd like to work for, why not take it? If the offer's not better, I can politely decline.
But, the honest answer to your boss's question: what bothers me is trading my time for money. My comp doubled. I can now afford to stop working in 3-5 years instead of 10+ years. I think this attitude has become much more common in the last 5-10 years.
So why would I bother jumping to a new job for a 10% increase?
I think the Great Resignation is really for industries that have had stereotypically low compensation, coupled with shitty environments. And I'm glad that people in those industries have a lot more leverage to make things better for themselves.
I assume you're not interested in working remotely?
I think that's true for almost anyone--unless they're coming right up on retirement.
But there's a difference between semi-actively looking and occasionally responding to someone reaching out about something that actually looks interesting. Phone calls are rarely a bad idea unless they're complete wastes of time.
Ironically, it was one of the best jobs I ever had, but you can't actually pay for your newborn's healthcare with job satisfaction.
The immediate thing that caused me to start looking for a new job, most recently, was that I had a performance review / bonus conversation that went poorly (for me). It's a little hard to distinguish whether the thing that made me unhappy was getting the feedback of "We don't value the things you want to do with your career" or getting the feedback of "and, therefore, we will dock your pay." (In fairness to them, it's not clear the things I wanted to do with my career were in fact valuable to them.)
However, once I started looking, I discovered I was being seriously underpaid, and I really should have already been looking for new jobs. There's just a bootstrapping problem here - you don't know your market value until you start getting offers, and you have to start looking in order to start getting offers.
With new norms about talking about pay (this very website is a good spot, for software engineers) and sites like levels.fyi, I suspect I would have come to this conclusion a little earlier, on the basis of money. It's hard to estimate your market value but you now have a better idea of what the ballpark is.
(I suppose the other option is to continually be "looking," whether or not you have an active desire to leave. I know some people do that. But I personally find that exhausting.)
There's definitely a ratio of job satisfaction / money where more money won't cancel out a toxic work environment (there's no reasonable amount of money that would persuade me to work for certain companies or return to certain jobs) -- but generally, I'm in it for the money. That's why it's a job and not a hobby. I got a mortgage, a family, and retirement to think about. I generally write off my work hours as an investment in those things.
If I start a salary conversation with my manager about more money and they rejoin with "what's bothering you?" that's not gonna go well. Now I want more money and you're being dismissive about it.
When you've got 10 or 15 years exp as a dev in the big tech cities, in my experience you expect to be paid market rates as an automatic thing but also you accumulate money over your career so it gets to be less important; I at least far more want more interesting work and no shitty work relationships wrt boss or time expectations. Being paid market rate is just the start, and that's easier to clarify. It's much much harder to know about the work situations you will be going into. I'm currently thinking of quitting my job after my 1 year stock comes in. My company is way over-working me and although I'm well paid in a sense at market rates, the job is not what I thought I was getting when I came there. I really struggled with how to answer my peers when they ask me about working there. I gave a mostly neutral recommendation.
Now I'm looking at starting my own thing and moving back. Why? Because money. (real estate) Yes, family would be close again. But when comparable homes are $600k vs. $275k...c'mon, I'm ready for these tech hubs to not be as necessary.
If I can leave my job right now and make 30% more than my current salary for doing the same work as my current company is only giving out 3%-4% a year max pay increases than I am a fool for staying.
And yeah every time you get sad or suffering at your job you get the reflex to want to be compensated for the pain. Or you can even think of sabotaging the place a bit.
I actually left a fake job paid very well because of the toxicity.
I think get what you can get while you can get it and sock away as much as you can.
"People don't quit a company, they quit their manager."
...
I really liked my managers at Qualcomm (Rick Hammerstone and Edu Metz), but NVidia came along and I had always wanted to see how they managed to be so dominant in the industry.
There were other reasons for me to quit, but my managers definitely weren't one.
Sure, after a point, it's not about the money.
But when my pay is good, I am much more likely to push through the bullshit and get back to the good stuff. When the pay is bad, I start thinking about touching up the resume and sending it around.
The corollary is that if I know I’m severely underpaid, I’ll probably be out the door within a year even if I am mostly content with the job. I’m 7 years into my career and this corollary has proven correct for 3 job changes now.
Now, I kinda liked my job and team - but TBH it wasn't the most amazing role ever - let's say it was 7.5/10. If all things were equal or the difference was insignificant I would have stayed probably. I wonder how much I would need to love my job to have stayed regardless of having such a higher offer.
If you want to keep them, just give them the raise.
It's just that the offer received was above anything allowed from the top level.
So money is very very important.
If people are quitting successive jobs for incremental pay raises, it probably means they hate things other than their salary, but don't believe those things are going to improve.
Job hopping is the new default for engineers, most people after a few years in the industry realise their value goes up every once and then and that they can leverage that to get a salary bump.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secretary_problem
I run my personal finances like a business. Whenever companies say "we're a family" or "we don't want someone only focused on money" I hear "we only hire morons". I an cognizant of cashflow, taxes, I'm very heavily invested and I take all of it very, very seriously in terms of structure, diversification, opportunity, tax efficiency, profits. Like any business should! Income is my biggest revenue stream and therefore the most important factor for my success a/k/a the success of my business (which is me). If I leave I'm leaving for money.
My relationship with my employer is a business one. I don't understand why managers / HR think it's some kind of therapy one. Your manager wants to talk about feelings? I don't write contracts for fun and friendship, they are for business and employment is a business relationship. I have an actual life that I am living and this business relationship is about money it is absolutely not my whole life and I'm more than happy to take my skills elsewhere for more.
I cannot fathom someone getting so wrapped up in their job as their identity that they literally pay money to the company to do it (by staying in a lower-paying position) but I guess it can happen, e.g. people go work for Apple which notoriously underpays as well as being kind of a poor work environment, but people still flock to them due to brand reputation. I don't have feelings about the companies I work for. I have strong feelings about the code I write, I strive for highest possible quality given the constraints. But who I am is the person who writes that kind of code, not who I write it for.
Well, I also really wanted to write Elixir professionally, and now I am! :) So it's not 100% true that it was all about the money.
I just left a job that I loved for a big raise. I have a policy of seriously considering applying for similar jobs that offer salaries well above mine. Turns out, I love this job too, but I get more money.
It's nice to think an employees's world revolves around office culture. Until Bright Horizons hand you that $4500 childcare bill (food not included, of course)
I could move to a lower COL city. But said job decided not to approve anyone moving to a remote location, we have to be ready for that return to office riiight around the corner
Do engineers leave for 10% raises? Probably rarely. But for 50%-100% raises? That seems like a damn good reason to leave.
I love my current job, but there will come a time when they are no longer willing to increase my pay above inflation (I suspect this year will be a test), and when that happens, I'll leave.
Money is the only reason I'm here. Shockingly, I can keep myself occupied and amused without scrum, a non-technical manager, or Jira tickets.
lack of money
Maybe your old boss never worked for minimum wage.
Maybe people do start looking because they're unhappy, but it seems like a cop-out to say "nobody left because of money", if the reason for the unhappiness is that they're not making enough money.
Correct phrasing: "Nobody leaves because of their paycheck."
Money disparity among coworkers absolutely can lead to dissatisfaction with the employer. Bad culture of annual raises can lead to dissatisfaction. Money disparity with competitors can lead to dissatisfaction with the employer.
So, yes, people aren't leaving because they're getting a paycheck, but that's too pedantic, even for me, because it obfuscates the issue so much people misunderstand it and then misquote it.
Maybe $80k -> $100k isn't a primary motivator, but $80k -> $300k is more of a "retire earlier" type of motivator.
I agree in principle, though. Looking and applying for jobs is stressful. Attending interviews even more so plus it will cost you holiday. People aren't just doing this speculatively just in case they can get a better offer elsewhere. People only go through this if they are thoroughly unhappy in their current position, for whatever reason.
edit: I don't know why I'm getting downvoted, but I can guarantee you I'm not the only one.
At some point, you may get to the level where you're happy with your comp and happy with your responsibilities, in which case it might actually be best to stay around as long as you can. Not my cup of tea, but it's definitely something to think about.
In other words, good on you for looking around after a few years!
Luckily this is becoming less likely now that more companies are allowing remote work. I live in a relatively small city and have interviewed at every local company that interests me. My previous employer was by far the highest paying of all of them. I was able to find a remote job that broke my golden handcuffs by almost 2x.
Starting all over again kinda sucks. The older I get the less I look forward to doing the hustle to gain cred in new orgs.
All that to say: you aren't wrong. If you're in that position and you don't want to leave, that's really the company's problem and not yours. Do your own thing! I support it 100%! (Not that you need my support, but you have it anyway!)
2. Company culture
Now happily self-employed :)
I'm personally making the switch to work three days a week and focus on my own project the remaining two.
My contract house offered 10 pto, 5 sick, 7 paid holidays, base salary.
I moved to the UK for a pretty awesome job. These last few years have led me to re-evaluate my priorities, and I'm moving back home to be closer to family and old friends.
Many of my international colleagues (especially European) have made similar decisions.
In IT if you are a good dev and keep youself up to date, it will be not hard to find a nee job.
But finding a new family will be a lot harder..
Demand is high, so workers can have higher expectations. Everyone is moving up or moving out.
Some of the attrition was deferred because they would have left in 2020, but decided to wait.