Ask HN: How common is it for people to come back to a previous employer?

Depends on the company a lot. I had my first return employee last year and it was a huge morale boost. I know from a friend this is super common at Stripe. In general it’s a good sign of a supportive company.

I've never done it myself, but I know quite a few people who have left companies I've been at and then come back. In all cases the companies were happy to leave the door open from the beginning. For me it is a sign of a good company. When I was leaving said company myself, it wasn't because I was unhappy there but because I felt like I needed to try something new. So I can imagine others doing the same and then deciding that the grass isn't necessarily greener after all. I am very happy where I am right now and it was the right decision, but I can totally imagine happily ending up back there one day. In some ways it still feels like "home".

I don't see it in tech circles as much, but in other circles like consulting, banking, advertising, it's pretty common to see people constantly cycle back and forth between the same set of employers every couple of years. Think Goldman Sachs trader leaves for JP Morgan, then leaves for Morgan Stanley, then leaves for Goldman Sachs, and so on

I see it pretty frequently. In my department of about 100, you see someone return every year or two. Leaders sometimes joke at employee departures that they will be back in 3 years.

I think it shows respect for employee autonomy and talent, and that good relations are not temporary.

It doesn't always sit well with the employees who stay and see peers getting 2 raises and two starting bonuses, but then again, nobody is stopping them from trying the same.

I did it once myself and it was one of the best career choices I made. When I returned, it was a much better place for me personally, it was a great morale boost for the entire team. I was truly welcomed and returned into an environment that was still very familiar to me, which was a much nicer feeling than joining a new company and dealing with all the unknowns.

It is common around here. The local company is the biggest employee of the whole area and generally offers the biggest salaries. People often quit to try new and exciting things, but when it fails they come back, and if they didn't burn any bridges we often take them back, because why not.

I think this is much more common for large companies (still rare though). I saw it happen exactly once when I was working for a large company early in my career. Never saw it happen again anywhere else.

It's not uncommon at all. I think every place I've ever worked I can think of at least one person who came back after leaving for some other opportunity. I also have at least one friend who left a FAANG and later went back to the same one after some time at a place they weren't happy with.

some employers have a policy of not hiring back people who left (I believe Bloomberg used to have such a policy (if not officially, very well understood), but that might have changed when their CEO returned). Personally, I always thought that was a bit self defeating.

Yes, It is usually related to individuals tied to a particular city or industry. There are only a handful of companies you can work for. Our CEO even once joked about how the best way to get a raise is go work somewhere else and then come back. (Which of course is saddening it has to be that way.)

Happened to me 4 times at separate companies. One company I almost went back to a third time. Note that all of these were contract positions and usually just let go due to seasonal work shortage. All of them were tech companies except one.

Depends on the business. In electronic design automation it's common, because it's a small world, only three major companies, sometimes people go off and do a startup and it's bought up by one of the big three.

A former co-worker of mine boomeranged at-least twice to the same company and team.

As other commenters have pointed out, its not uncommon, but my co-worker is an exception rather than the rule.

My last gig was about two years at a $1bn / 400 employee SaaS company. In my tenure, multiple people re-joined after leaving, and several people who left while I was there have since returned after I left. When I stepped down, I was basically given a standing offer to return whenever I'd like.

In my gig before that, at a blue chip tech company, in 7 years I never saw anyone return, but most of the departures were due to layoff/RIF so that somewhat makes sense.

It happened often enough at Amazon that people who did it were called Boomerangs.

I did it myself. Just two months and half back I joined back a company I left in 2018. I left the company to work on more machine learning related projects and now I joined back as a senior DS. I really feel good about this move and I am happy I did it.

I think it depends. I think in many companies it's unusual, but I've also worked for a company where it was not unusual for someone to leave, work somewhere else for a year or more, and then come back. But I think it was the only company where I've seen that happen.

I think it depends on why people leave. People who are fired because of the way they function are unlikely to get rehired, but people who are fired because the company is in financial trouble, might get rehired when the company is in calmer waters. Similarly, someone who leaves because they don't like it, are underpaid, hate the work environment, their manager, etc, are unlikely to return. But someone who likes it, but wants to try something else, might want to return.

The main risk that I see is that a company that knows you might see you as the person they used to know, and ignore any growth you may have had in the mean time. Rejoining a former employer requires open minds on both sides.

At my longest company, maybe 2/3rds of my group had left and come back at some point, including me. One was even was on his third time. After an acquisition, I was laid off with half my team and 2/3rds of them were back there within a year.

I have done so one time. I actually would go back again but at this point it would have to be a remote job and the company culture is not remote.

I've seen it, and done it. It seems common enough in larger companies. Most of the time, it only can work if the departure was not for negative reasons - if the person left to pursue a new job, go to school, have or care for children, or those kinds of reasons... why not call your old job back up when you are ready to return to work?

I've also seen it when people work in a specific niche, but do not want to work under specific executives - when that exec leaves a company, their former staff are willing to return. In those cases, even though the departure was due to negativity, everyone tends to understand and respect that some people just don't work well together.

I've seen it a couple of times, usually with a long-time employee who leaves for a new job, quickly realizes they landed in a bad situation, then comes back within a few months.

It happens all the time. Large companies have specific processes for onboarding such employees, because you'd rather go in and reactivate all their old accounts vs creating all new ones again. Most will even add your past tenure to the years of service number (for benefits).

It happens sometimes for any number of reasons. At GE people wrote 'see you soon! :)' on a co-worker's retirement card because retirees typically would return as a contractor doing the exact same job.

Perhaps less common, Larry David rage quit his writing job at SNL on Saturday and returned to the office Monday like nothing happened [0].

[0] https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/10/larry-david-re-enact...

It happens. I also had a few people come back. An entire team quit (4 people) to go work for a competitor. Two came back when the competitor screw them over, offering higher wages just for 3 months, and then linking the wages to an impossible schedule. One manager quit because of stress and came back a few years later for a similar job with a few less responsibilities.

It depends on the size of the company. At a large company, it seemed like people never really left the ecosystem. People find that "understanding how Microsoft works" is a highly paid skill that doesn't transfer well.

At one smaller company we had a lot of "boomerangs" - there was a new CEO and a new culture, and a niche talent pool in the industry. At first it was a sign that things had turned around. But after a while you get the sense that people who did this were kind of stuck in their career and horse trading their position around.