All of the more senior engineers I know who have kids are taking a break right now. The pandemic means that both work and family need more time than normal. I think it’s about 25% more time needed on the job for same results and about 50% more time needed with kids. There isn’t enough time in one day to do both so a lot of people are off the market for a bit longer. I’m one of those!

For the more senior people without kids, what I’m hearing is that shifting to remote means spending more time with the “less-fun” people on the team because it’s harder for them to hide. So everyone’s closer to burnout and I bet more than normal are taking breaks to recharge.