As the Pandemic Recedes, Millions of Workers Are Saying 'I Quit'

Re:As the Pandemic Recedes, Millions of Workers Are Saying '... by haswell on Friday June 25, 2021 @09:55AM (#27630806)

Two thoughts:

1. Even though the economy may be booming, that doesn't have to mean job changes aren't also driven by re-evaluation of priorities. The two may be complementary.

2. I think we've only seen the tip of the iceberg. I work with multiple people all in the process of looking for new roles. People that I would not have expected to leave - "heart of the team" kinds of people. This is after 4-5 devs (in a department of ~60) already made the choice to leave for other opportunities in the past few months.

Some relevant details: large SV-based SaaS with excellent financials, regarded as a good place to work, etc.

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Re:As the Pandemic Recedes, Millions of Workers Are Saying '... by changingtalk on Friday June 25, 2021 @10:11AM (#27630981)

> I work with multiple people all in the process of looking for new roles.

I also am noticing this around me.

Years ago I did the startup thing for 5 years, grinding really hard for someone else (mainly investors) to make a ton of money. Burned myself out, quit with no plans, and ended up consulting as a freelance dev from then on. Realized I'm much happier with this arrangement, with the ability to take months off and travel if I want. I could make more money at a large corporation, or if I didn't take so much time off, but honestly I'm much happier.

That's all to say, today I have two separate coffee dates with engineers at my client's company, both wanting to ask me about how they can do the same thing as me. One is a senior engineer that leads a department. The other is a very talented engineer. These are not the only people that have approached me wanting to setup time to talk about the same thing. This is at an SF based company that seems to really respect their engineer's time, provides high salaries, interesting work, etc.

I get the sense that at least for this niche of highly skilled, highly paid, in demand roles people are wanting to trade for more free time in their lives. I totally don't blame them, as it's what I found myself moving to 7 or so years ago.

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Re:As the Pandemic Recedes, Millions of Workers Are Saying '... by 6510 on Saturday June 26, 2021 @04:35PM (#27645591)

I really enjoy a few spoons worth of programming per day. If it was a bucket I'd be fine with it. The labor market is like a swimming pool worth of beer that you have to drink before it goes stale.

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Re:As the Pandemic Recedes, Millions of Workers Are Saying '... by subsubzero on Friday June 25, 2021 @01:25PM (#27633781)

I think well paid workers may even leave in higher numbers, I am thinking of quiting myself after having a horrific year working almost nonstop with my Wife also working as well. Couple that with a child being forced inside and its been a complete nightmare. 2021 has been even more stressful as the company is piling new projects and initiatives ever higher. I may quit by summers end and I expect an avalanche of resignations as well as burnout reaches epic proportions.

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Re:As the Pandemic Recedes, Millions of Workers Are Saying '... by cableshaft on Friday June 25, 2021 @02:55PM (#27634861)

Yep, suddenly all the projects are back but not the hiring to go with them, and I was already stressed and doing multiple former employees' jobs and underpaid in a hot developer market, so...why should I stick around any longer?

Currently interviewing with several recruiters. One will definitely give me a higher salary than I can expect from my company, if they ever decided to give raises again (this year's annual review came and went and other than having me fill out a self-eval four months ago and hearing nothing since).

I even kept quiet in meetings for upcoming projects recently where I was told by other people in the company "You better not leave, we need you for this!" Not my problem they don't have "Hit by a Bus" redundancy in place.

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