Consider that FAANG employees are already the top less than 1% of the industry. Even in a down-market they can wander down the street and end up with a job with comparable pay and probably better conditions in a week - and a signing bonus to boot.
If a FAANG reduced their compensation broadly, all the employees would be at an opportunity cost disadvantage vs just finding a new gig. The company would be at a disadvantage relative to its peers in its ability to retain/replace the talent they need to get through this period. Worst of all for the individual, it resets the market rate for top engineering talent.
So the choices are:
(1) You take 5-10% of engineers, give them a few months beach time while they brush up on the leetcode so they can land the same job for the same pay at a company a few blocks away plus a signing bonus
(2) Everyone at your company takes a 5-10% pay cut and the best talent leaves anyways but now everyone gets paid less too.
Option (1) feels like the game theoretic optimal.
Define reality. This has been my experience for the last 10 years, and frankly, it's been the experience of a number of folks I've seen laid off and fired from similarly situated companies in the last few months.
Could that change? For sure. I'm talking about the situation on the ground - today - from personal experience within the last few months. Why are we attempting to optimize today for a reality that does not exist right now? Let's cross that bridge and adapt when we see what it actually looks like.
> And yes even those that feel secure in their jobs currently...
Speak to some FAANG employees. I'm not sure any of them have ever felt secure in their jobs because these companies operate with very little fat and aggressively prune every 6-12 months.
> ...will eventually see a paycut in some ways.
In a hypothetical future, yes it could happen of course. Has it happened yet? No. It hasn't. Should we find ways to cut our own pay now in advance of a reality that may not materialize? Not in my opinion, no.
I thought part of the point of this place was to share what's happening in our industry right now in addition to doomer projections.
An average Netflix employee is responsible for $2.6M in revenue. $2.375M at Apple. $1.6M at FB and Google. $920K at Microsoft. [1] Now adjust that down to just the engineers. At NFLX, that's $6.5M in revenue per engineer. These companies would be nuts to hire anyone other than the best and to pay for it. They will see attrition and they'll need replacements - and they'll pay for them. If that changes, let's revisit.
[1] https://www.statista.com/statistics/217489/revenue-per-emplo...
Did you consider that this cohort might be self-selecting, leading to your "informed opinion" being somewhat biased against the average?