haha. Because loyal == high performing. That is how it works. There is absolutely no way that high performing employees that can get a job by crossing the street will ever think about jumping ship because of the shitty manner they are treated.

These companies have no accurate way of measuring performance anyway.

It’s not about being mathematically perfect about performance. In any given team, area, organization one can easily point out who are the good ones.

I don't know of you are making a judgement there but I think it's important to point out that there is practically no useful way of measuring performance in our industry; it's not a company problem.

Some of the most useful employees I've met probably produced less than the most junior developer in tangible assets.

They may not be after high performing right now, they may just want the ones who won't or can't cross the street.

Not to mention, most of these companies keep on saying there will be exceptions for exceptional employees in a clear attempt to still keep the high performing employees they like.

3. Separate the wheat from the chaff. The chaff come to the office.

Problem is loyal != performant. The most valuable engineers want it all, so they will probably leave because they can.