Well certainly it's in the back of a lot of people's minds. Performance reviews, stack ranking, layoffs to maximize corporate profit, and such. Tenure would be a huge incentive for people to work and stay employed there. I suppose it's too radical for any company to actually make it a policy.

In my neck of the woods, there are so many software jobs, that only those worried about ageism (a real problem), or those with increasingly irrelevant skills may be worried about work.

It's still a problem if your social world, project goals, skill-set goals, personal finances, or daily routines go into turmoil because some executive or middle manager decided to let you go for whatever reason. Even if it never happens, the possibility of it is stressful to some people.

I know that the possibility of job loss is stressful to me. Only a year or so ago I was only making a third what I do now, and I'm not even making 6 figures now. I can hardly bear the thought of having to go back to making so little, or even worse making nothing and not finding a job.

Mix in not having a degree and my spouse being saddled with a pile of student loans just out of school and you can probably see why.