The Great Resignation is becoming a “great midlife crisis”
vox.comWe are seeing a complete disintegration of the institutional structures that have kept everything together.
For many in my circle it is different things:
“life’s too short for this..”
“I’m quietly suffering in social isolation from the pandemic”
“I want more money”
“I feel hopeless I will ever get anywhere so why bother”
Conversely there are a cohort who have just dug their heels in and have almost gotten a promo/raise or both almost by default from the sheer volume of churn alone.
We're also in a weird economic state that despite all factors moving towards a recession, we are not and so there is high demand for engineers still and pay is as high as ever. So the industry is still incredibly transactional and rewards job hopping while disincentivizing loyalty.
Loyalty has go both ways. Let’s not forget that the tech industry not so recently conspired to hold down compensation by engaging in secret but pervasive “no poaching agreements.” Let’s not also forget that the tech industry has harnessed vast, unprecedented levels of profits on the strength of the work of engineers, the industry cannot exist without our work, and when profit growth dips below “Wall Street expectations,” management doesn’t hesitate to throw thousands to tens of thousands of loyal tech workers to the wolves. The industry also frowns on frontline engineers (ie non-executives) getting old. Actually, even executives aren’t safe in tech.
If the fed has anything to do with it we will be in one by year end
Interesting how many upvotes this got yet this didn’t make the front page. Wonder if this topic is shadow banned or something from HN.