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A minor flaw in the metaphor: Middle Earth doesn't have to compete with whatever the elves create in Valinor. Talented employees leaving is both a loss for the
by jcl 17y ago
A minor flaw in the metaphor: Middle Earth doesn't have to compete with whatever the elves create in Valinor. Talented employees leaving is both a loss for the company and a gain for competitors.
- pyre 17y agoThat assumes that they move to competitors.
- gridspy 17y agoThere is a good chance that other employees will follow them to their new, more attractive company. They might not compete for clients but instead for other employees. There is also a potential that they have a great idea related to your company that they pursue once they leave.
- potatolicious 17y agoIf I knew my chief competitor just made a bunch of major bungles, and that their morale is at an all-time low... I'd get my recruiters in there fast.
- pyre 17y agoHow would you know about the morale within the company? HR dept. spies?
- btilly 17y agoEvery company has you sign agreements about not recruiting from your old co-workers. But nothing in those agreements says that you can't pass along resumes that people push on you. When morale is bad, people who are left tend to offer you resumes when you quit. In that situation I've been glad to forward resumes of people who are good, and have avoided forwarding resumes of people who aren't. (After all you get judged by the quality of people that you recommend.) To the extent that I'm someone people want to work with again, this results in cherry picking the best people. The effect is even more direct when employees go through recruiters. Recruiters ask about the work environment where you are, and have no problem trying to track people down if they get the sense that good people may be available.
- potatolicious 17y agoI'd presume you'd have some grapevine contacts with your chief competitor, but I'm not in HR, nor have I ever been involved in sniping competitors' employees...
- InclinedPlane 17y agoWell, one assumes that an HR person that reads HN might be enough...
- InclinedPlane 17y agoWhere would you imagine they would go? They'll either burnout of the industry entirely, or go to work in a similar role elsewhere or become self-employed via freelancing or their own startups.