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This is bad advice that gets repeated a lot. Employers will work to retain good people and they know that good people understand how a labor market works. Mana

This is bad advice that gets repeated a lot. Employers will work to retain good people and they know that good people understand how a labor market works. Managers aren’t going through the hassle of making a case to raise/promote you only to dump you later. That would make them look pretty bad to their managers.

rootusrootus 8y ago
Managers talk to each other. Your manager talks to his boss and says "really can't afford to lose this guy right now, so we need to give him enough to keep him." So he's making a case alright, but everyone in the chain knows why Problem is, now they know you're thinking of leaving. Since most of the time people do not leave over a few dollars, they assume, most likely correctly, that something else is pushing you to leave and the money is just delaying the inevitable. When you do that to your manager, it demonstrates to him that he has a business risk which needs mitigating. So he keeps you for now while he tries to get someone else in a position to take over for you should you go through with your original plan to leave. I've spent decades in the corporate world and I can't recall a single time that a forced raise like this ended up with either side happy, and nearly 100% of the time one year later the employee is gone for one reason or another.
- jaequery 8y ago
  I don't know how you come to that conclusion. How would the manager or anyone else know that he is leaving? He is just simply asking for a "raise". He is not going around telling everyone, hey "i am leaving, give me a raise or i am gone". Now that would be plain silly, lol. As I said, you look around to leverage yourself so that you know how much you are worth in the market. Lot of devs out there, working at companies for over 5+ years tend to underestimate how much they are worth, and they become a bargain for the company. They are simply too shy to ask for just how much they are worth and companies usually don't give raises to employees (besides the annual small pct increase) unless asked upon.
  - rootusrootus 8y ago
    > He is not going around telling everyone, hey "i am leaving, give me a raise or i am gone". Now that would be plain silly, lol. I think you are misreading what we are talking about on this tangent. Forcing a raise by threatening to leave for a more lucrative job is exactly what we are talking about, and I suggested that it is not a great strategy.
- lawnchair_larry 8y ago
  I can think of many where it turned out great for both. It’s 2018. Everyone is always thinking of leaving. This kind of thinking just doesn’t apply anymore.

rootusrootus 8y ago

Managers talk to each other. Your manager talks to his boss and says "really can't afford to lose this guy right now, so we need to give him enough to keep him." So he's making a case alright, but everyone in the chain knows why Problem is, now they know you're thinking of leaving. Since most of the time people do not leave over a few dollars, they assume, most likely correctly, that something else is pushing you to leave and the money is just delaying the inevitable. When you do that to your manager, it demonstrates to him that he has a business risk which needs mitigating. So he keeps you for now while he tries to get someone else in a position to take over for you should you go through with your original plan to leave. I've spent decades in the corporate world and I can't recall a single time that a forced raise like this ended up with either side happy, and nearly 100% of the time one year later the employee is gone for one reason or another.

jaequery 8y ago
I don't know how you come to that conclusion. How would the manager or anyone else know that he is leaving? He is just simply asking for a "raise". He is not going around telling everyone, hey "i am leaving, give me a raise or i am gone". Now that would be plain silly, lol. As I said, you look around to leverage yourself so that you know how much you are worth in the market. Lot of devs out there, working at companies for over 5+ years tend to underestimate how much they are worth, and they become a bargain for the company. They are simply too shy to ask for just how much they are worth and companies usually don't give raises to employees (besides the annual small pct increase) unless asked upon.
- rootusrootus 8y ago
  > He is not going around telling everyone, hey "i am leaving, give me a raise or i am gone". Now that would be plain silly, lol. I think you are misreading what we are talking about on this tangent. Forcing a raise by threatening to leave for a more lucrative job is exactly what we are talking about, and I suggested that it is not a great strategy.
lawnchair_larry 8y ago
I can think of many where it turned out great for both. It’s 2018. Everyone is always thinking of leaving. This kind of thinking just doesn’t apply anymore.