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By “quitting” they mostly mean getting new jobs or career changes. Not necessarily refusing to work in an office. The headline is misleading. It’s also still a

By “quitting” they mostly mean getting new jobs or career changes. Not necessarily refusing to work in an office. The headline is misleading. It’s also still a relatively small number in absolute terms: > In April, the share of U.S. workers leaving jobs was 2.7%, according to the Labor Department, a jump from 1.6% a year earlier to the highest level since at least 2000. The higher turnover is expected in a booming economy like the one we’re in. These articles with hyperbolic headlines and underwhelming actual data are very common right now. It feels like the journalists want us to believe some sort of revolution is happening, be it WFH or remote work or people quitting in droves. I’m beginning to think the reality is mostly a boring return to pre-pandemic normalcy, though, given how hard these articles are teaching for something noteworthy to share.

repsilat 5y ago
>> It’s also still a relatively small number in absolute terms: > In April, the share of U.S. workers leaving jobs was 2.7%, according to the Labor Department, a jump from 1.6% a year earlier to the highest level since at least 2000. If those are monthly figures they are roughly going from "quit once every five years" to once every three. It's a pretty big change, I think. Positive, IMO -- mobility is healthy for the economy.
- karaterobot 5y ago
  But the caveat should be that we can't extrapolate from a unique event like emerging from an 18-month quarantine, which is the context of this entire phenomenon. I think that at least part of the original commenter's point is that the article shouldn't try to frame what may well be a temporary correction as a revolutionary shift, which I agree is what it's trying to do.
  - beezle 5y ago
    Exactly. It should be expected that (for many people) after 18 months there would be an excess of people who would have wanted to leave, if they could. Now that they can, there is a log jam at the exit door.
bradlys 5y ago
Seems most commenters on HN for this thread didn’t read the article. We’re at a daily occurrence now of these “I can never go back to the office” threads. I thought HN was supposed to be an area of intellectual stimulation - not droning on about the same thing for months with no end.
- bryan_w 5y ago
  I use to think the same thing, but it seems that HN is both the place where there are cool technical articles and where journalists can pump their tech-clickbait. I wish there was an easy solution.
- renewiltord 5y ago
  > I thought HN was supposed to be an area of intellectual stimulation - not droning on about the same thing for months with no end. My friend received a flagban seven years ago or so on his “Show HN: Hide this repetitive subject on HN” tool.
durovo 5y ago
What people miss in these discussions about going full remote is that the market for software developers is very good right now but this won't last forever. Many companies are surely going to embrace full-remote once they have built up the right processes and infra. When that happens, it is not going to matter whether you live in California or Mexico or Brazil. It is much easier to replace an employee who is working remotely, the burden of looking for employees in the locality of your office is gone. Wages will stop growing. While WFH is very convenient, the strong market is giving developers a false impression that they won't become replaceable cogs in the future.
- hn_throwaway_99 5y ago
  I think you are very much correct - for all the people lambasting working in an office, I hope they realize it will mean they will be competing against a much larger swath of humanity. Also, I'm glad you highlighted "Mexico or Brazil". Unlike decades past where lots of outsourcing was done to India, I think many people now realize the inherent inefficiencies when teams are 12 time zones apart. The Americas don't have that problem for US-based businesses. In fact, I often see lots of complaining on HN that Canadian dev salaries tend to be much lower than in the US - seems like a no-brainer to work remotely for a US company if you are in Canada if it results in a big salary increase.
  - perl4ever 5y ago
    >I think many people now realize the inherent inefficiencies when teams are 12 time zones apart Having people 12 hours offset from the US is useful if you would otherwise have to recruit US employees to work a night shift.
  - gmadsen 5y ago
    I think realistically this is very far a way. South America does not have schools that compete with MIT and Stanford.
    - throwawayboise 5y ago
wolverine876 5y ago
> These articles with hyperbolic headlines WFH also appeals to American conservatives who want to target cities, which are democratic strongholds, and reduce their power and reputation. The WSJ is the leading news source of U.S. conservative elite.
fatnoah 5y ago
>By “quitting” they mostly mean getting new jobs or career changes I actually had someone on my team quit until WFH was over. They couldn't take WFH any more and plan to return to the job market once they're able to go to the office.

repsilat 5y ago

>> It’s also still a relatively small number in absolute terms: > In April, the share of U.S. workers leaving jobs was 2.7%, according to the Labor Department, a jump from 1.6% a year earlier to the highest level since at least 2000. If those are monthly figures they are roughly going from "quit once every five years" to once every three. It's a pretty big change, I think. Positive, IMO -- mobility is healthy for the economy.

karaterobot 5y ago
But the caveat should be that we can't extrapolate from a unique event like emerging from an 18-month quarantine, which is the context of this entire phenomenon. I think that at least part of the original commenter's point is that the article shouldn't try to frame what may well be a temporary correction as a revolutionary shift, which I agree is what it's trying to do.
- beezle 5y ago
  Exactly. It should be expected that (for many people) after 18 months there would be an excess of people who would have wanted to leave, if they could. Now that they can, there is a log jam at the exit door.

bradlys 5y ago

Seems most commenters on HN for this thread didn’t read the article. We’re at a daily occurrence now of these “I can never go back to the office” threads. I thought HN was supposed to be an area of intellectual stimulation - not droning on about the same thing for months with no end.

bryan_w 5y ago
I use to think the same thing, but it seems that HN is both the place where there are cool technical articles and where journalists can pump their tech-clickbait. I wish there was an easy solution.
renewiltord 5y ago
> I thought HN was supposed to be an area of intellectual stimulation - not droning on about the same thing for months with no end. My friend received a flagban seven years ago or so on his “Show HN: Hide this repetitive subject on HN” tool.

durovo 5y ago

What people miss in these discussions about going full remote is that the market for software developers is very good right now but this won't last forever. Many companies are surely going to embrace full-remote once they have built up the right processes and infra. When that happens, it is not going to matter whether you live in California or Mexico or Brazil. It is much easier to replace an employee who is working remotely, the burden of looking for employees in the locality of your office is gone. Wages will stop growing. While WFH is very convenient, the strong market is giving developers a false impression that they won't become replaceable cogs in the future.

hn_throwaway_99 5y ago
I think you are very much correct - for all the people lambasting working in an office, I hope they realize it will mean they will be competing against a much larger swath of humanity. Also, I'm glad you highlighted "Mexico or Brazil". Unlike decades past where lots of outsourcing was done to India, I think many people now realize the inherent inefficiencies when teams are 12 time zones apart. The Americas don't have that problem for US-based businesses. In fact, I often see lots of complaining on HN that Canadian dev salaries tend to be much lower than in the US - seems like a no-brainer to work remotely for a US company if you are in Canada if it results in a big salary increase.
- perl4ever 5y ago
  >I think many people now realize the inherent inefficiencies when teams are 12 time zones apart Having people 12 hours offset from the US is useful if you would otherwise have to recruit US employees to work a night shift.
- gmadsen 5y ago
  I think realistically this is very far a way. South America does not have schools that compete with MIT and Stanford.
  - throwawayboise 5y ago

wolverine876 5y ago

> These articles with hyperbolic headlines WFH also appeals to American conservatives who want to target cities, which are democratic strongholds, and reduce their power and reputation. The WSJ is the leading news source of U.S. conservative elite.

fatnoah 5y ago

>By “quitting” they mostly mean getting new jobs or career changes I actually had someone on my team quit until WFH was over. They couldn't take WFH any more and plan to return to the job market once they're able to go to the office.