I hear you. I am also an engineer-turned-EM. > Your job is NOT safe. Nothing would make me happier than to eradicate this line of thought, but laying the resp

I hear you. I am also an engineer-turned-EM. > Your job is NOT safe. Nothing would make me happier than to eradicate this line of thought, but laying the responsibility of that on the employee is poor management at best, malicious bullshit at worst. We EMs do nothing to re-assure our employees that they are valued co-workers and not "resources" to be managed. When one of my valued employees comes to me and says "I got another job offer and the increase in TC will change my life," most of the time they are a top-performer I want to keep, so I go to my manager asking to match their comp. But...they have to ask their manager, then their manager, so on and so forth. Even HR sometimes steps in with excuses why we cant. By the time a decision is made, if one is ever made, the employee I wanted to keep is already at their new employer. So I would recommend my employees look out for themselves, bc I (and my management hierarchy) certainly won't (though they can, they just don't want to). And if you are still looking to lay responsibility on to someone, look in the mirror.