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I have a feeling you havent worked long because in the last 20 years of my experience I cant remember of one example where "but many employees don't hesitate to

I have a feeling you havent worked long because in the last 20 years of my experience I cant remember of one example where "but many employees don't hesitate to quit when the company needs them the most." was correct. It was always employees being let go suddenly and on a whim.

jwr 2y ago
I have worked long. And I can think of many, many examples of people quitting suddenly and leaving everything hanging, in companies of various sizes. These days I run a solo business. I do not want to have any employees. I've been burned too many times in the past — and my experience (generalizing horribly) is that most programmers think they are the cream of the crop, superstars that deserve salary, benefits, perks, bonuses, vacations, and fantastic treatment. But then it turns out that a) they don't perform as superstars, and b) the company deserves absolutely nothing in return, so people leave suddenly and without warning. In the businesses I've seen, the relationship was very asymmetric, heavily biased towards the comfort of employees.
- pdimitar 2y ago
  Entitled people exist in all areas, that's a fact. But you are being too weird in your generalization that usually the table is tilted in favor of the employees. For 22 years of career I've never once seen it. If you make yourself a niche consultant and can command insane fees then nice, but for everybody else they are just cogs that can and are replaced on a whim.
lordnacho 2y ago
Yeah in my decades I've only once heard of an employer going the extra mile to keep a guy at a company. Boss drove to his house in a Bentley and gave him the keys. Of course the dude was making far more than a Bentley for the company, in a role where your value is pretty much visible on the screen at any time.
- throwaway290 2y ago
  Stories where someone just quietly asks for a raise and gets it aren't flashy but happen often, I know of multiple
Aeolun 2y ago
> It was always employees being let go suddenly and on a whim. I don’t have that experience. Nobody in my circle has ever been let go. Meanwhile many of them have gone through 4 or 5 employers in the past 15 years.
- Supermancho 2y ago
  > I don’t have that experience. Nobody in my circle has ever been let go. In the last 27 years, I've worked for more than 20 companies. Maybe 5 as a contractor that didn't go FT. Many startups, some name brands. I have been let go (or ongoing contract not renewed) ~6 times - hard to know with contracting when it's sometimes a factor of budgeting. Suffice to say, I have quit far more positions than removed by the actions of my employers. I have been at my current position ~7 years with 1 promotion. I fully expect that I will be let go out of the blue one day. To prepare for this, I save aggressively. I do interviews with other companies from time to time for practice. Meta, Indeed, Nintendo, whatever. I work on the weekends from time to time, trying new technologies and picking at the low-hanging fruit that might make me more robust in the job market. This is the state of the industry and will be for the foreseeable future. Losing a job involuntarily sucks. Interviewing sucks. Looking for jobs sucks. All that being said, it's still the best way to get a better job (whatever that means to you). I'm an old man and I'm at the peak of my ability. I do wonder when it will go upside down for me.
- ionwake 2y ago
  I find this hard to believe but I will take your word for it, atleast now I know it can happen.

jwr 2y ago

I have worked long. And I can think of many, many examples of people quitting suddenly and leaving everything hanging, in companies of various sizes. These days I run a solo business. I do not want to have any employees. I've been burned too many times in the past — and my experience (generalizing horribly) is that most programmers think they are the cream of the crop, superstars that deserve salary, benefits, perks, bonuses, vacations, and fantastic treatment. But then it turns out that a) they don't perform as superstars, and b) the company deserves absolutely nothing in return, so people leave suddenly and without warning. In the businesses I've seen, the relationship was very asymmetric, heavily biased towards the comfort of employees.

pdimitar 2y ago
Entitled people exist in all areas, that's a fact. But you are being too weird in your generalization that usually the table is tilted in favor of the employees. For 22 years of career I've never once seen it. If you make yourself a niche consultant and can command insane fees then nice, but for everybody else they are just cogs that can and are replaced on a whim.

lordnacho 2y ago

Yeah in my decades I've only once heard of an employer going the extra mile to keep a guy at a company. Boss drove to his house in a Bentley and gave him the keys. Of course the dude was making far more than a Bentley for the company, in a role where your value is pretty much visible on the screen at any time.

throwaway290 2y ago
Stories where someone just quietly asks for a raise and gets it aren't flashy but happen often, I know of multiple

Aeolun 2y ago

> It was always employees being let go suddenly and on a whim. I don’t have that experience. Nobody in my circle has ever been let go. Meanwhile many of them have gone through 4 or 5 employers in the past 15 years.

Supermancho 2y ago
> I don’t have that experience. Nobody in my circle has ever been let go. In the last 27 years, I've worked for more than 20 companies. Maybe 5 as a contractor that didn't go FT. Many startups, some name brands. I have been let go (or ongoing contract not renewed) ~6 times - hard to know with contracting when it's sometimes a factor of budgeting. Suffice to say, I have quit far more positions than removed by the actions of my employers. I have been at my current position ~7 years with 1 promotion. I fully expect that I will be let go out of the blue one day. To prepare for this, I save aggressively. I do interviews with other companies from time to time for practice. Meta, Indeed, Nintendo, whatever. I work on the weekends from time to time, trying new technologies and picking at the low-hanging fruit that might make me more robust in the job market. This is the state of the industry and will be for the foreseeable future. Losing a job involuntarily sucks. Interviewing sucks. Looking for jobs sucks. All that being said, it's still the best way to get a better job (whatever that means to you). I'm an old man and I'm at the peak of my ability. I do wonder when it will go upside down for me.
ionwake 2y ago
I find this hard to believe but I will take your word for it, atleast now I know it can happen.