[HN Gopher] Ask HN: Did you change jobs during the Great Reshuff...
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Ask HN: Did you change jobs during the Great Reshuffling and regret
it?
The Great Resignation or the Great Reshuffling pretty much started
in 2021 and is still going very strong today. It's hard not to feel
like you could be missing out if you don't take the opportunity now
to pursue a better job, especially one with better pay and work-
from-home arrangements. That's how I felt as my coworkers started
moving on to better roles, and when the recruiters started hitting
me on LinkedIn, I decided to pay attention. Now a month into my new
job, I feel like a traitor and sell-out. I had a long tenure at my
previous role and had life pretty easy. I can't help but feel that
the current wave of job changing is fueled by hype and greed, and
honestly I do not think that companies deserve to be screwed by all
this turnover. While I am confident I can do fine in my new role, I
have a nagging disappointment about contributing to this current
trend.
Author : buttocks
Score : 29 points
Date : 2022-04-09 20:54 UTC (2 hours ago)
| orange_joe wrote:
| You're being extremely naive if you think of yourself as a
| traitor. If you stopped performing at your current level due to a
| major life event, most companies would fire you. You're a
| resource being expended by your employer. Even if they treat you
| well we all know that they'd stop paying you if you became
| terminally ill for any real length of time, and you very likely
| weren't given a pension to support you in old age either. The
| companies least affected by this trend are the ones that have
| given their employees better bargains (see fedex v UPS)
| otikik wrote:
| There's a version of you in a parallel universe that kept their
| old job and is feeling like they have lost a big opportunity and
| regretting not getting out of their zone of comfort, like you
| did.
|
| Seriously, congratulations on your new job.
| leetcrew wrote:
| I changed jobs about six months ago. overall it was a pretty nice
| place to work, but they didn't pay enough to retain people. they
| froze raises during the pandemic despite continuing to post
| profits >30%. I left for a role where I get paid twice as much to
| work a little harder. the old company countered with a ~10% raise
| on my way out the door. I do miss my old team, but apparently
| that company just didn't value my work very highly.
| PragmaticPulp wrote:
| If you like the new job then you have nothing to worry about.
| Forget the "traitor" thing entirely. It's just business.
|
| There has been a huge uptick of "I hate my new job what should I
| do?" posts in an advice/mentoring community I'm part of.
|
| The common theme in the posts is people who had quite comfortable
| positions at their previous employer but maybe didn't realize it
| at the time. They went out and got higher paying jobs at
| companies that were desperately in need of engineers where they
| tend to have higher wages, shorter interviews to get people in
| the door. When the new job demands higher performance
| commensurate with the higher compensation and the company want
| everyone performing at a high level, it comes as a shock to the
| system to people who were accustomed to lax companies with lax
| delivery schedules.
|
| Of course there are people for whom the opposite has happened or
| who are doing the same work for better pay now. Those people are
| happy! But I think the "great resignation" narrative being
| repeated over and over again created a lot of FOMO that also
| churned people out of otherwise comfortable jobs at good
| companies, with mixed results.
| chiefalchemist wrote:
| > I do not think that companies deserve to be screwed by all this
| turnover. While I am confident I can do fine in my new role, I
| have a nagging disappointment about contributing to this current
| trend.
|
| How are companies being screwed? By one half of an at-will
| relationship exercising their will? Do you have as much sympathy
| when companies cut employees loose, often with too little notice?
| All in all, your concern sounds naive.
|
| If you've contributed to anything it's waking up companies with
| lazy leadership, mediocre managers, and culture-less culture.
| These place are real.
|
| And I myself am proud for having pushed myself away from the
| table and stated, "Not for me. No thanks. I'm leaving. There's no
| sustainable future here."
| wbsss4412 wrote:
| Most companies will axe you without a second thought. The concept
| of loyalty to a company is akin to Stockholm syndrome.
|
| Loyalty to people? Sure. But corporations aren't people.
| youngbullind wrote:
| It's nothing new. People have always changed jobs. And people who
| change every two years end up with 50% better salaries over time.
| If you haven't added enough value in those two years to make it
| worth hiring you in the first place, then you probably weren't a
| great hire in the first place.
| testingwaters4 wrote:
| You have to consider the other point of view, if it's a choice
| between you or the business, then the corporations will always
| choose the business. Look after yourself first, you're fine.
| micromacrofoot wrote:
| traitor and a sell out? did you stop working for a charity and
| start working for facebook or nestle or something?
| el0hel wrote:
| Having entered adulthood in the US during the Great Recession and
| being laid off the second it benefited the company (despite
| easily turning a profit), I cannot understand your position. My
| grandparents had hefty pensions and their careers grew _with_
| their companies. Modern management practices dictate short-term
| margin as a priority meaning high-salaried employees are
| considered risks before boons. That, coupled with the well-known
| fact that salaries do not keep pace with CoL, it is nonsensical
| _not_ to take the same approach - always be on the lookout for
| your next step at any time.
| dlhavema wrote:
| Pensions are long gone in most small "startuppy" companies.
| That takes away one big motivator to stay.
| el0hel wrote:
| Agreed. That was a large source of "loyalty" for older
| generations. My wife's father will retire soon with a
| generous pension - one of the last of the factory workers who
| had a pension. Employees aren't loyal and that is largely a
| self-inflicted issue.
| majormajor wrote:
| If you left a job for better pay and other benefits, how do you
| feel like _you_ betrayed or screwed the _company_? If they hadn
| 't been underpaying and underappreciating you first, would you
| have left?
| thebigspacefuck wrote:
| Overall I left for a reason and it wasn't just about the money
| because my old company offered to match. I feel excited about my
| work in a way I haven't felt in years. There's no way my old
| company could have given me that. It's hard to build up a new
| reputation but it's totally worth it just to not feel that
| terrible boredom/burnout feeling anymore. People are nicer and
| it's a much better work culture too. And pay is better. No
| regrets yet.
| rantallion wrote:
| > I do not think that companies deserve to be screwed by all this
| turnover
|
| Perhaps companies should better look after their employees and
| give them a reason not to leave. Many of us are fed up of being
| underpaid and undervalued. Add to that the increasing demands to
| return to an office and it's not hard to see why we're jumping
| ship to work for businesses that pay better and offer remote
| working arrangements.
|
| I changed jobs almost a year ago and have zero regrets. I had a
| long tenure too. What did it get me? Maybe a 2-4% raise a year if
| I was lucky (which we all know is a pay cut in disguise when you
| consider inflation). None of us should feel that we have to be
| loyal to a business. That same business would lay you off in a
| heartbeat if it would save them money.
| toyg wrote:
| _> a 2-4% raise a year if I was lucky (which we all know is a
| pay cut in disguise when you consider inflation)_
|
| Well, when inflation was around 2-3%, it was alright: one could
| more or less keep up, without having to change.
|
| But this year inflation skyrocketed and now that's definitely
| not good enough.
| dasil003 wrote:
| Loyalty is for people, not corporations. I also don't think
| generalizing about what "companies deserve" is super useful, and
| definitely not something to internalize.
|
| Personally, I feel a moral duty to do my best work wherever I
| happen to be employed, but it's still transactional. If they
| treat me well, and the work is interesting, I'm more likely to
| stay, but it's not an obligation. Now, if some individuals really
| stick their neck out for me, that does buy some loyalty, but only
| within reason. At the end of the day it's still a business and
| when the winds shift leadership will have to put the overall
| business health ahead of individuals.
| dudul wrote:
| Companies are free to start offering employment contracts if they
| don't want to be "screwed". The at-will relationship works both
| ways.
| janetacarr wrote:
| I made the jump to consulting almost a year ago.
|
| Even though it has been challenging at times, I have never been
| happier with this decision.
| mkl95 wrote:
| > I can't help but feel that the current wave of job changing is
| fueled by hype and greed
|
| If you were financially independent before changing jobs, then
| there may be an element of greed to it. But even a financially
| independent person may change jobs for a vast number of reasons
| that don't involve accumulating wealth for the sake of it.
|
| If you are not financially independent (i.e. you fall somewhere
| between a wage slave and a nearly financially independent
| person), there is no way you changed jobs out of greed. Inflation
| is high enough that ordinary people will either get a raise or
| become noticeably poorer in the next couple of years.
| willnonya wrote:
| As someone who hasn't changed jobs despite some opportunities I
| have seen a couple members of our team who did leave for greener
| pastures. Both have since returned when those jobs didn't live up
| to their expectations. One just announced they were leaving
| again.
|
| I don't blame either of them leaving though the one who is
| leaving again has certainly burned some bridges and lost any good
| will he had from the coworkers they repeatedly leave in the
| breach.
|
| A lot of the comments are anti-company, and I get that though I
| don't they they are always deserved or relevant. In our case it's
| the people who didn't leave who have to deal with the extra
| workload while the company tries to fill positions where you
| can't just pluck some yahoo off the street.
|
| In the end if you made the move because it was best for you and
| not out of malice then I wouldn't feel any regret.
| VectorLock wrote:
| Sounds like you got FOMO and are regretting it.
|
| Did you actually care about better pay or WFH arrangements?
| jeffbee wrote:
| This research from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco
| indicates that the "Great Resignation" does not exist in our
| industry. Quit rates had transient excursions for young, less-
| educated workers in service industries like food. They did not
| rise for educated professionals, in fact they are near all-time
| lows.
|
| https://www.frbsf.org/economic-research/publications/economi...
| BurritoAlPastor wrote:
| I changed jobs at the end of 2020, my new job has better pay and
| better work-from-home arrangements, and I don't regret a thing.
|
| My hypothesis is that a significant chunk of the people who
| changed jobs circa 2021 are people who would have changed jobs in
| 2020 if there hadn't been a pandemic, but held off for about a
| year while things shook out.
| pjbeam wrote:
| Traitor? To a company? What a concept. Corps will happily throw
| people on the street.. I don't understand that guilt that seems
| interwoven in your post. I changed jobs recently and got much
| better pay and WLB. Not doing so would have been betraying
| myself.
| toyg wrote:
| _> I don 't understand that guilt that seems interwoven in your
| post._
|
| An account called "buttocks", with corresponding smiley in
| description... the potential for being trollish in nature is
| relatively high.
| jonas21 wrote:
| Their history shows dozens of normal comments over a ~3 month
| period. If they're trolling, it's a very long troll.
| barfcity wrote:
| I can't help but think that this post is astroturfing by a
| company that keeps losing its employees due to better conditions
| elsewhere. The thought of feeling guilty for an employer is
| preposterous to me.
| [deleted]
| carom wrote:
| I changed jobs and I don't regret it. I left federal contracting
| due to vaccine mandates. New job is very comfortable. Making a
| bit more money, far less work. Good growth potential on the stock
| grants. I guess thanks to Biden for making me question my job
| security enough to start looking.
| sakopov wrote:
| My food expenses have doubled. My utilities have nearly tripled.
| It's a crime not to be looking for a new job right now, unless of
| course you're happy with what you're making.
| mwint wrote:
| Where are you that utilities tripled?
| toyg wrote:
| Likely UK or Europe. We've been hit by the Ukraine situation
| harder than elsewhere, because Putin started hoarding gas
| last year to prepare for the Ukraine campaign.
| chaircher wrote:
| UK potentially
| ampgt wrote:
| As an expat currently in the UK - my electric tariff is
| about to go from .18p per kWh to .36p. Gas is doubling as
| well. Most homes here have awful insulation, so I'll be
| looking at 230gbp a month for my little two bedroom
| apartment. It's crazy out here.
| DDR0 wrote:
| Yikes - we were rocking $23 in electricity for a 5-room
| flat here in Canada a few years ago.
| robryan wrote:
| Crazy, probably 3x what would be reasonable per kWh in
| Australia.
| cutthegrass2 wrote:
| Not the commenter you were referring to, but for context,
| i'm in the UK and have seen water increase by 25%, gas and
| electric increase by 32%.
| [deleted]
| maurits wrote:
| I made the jump about a year ago (over WFH). Zero regrets. Love
| my new role.
|
| A company is not a person, and when the going gets touch, it will
| not treat you like a person either.
| throwaway787544 wrote:
| You can always be screwed by changing jobs, it shouldn't be taken
| on lightly. But I think a lot of us are enjoying that companies
| are now offering us more flexibility, better work, and better
| pay, for the same job. And tech workers had already been changing
| jobs every 3 years.
|
| Certainly I can attest there's some greed involved in my current
| job hunt. But the greater factor is getting to work on what I
| really want to work on. I want to feel excited to go to work,
| like I'm serving a useful purpose, and not just contributing to
| society's ills and bankrolling of some rich white dudes. For me
| that means I have to change jobs. This is just a great time to do
| it.
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(page generated 2022-04-09 23:01 UTC)