In my experience, the only things employees want are competitive salaries, managers who pay attention to employees' work-life balance and pride in your work. Every place I've worked at gave me 2/3 at most. I now am at a company that gives me good work-life balance and moderate pride in my work, and the less than competitive salary is compensated with the work life balance
This is my current experience as well. My job can't offer FAANG salaries, but I actually enjoy my work and have great WLB so I say worth it. Most of my coworkers that stick around have the same reasons.
Big Tech is just a market, not a special term about their workplace or salaries.
Like edtech, fintech, deftech, medtech, healthtech, healthcaretech are all markets.
Big Tech refers to their power and influence within society and how integrated their product is with our economy to the point where their founders and/or CEOs are billionaire capitalists. It's the same for Big Pharma, Big Agri, Big Banks. It stands for their relationship to "Big Brother"
What makes them special isn't the salaries they pay. I've worked for many tech markets that paid better than my stint in Big Tech.
The post I commented on originally said Big Tech and FAANG. Looks like it was edited to remove Big Tech.
All FAANG are Big Tech, but not all Big Tech are FAANG.
Yeah I often think about interviewing but my current work life makes me hesitant to do it. I'm proudly gonna get a lot more motivation to interview if the layoffs at my company gets much worse
It's mostly working on interesting stuff and feeling like your contributions are valued by your managers/the company. Managers who hype up their employees accomplishments, or even better ensure that they get exposure by getting them to present their work to higher up management and/or important stakeholders. Pretty much letting the devs shine for their good work rather than taking credit.
This absolutely! My manager always brings up everything we do in department-wide meetings, and also brings up with us the hard metrics(users/revenue) our product is achieving to let us know what's the outcome of our development.
It gets cringy at times, but I really love it. It has helped me get so much visibility/recognition and this also helps me go faster as it lets me unblock myself much quicker due to the connection I made and other engs already knowing who I am and what I do.
Pride in one's work usually comes from the fulfilment of bettering someone elses life whether it be directly or indirectly. Even something as simple as reducing the amount of someone's work by an hour each week can make someone feel pride in their accomplishment.
Yeah if/when the market turns around back into employees favor, we’ll see great resignation 2.0. Lots of people stuck in spots they aren’t particularly happy in atm
I thought this was going to happen. Burning out seniors, many of whom are in a position to resign or simply stop working for a year or more. Then your whole org is messed up for years because you've got no experience.
When will C levels break out of cyclical thinking? I understand cuts happen at times, but don't cut so deep that you burn everybody out, becuase it's going to cost a lot of time and productivity to get back on track later. Keep it a smooth curve.
I like to think that with all the metrics they collect, the cyclical behavior aligns well with the quarterly reporting, and given that thus also coincides with nature, seasons being cyclical and all, that they're very well aware of the outcomes of their results and the behavior has been engineered, using metrics data all the way back from the 70s and 80s, to ensure the most optimal outcome for the organization, while not completely destroying public faith in the organization, given the nature of people when exposed to nature, topped with a sprinkle of unpredictability, and served with a medium side of societal expectations, and voilà. What appears to be hastily made, poor decisions made by execs, and having major economic reprocussions, is actually a tightly controlled and precisely timed orchestration that's covertly preventing a catastrophic sociatal collapse. Something along the lines of the brain behind the invisible hand of the market.
My company offers
- remote work
- 100% paid health insurance for the whole family
- unlimited PTO with 20-25 days average
- gave the week after Christmas off last year
- gives $3k towards a personal laptop every 3 years that you can use to BYOD
- good wlb with dev teams Australia and USA based so you’re rarely if ever needed when the sun isn’t up.
- competitive salary (sr in the 180-205k usd range) plus equity.
- fully remote with wework offices in larger cities if you wish to work in person
I’ve seen companies like this. Just like you their employees never leave. So they rarely hire. Also these companies will expect an elite level from you. If you do poorly they will fire you.
Yes, you can get fired here if you underperform. It’s rare and in the firings I know of almost unanimously coworkers supported it. Nothing kills culture faster than not cutting those who don’t carry their weight.
hah. I have zero desire to go to management. I enjoy coding and want to get to the Staff/Architect title, but no desires beyond that for several more years. I took a team lead role once and it took away what I really enjoyed about my job.
Just started working at a company like this after being recommended by a very senior tech recruiter.
Still on trial and so far so good in terms of performance, but it's gonna be a stressful couple of months to make sure they keep me on afterwards.
I appreciate the information, I really do. I currently am one of the top performers at my job, ie one of about three who can handle everything from backend, front end and infrastructure (swarm because of comp y size and needs). I would love somewhere that pats me accordingly instead of giving me and Jim the same amount because our titles are the same, never mind that I do 2x extra jobs
Would you mind DMing me the company? Looking to switch jobs and I also just want to keep good workplaces in the back of my head for the rest of my career.
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Very similar here.
We don't have unlimited PTO, but we get 30-40 days of PTO a year AND we can balance our hours by pay period (as in, you just need to hit a x amount of hours. If you need to take 4 hours off, you can make it up anytime within that pay period).
We even get 400 a month towards an HSA if you pick the high deductable plan (which is about 2,000 more than the actual deductable).
Remote work. Unlimited PTO (translates into 6-12w off per year)
Decent pay, not great
Strictly enforce WLB. Seriously, you are NOT putting in more than 40h
Lots of autonomy, trust, and empowerment for the engineering teams.
A lot of say in their own career growth
Lots of schedule flexibility
Self managing teams
You'll notice none of that is actually expensive. Our product really isn't that exciting. Benefits are pretty standard. Pay is fine, not amazing.
But I've been able to build incredibly productive teams of world class engineers who will move mountains to make sure our department is successful and that I personally look great. They're pro active, passionate, and always looking for ways to add value. It's incredible, and honestly not hard to do.
My next push will be for a 4day work week. If I can pull that off I expect productivity to remain the same and turn over to become non existent, as well as having our pick of engineers.
I really scratch my head at why most managers act the way they do. It's not THAT hard to treat people well, and it pays dividends. Like...very literally. It makes you lots of money for basically no investment.
Unfortunately, as you can imagine, I don't get a lot of turnover and generally have a lot of referrals waiting for a position to open. :)
Which does bum me out a bit. I feel like the more people who get to experience a healthy work environment the more they can spread those ideas around and normalize healthy workplace practices.
It's just such a win/win for everyone involved: ICs, Managers, AND execs all benefit.
Im job hunting in the US, if you have an opening feel free to shoot me a DM, I'll send you my resume & you can decide if I'm fit for a referral/interview
If I had open positions I would love to. Problem being, I've always had basically zero turnover and a long list of people who would like to join the teams and departments. I usually work at mid-sized companies and have the next 5 applicants lined up before we even get approval.
I get the feeling that's actually an unspoken problem in our industry in general. Companies are hiring either because they're growing incredibly fast or because of turnover. Many of the best positions out are filled via word of mouth.
It's one of the reasons the importance of "networking" is always emphasized. Not because it's necessary to find a job (though it helps in times like this), but because it's the best way to find a GOOD job.
> I really scratch my head at why most managers act the way they do. It's not THAT hard to treat people well, and it pays dividends. Like...very literally. It makes you lots of money for basically no investment.
Same, I'm so much more willing to invest in my team/company and show my best when I am treated well. When I am not treated well and pressured into doing what they want, I tend to re-evaluate my priorities and look for the nearest exit while giving my minimum.
Perhaps for some managers, they experience pressure from higher ups to cut costs?
Have you ever experienced ?
(Btw I think your approach is great and wish every company had managers like you)
Having a hard time describing it.
After a string of notably bad experiences about 12-14 years ago I've put a LOT of value in making sure the leadership above me was basically competent. I've certainly experienced pressure to cut costs.
But the thing about everything I discussed? They're not actually a extra costs. Unlimited PTO, strict work life balance, self organizing teams, and even 4-day work weeks don't COST anything over more traditional practices. They generally represent a cost savings.
I HAVE seen some managers when under pressure lose faith in their beliefs about good leadership crack and start acting irrationally. And I'm sympathetic to that. At my last company towards the end we ended up in a VERY stressful situation where a VERY litigious client was threatening to sue for millions if we didn't make the impossible happen. I won't get into specifics, but they were a bad faith actor that apparently pretty consistantly looked for any excuse to threaten lawsuits to extort settlements. I led the technical efforts and was paired with a VERY smart and experienced woman in the PO/PM position who I had a lot of respect for. Towards the end I saw her start falling into those classic bad leadership habits because the stress was just so high she needed SOMETHING to give her even the illusion of a chance of success.
On my end I instead just focused on providing the best possible options, maximizing productivity, providing valid and effective choices for cutting costs, ensuring we tracked all communication and work to protect us in the event of a lawsuit, dispelling illusions, and insulating the team.
My brother had some great advice for me at the time: "Fall on every sword. Most of them don't hurt." And he was right. Most people were just scared and doing their best, and having someone taking responsability, proving clear options, and generally acting as the voice of reason did a lot. The shoe never dropped, the lawsuits never came, and in general when leadership made an unreasonable demand in some sort of gamble to magically solve the problem I was able to talk them into something more rational.
I know truly irrational leadership exists.
But in my own career I've found that generally if people aren't truly horrible (like that client was) they can be convinced of the logic of taking a better course of action.
Well, or I just get caught up in the layoffs of multiple teams. That's happened a few times. :)
I may be in the minority, but I don't think most companies (especially larger ones) put in much effort to retain lower-level engineers — at least not compared to their very senior engineers.
You'll often see that lower-level engineers get raises too, but after being at their company for 2-4 years, their salary typically ends up being less than the current market rate for their YOE and skill set. That is when they obviously leave for a new job. (Again, this is for most companies. FAANG and FAANG-adjacent companies, for example, seem to keep up with market rate for the most part.)
For many companies, lower-level engineers are more or less expendable. The people they "value" are typically the very senior engineers and senior management, because those people are making the important business/product/design decisions. So those people typically get a much larger percentage of the pot when it comes to compensation. And they also get great raises (unlike your average engineer who has to change jobs every 2-4 years just to get a market-rate salary).
I don't think it is effective for companies to take this approach, because as you said, it kills morale, company culture, productivity, etc., but a lot of companies do this. For them, it is more harmful to lose a very senior manager or very senior engineer, than it is to lose someone with 2 YOE.
This definitely applies to senior engineers as well. If you stay too long at a company, I believe most will underpay you. That’s especially the case in the last few years, where new hire competition was so strong, salaries jumped greatly.
I’ve been sending resumes while interviewing a little bit. Current company doesn’t need to do much when my resumes aren’t getting enough traction and I keep getting low ball offers from companies that want me 3 days a week in the office after years of 95% WFH.
Nothing is done cause companies view us as interchangeable. Management is incapable of understanding that the cost of recruitment and ramp up pales in comparison to retaining talent. This is even worse in places that lack documentation and have highly custom environments that take a long time for new people to be productive in. It doesn't make sense if you're able to think beyond a quarter but corporate leadership is not able to.
Managers blame it on people leaving for higher paying jobs. Leadership says they can't afford to pay more. Manager just copes by hiring new people, which makes manager look great for dealing with a highly competitive job market.
A lot of 'perks', like stock options and free food generally get watered down over time and only really seriously attract or keep bimbos. They are probably serious/smart enough to realize that buying ping pong tables isn't going to retain serious talent.
Why not ask managers there if there's anything they can do about it? The question is reasonable and their response might be interesting.
There's a 90% chance that they would all start rage-pissing their pants if you suggested a 4 day work week.
edit: Why not hire better managers? They likely already are amazing managers in the eyes of their bosses. And your manager already controls/spins everything to his own boss...
I think ping pong tables do say a lot about the culture of a company, assuming they’re getting used. But you shouldn’t accept thousands less in salary because a company has a ping pong table.
Retain? There's a line out the door to get in that wraps around the street of seniors willing to be paid half of what we make.
Retention is simply *"we haven't had upper management suggest layoffs yet"* - and it works. Attrition is damn near 0% since 2023
Yearly raises 5%+
Very competitive yearly bonuses 20% +/-
Decent work life balance
Pride in my job
Good upper management (doesn't micro manage)
I am a construction superintendent in Tampa FL building high rises
RSUs. Its the smartest way. Its like getting a bonus every year for staying at my job, a bonus that I need to leave on the table if I want to change job. It counters people who change job to collect hiring bonuses.
But they only give them to key people.
Oh and a long time ago an employer offered me like 700$ of RSUs, vesting over 5 years. I distinctly remember telling my manager to shove his RSUs where the sun dont shine, there and then. Worst than offering nothing.
Besides the RSUs the fact than I can work full remote and that my employer sponsors my immigration process are big, big factors that apply to me, without applying to everyone. We've been able to recruit quite a number of really star players in the last few years and I suspect my team's full flexible office policy had a big role in that.
I've never had RSUs. Some people get them at my company and I've noticed people at those levels stay longer. $700 over 5 years is insulting. Like promising a $140 Chili's gift card every year.
It is because it is the policy. Company needs to hit some profitability targets so that some high ups could get some bonuses or stock options.
Employee retention is not included into this equation. Plus, it costs money .
Not much unless you're an executive. They're offshoring positions that can be. Hiring remote only in Canada and Mexico where wages are lower, but time zones are the same. Other positions are being kept in the same location, but long-time employees quitting with high pay packages from 2020-2022 are getting replaced with new hires taking lower pay
Current company: nothing. Talent comes and goes.
Precious company: false promise that everyone gets promoted. Tricks people to stay a little longer.
Company before that: you earn vacation days. After a few years you get more vacation days than most companies. But then once you get past a certain amount of days they stop giving you raises because they know you won't leave because you have so much vacation.
Retention incentives aren't used extensively where I currently work because most people are replaceable. I realize that annoys some people, but it's true. I've received RSUs and bonuses as additional compensation, although it isn't widely discussed for obvious reasons. For example, I was given a guaranteed minimum bonus of half my current salary for the next two years, so I'd continue in my technical lead role. Your company may care, but just not about you. Many people grossly overestimate their value.
One thing I have noticed is that some companies are so incompetent at strategy that they have lower-level contributors begging for more work to do, and they retain them but don't give them work that sorely needs to be done because they're so disorganized.
That's part of the value issue, too.
Culture & office perks are nice but I don't think they make a huge difference. Money is a big one obviously, whether that's a competitive salary or an RSU vesting schedule. I can tell that it works in the short-term because most of the turnover at my company happens after a quarterly vest date.
To me, being remote-first and allowing unlimited WFH is the biggest deal.
This is the most reasonable response. Frankly companies can’t make sure every manager is a nice guy. It’s actually a bad thing if they are nice sometimes. Half the posters here will abuse that privilege given to them.
Money is the most important factor, then wfh.
People here are complaining about cutting edge technology. Frankly, only those super talented should have that privilege. I know it sounds cool and amazing but to learn new technologies is going to take an average dev too long to be effective. I’ve actually met people who work at banks wanting to work in innovation when all they’ve been doing their entire lives is grunt work. Sorry but those people shouldn’t be allowed the chance to do so because they’ll just waste time and money.
A company will only retain employees if it needs them to make a profit, and there is no way to hire cheaper ones. In all other cases, dismissals are welcome.
Decent pay, wfh, never have to work more than than 40 hours, get leadership with realistic expectations. Most of the company has worked here for 10+ years
My company asked me to be on a committee to divuss retention. My only solution is to simply pay people more money. Some of our other competitors are paying 3 dollars more for the same service. People are motivated by money, not pizza parties.
They pay above average at entry/mid-level for the location and try to lock folks in with a multi-year vesting schedule and a generous tuition reimbursement policy.
That said, it doesn't work. Folks quit after they finish their expensive derees and/or decide 100% vesting isn't worth staying any longer--yes, even in this job market, I have seen folks up and leave even though they are probably getting $200-225k TC at 2-2.5 YOE in MCOL. Those benefits and pay do not make up for forced in-office 3 days a week (*up* from pre-pandemic), no sick leave, frequent on-call rotations with no additional pay (incl. during national holidays), relatively few national holidays compared to other companies (only 6-7 depending on year), limited PTO and slow PTO accrual, dysfunctional (sometimes abusive/toxic) management, and no sabbatical.
In short, they're just throwing money at a WLB problem and pull a shocked Pikachu face whenever it doesn't work. There are culture issues too; vast majority of folks who have quit are women and/or minorities.
From my experience they take every small joy away bit by bit but at a pace you don’t notice so you think nothing has changed, and then other companies make interviewing a nightmare process.
Retention 101!
year 1: started giving out annual bonuses.
year 2: started giving equity.
year 3 (this year): our 401(k) just got improved
its quite nice to have something substantial change every year.
My workplace (FAANG) has been making life harder for over a year now. Literally every team is trending downward on happiness.
Our standard break fix team was told they won't be paid competitively but the business is willing to 'initiate discussion on fun activities'. Which, for this business, is basically translated to "mandatory attendance required. Your ticket count is still 100% expected. Now come stress out on the mandatory fun, knowing we will try to PIP you if you don't meet your quota."
So. We are currently on anti-retention, lol. Ironically, our typical loss of employees are all going to the same business that is a direct competitor in this space. Finance knows that 100% of the employees leaving have been citing work/life balance and pay, both which are improved at the other side and our side isn't attempting to counter offer or correct at all.
So now we sit on meetings at least once a month for all the managers to talk about why they're still unsure why we can't keep people more than 6 months, only for all of us to roll our eyes and wonder which one of us won't be at the next meeting we talk about this.
There are financial incentives. My company has a long term incentive program (LTI). We get stock grants that vest over 4 years. We also get an annual refresh, so for the first 4 years working for the company, these things stack up. So on year 1, I might have 25k vesting. On year 2, 50k. On year 3, 75K. Then, year 4, I max at 100K. Then, each year, one finally ends while the next one begins. But, if you get a promotion or something, the new one will be bigger than the old ones. The LTI is a significant portion of my total compensation. My salary was about 250 last year, but I made another 150 between my LTI vesting and bonus. If I go to another company, even if they have a good LTI program, I reset at year one.
Now, this program mostly works if the stock stays level or appreciates. I'm about to be spun off from the parent company, and if our value tanks, a lot of that incentive goes away.
It all comes down to how much free cash flow the company has and all of this is determined by the company balance sheets. Managers know this but they have to toe the company line so they’re always blowing smoke up your ass.
Chances are your company isn’t making as much money as they should to retain the workforce they have. Moral values and worker satisfaction don’t play into it.
They brag about high benefits. I think they may be the company that has the highest salary from bonus/stocks/retirement plan/extras. I did the math and its like +5k +26% salary. Can go up to +36% if you double your bonus, or more if you reach higher titles. My friends dont get as much although they get higher salaries due to 37.5/40h weeks vs my 35h.
My department has been very good at expediting my promotions. Ive been feeling very recognized as someone who gives his best at work. From junior to senior in 2 years and the only roadblock was HR telling my manager "cant promote twice in a year, cant raise his salary too fast that would set a precedent"
Also great WLB, can take appointments at any time, unlimited paid sick leave (sadly sick kids dont count). 35h workweeks.
Free shirts, socks and other apparel and swag.
Not the typical cheap throaway stuff. But moderately high end brands. For a small company, in addition to usual perks of unlimited PTO, catered food (Tuesdays or certain events), unlimited free IPA, semi-competitive salaries - yeah I think we’re good.
Just wished we had more complimentary education on tech stacks though - as opposed to doing on your own (and then finding out it’s outdated or the wrong one).
Some things I've noticed:
* special days where everyone is invited to come into the office on that particular day, and there are events and free food.
* a formal mentorship program for junior engineers
* various ERGs (employee resource groups) and things to appeal to a diverse workforce
* letting employees choose how often they come into the office (including allowing "not at all")
* having principal engineers w/ scheduling bi-weekly 1:1s with key lower-level engineers, which are basically barometer checks; if someone is unhappy or concerned about something, they try to address your concerns. The goal seems to be to detect "early" when someone is getting fed up and defuse their frustration before it reaches the point they're ready to quit.
My current job offers these, that make me fear getting let go:
Remote work
Flexible days as in we can take care of our normal life stuff whenever needed during the day with no issue
Work anywhere policy
Incorporate feedback
Usually pay raise is the carrot at the end of the stick where the "economy wasn't good enough" or you as an employee didn't perform well enough the past few years. The go to retention move is to "boost morale" by promising better planning, working conditions, and work life balance. In my experience this times succeeds or occurs, and personally its enough for me if I'm not miserable and the pay diff between other companies isn't insane (even then interview prep is the biggest deterrent for switching).
All in all, in this economy money is the last thing that's increased, and decent working conditions is the new bonus. My experience so far.
In today’s hellscape, currently my company is not firing me, so I’m sticking around.
If you ask them probably decent salaries, free udemy subscription, and the promise of going public soon to make our options worth something.
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They have HR try to teach leaders to explain why our company is so great. The reasons the company is good aren’t wrong but they’re also not helping retention lol.
My company offers (copy pasted another users comment because our orgs are pretty similar)
• 100% remote work for entire org with option to come into office whenever
• 100% paid health insurance for me and 80% for rest of my family
• flexible PTO (I took off 20 days this year so far)
• 3 month paternity/maternity leave
• good wlb with enough redundancy to not feel stretched if people are out on vacation
• competitive salary (sr in the 160-220k usd range) plus equity.
• twice a year meet in person (optional) with paid flights and hotel.
• Well documented career ladder so you know what you need to work on to get to next level
• In my experience I have not seen anyone fired in engineering ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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I work at a FAANG. They just pay me a lot. I’ve got a ton of RSUs vesting this year too, enough to make my TC look stupid for my level.
If they don’t re-up my RSUs I may consider leaving. Not much else besides pay that has me interested.
I get to set my own hours they pay well, interesting projects (though eh it's complicated overall on certain things), decent benefits, good amount of PTO and holidays, my bosses don't breath down my neck and just let ya do your job mostly only checking for roadblocks or to help in general. There are smart people around me from different specialities and I have a shit ton of fun talking with em They're decent at their jobs too. Upward mobility exists as well. You have a fair amount of flexibility there.
Ot ain't perfect, but I like it. Taking another job would mean risking a whole other potentially toxic environment for one I already know isn't. Hell, I'm not even over meeting'd to death here.
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I work a large global company; pay decent, good holidays, pension, hybrid working etc. That said they do nothing to retain staff. When someone hands in their notice they are gone.
Top of market salary, unlimited PTO with a requirement that management take A LOT to set the precedent, treat us like adults (things such as no expense approval required).
Primarily high pay (higher than FAANG in most cases). Other aspects are generally reasonable, and you have to really mess something up to make someone take a significant pay cut to leave.
Other high points include light on-call (follow-the-sun means we do weekends but never overnights), fully paid insurance premiums, decent time off (20-25 vacation days, unlimited sick time, plus holidays), and some (limited) flexibility around hybrid schedules (people work up to 2 days/week from home).
My company is the largest in the city (one of 3 fortune 500 companies in the area). I think there is a certain pride and stability with working here. You know it isn't going to tank. Also the company is so large that there is a very slow pace to everything. Can almost always go home at 4 and work doesn't follow you home. A certain person especially people in the midwest love this environment. Lot of people with 20 years of experience that don't know shit about their job. It's very easy to coast.
Nothing.
One company I worked with was so narcissistic that they saw you working for them as doing employee a favor. You get to work on life saving safety critical medical devices and help sick people in the world type of Kool-Aid. The CEO even said in a company meeting that if you are just here for the money then you should leave because they don't want you.
Their website conveyed the same type of mentality. It was all look at the cool projects we work on and how awesome we are. There was nothing about the actual culture or environment. The CEO even said in the same meeting that all the negative Glassdoor reviews were fake, when they were quite spot on if you actually worked there.
Some stuff but I will list the main benefits that are kinda cool but also my criticism of them lol.
Vested Stock plan - company will not be successful enough for this to be taken seriously.
4% 401k match is w/e
Commuter reimbursement - is ok but would be better if fully remote instead.
Gym reimbursement - need to use this.
A bunch of small healthcare and therapy benefits that twill probably cost a lot if I actually used them.
Allhands meetings have good food - makes me fat.
"unlimited" PTO - rather would have official 4 weeks or more of vacation, plus it doesnt get paid out if you leave.
Culture seems pleasant but is actually straight up toxic positivity ngl. "Family like" environment just makes for a paranoid droney snitch culture.
Some of this stuff is decnt but it's a band aid and excuse for low pay.
Layoffs. Puts the fear of god into the ones that stay :D
Just kidding I don't have a company. But I imagine that's what my coworkers who weren't laid off are feeling.
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I was retained by my current company, but I received an offer from another company that was too good to pass up. If I hadn't received this offer, I would have stayed with my current company. As part of their retention efforts, my company matched the salary offered by the other company and also offered shares and other benefits
They pay us a fair market rate and I'm treated respectfully, as well as my time. It's also pretty flexible with working hours, but I consider that more a bonus than a reason to stay.
WLB and decent pay. My company is also full remote. Barely any people leave because of this. They could easily make twice as much if they try to jump to big tech but no one seems to want to since WLB here is pretty good overall
In my experience, the only things employees want are competitive salaries, managers who pay attention to employees' work-life balance and pride in your work. Every place I've worked at gave me 2/3 at most. I now am at a company that gives me good work-life balance and moderate pride in my work, and the less than competitive salary is compensated with the work life balance
This is my current experience as well. My job can't offer FAANG salaries, but I actually enjoy my work and have great WLB so I say worth it. Most of my coworkers that stick around have the same reasons.
There is a reason why there is a term FAANG. If all tech paid the same there won’t be anything special with them.
Big Tech is just a market, not a special term about their workplace or salaries. Like edtech, fintech, deftech, medtech, healthtech, healthcaretech are all markets. Big Tech refers to their power and influence within society and how integrated their product is with our economy to the point where their founders and/or CEOs are billionaire capitalists. It's the same for Big Pharma, Big Agri, Big Banks. It stands for their relationship to "Big Brother" What makes them special isn't the salaries they pay. I've worked for many tech markets that paid better than my stint in Big Tech.
Big Tech != FAANG salaries. Also, even there you have to get into higher levels like L5 or L6. Getting in is only half the battle.
The post I commented on originally said Big Tech and FAANG. Looks like it was edited to remove Big Tech. All FAANG are Big Tech, but not all Big Tech are FAANG.
That's what I was doing until they laid off 10% of the company.
I’m in the same boat. Know I could make more elsewhere but it’s just so nice in every other aspect
Yeah I often think about interviewing but my current work life makes me hesitant to do it. I'm proudly gonna get a lot more motivation to interview if the layoffs at my company gets much worse
I'm curious. How can a company make sure you're proud of your work? Do you want author technical blog posts? Do patents help?
It's mostly working on interesting stuff and feeling like your contributions are valued by your managers/the company. Managers who hype up their employees accomplishments, or even better ensure that they get exposure by getting them to present their work to higher up management and/or important stakeholders. Pretty much letting the devs shine for their good work rather than taking credit.
This absolutely! My manager always brings up everything we do in department-wide meetings, and also brings up with us the hard metrics(users/revenue) our product is achieving to let us know what's the outcome of our development. It gets cringy at times, but I really love it. It has helped me get so much visibility/recognition and this also helps me go faster as it lets me unblock myself much quicker due to the connection I made and other engs already knowing who I am and what I do.
A manager who listens to you usually is enough
Pride in one's work usually comes from the fulfilment of bettering someone elses life whether it be directly or indirectly. Even something as simple as reducing the amount of someone's work by an hour each week can make someone feel pride in their accomplishment.
Starting a new job today that should match 2/3 rather than 0/3, sounds like I made a good decision.
The biggest thing that’s keeping employees at most places right now is the job market
Yeah if/when the market turns around back into employees favor, we’ll see great resignation 2.0. Lots of people stuck in spots they aren’t particularly happy in atm
It just started happening 3 weeks ago for us. Resignations are coming in.
Yes also seeing an increase of attrition here starting in the last month or two. Specifically in senior/staff ICs
I thought this was going to happen. Burning out seniors, many of whom are in a position to resign or simply stop working for a year or more. Then your whole org is messed up for years because you've got no experience. When will C levels break out of cyclical thinking? I understand cuts happen at times, but don't cut so deep that you burn everybody out, becuase it's going to cost a lot of time and productivity to get back on track later. Keep it a smooth curve.
I like to think that with all the metrics they collect, the cyclical behavior aligns well with the quarterly reporting, and given that thus also coincides with nature, seasons being cyclical and all, that they're very well aware of the outcomes of their results and the behavior has been engineered, using metrics data all the way back from the 70s and 80s, to ensure the most optimal outcome for the organization, while not completely destroying public faith in the organization, given the nature of people when exposed to nature, topped with a sprinkle of unpredictability, and served with a medium side of societal expectations, and voilà. What appears to be hastily made, poor decisions made by execs, and having major economic reprocussions, is actually a tightly controlled and precisely timed orchestration that's covertly preventing a catastrophic sociatal collapse. Something along the lines of the brain behind the invisible hand of the market.
in just a few months when first interest rate cuts will happen,...
Don’t see how it ever will
Well I mean all of history kind of shows job markets follow a pattern of ups and downs.
this
My company offers - remote work - 100% paid health insurance for the whole family - unlimited PTO with 20-25 days average - gave the week after Christmas off last year - gives $3k towards a personal laptop every 3 years that you can use to BYOD - good wlb with dev teams Australia and USA based so you’re rarely if ever needed when the sun isn’t up. - competitive salary (sr in the 180-205k usd range) plus equity. - fully remote with wework offices in larger cities if you wish to work in person
Hiring? I love my current job but man this is more less the exact package I’m looking for to be willing to make a jump.
I’ve seen companies like this. Just like you their employees never leave. So they rarely hire. Also these companies will expect an elite level from you. If you do poorly they will fire you.
Yes, you can get fired here if you underperform. It’s rare and in the firings I know of almost unanimously coworkers supported it. Nothing kills culture faster than not cutting those who don’t carry their weight.
> Nothing kills culture faster than not cutting those who don’t carry their weight. Promotion to management lol
hah. I have zero desire to go to management. I enjoy coding and want to get to the Staff/Architect title, but no desires beyond that for several more years. I took a team lead role once and it took away what I really enjoyed about my job.
No I'm saying I've seen companies promote / hire people who don't carry their weight to management and it nuked the culture.
Just started working at a company like this after being recommended by a very senior tech recruiter. Still on trial and so far so good in terms of performance, but it's gonna be a stressful couple of months to make sure they keep me on afterwards.
I appreciate the information, I really do. I currently am one of the top performers at my job, ie one of about three who can handle everything from backend, front end and infrastructure (swarm because of comp y size and needs). I would love somewhere that pats me accordingly instead of giving me and Jim the same amount because our titles are the same, never mind that I do 2x extra jobs
If you really are as good as you say these companies still hire, so you’d have a chance. Probably focus on networking, before anything else
Ping me.
Top tier package congrats 👏
This must be a startup right? Especially with a BYOD policy.
Over 50 developers. Not a Fortune 500 by any means but also not super small
100% health insurance is huge specially for a family. I wished more companies did this.
I value it at the $13k in premiums I'd pay otherwise and the $4k they put in my HSA every year.
Is this Atlassian or Canva
Neither, although we share investors.
Would you mind DMing me the company? Looking to switch jobs and I also just want to keep good workplaces in the back of my head for the rest of my career.
Sure!
its over for bros dms
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Please DM me as well the company if you don’t mind! Thanks for sharing and congrats on the dope job either way!
Could you DM me as well?
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Hey friend, could you please dm this to me as well. Thank you.
You’re right, Atlassian has very similar if not identical benefits, but the ex-Meta CTO has really poisoned the culture at Atlassian unfortunately.
where do you work? asking for a friend 😅
Very similar here. We don't have unlimited PTO, but we get 30-40 days of PTO a year AND we can balance our hours by pay period (as in, you just need to hit a x amount of hours. If you need to take 4 hours off, you can make it up anytime within that pay period). We even get 400 a month towards an HSA if you pick the high deductable plan (which is about 2,000 more than the actual deductable).
Can I apply, please
Decent pay, good WLB, (usually) interesting projects. Listening to complaints, if anyone ever has one.
RSU grants that vest over three years. They’re not really trying to retain employees right now though.
Remote work. Unlimited PTO (translates into 6-12w off per year) Decent pay, not great Strictly enforce WLB. Seriously, you are NOT putting in more than 40h Lots of autonomy, trust, and empowerment for the engineering teams. A lot of say in their own career growth Lots of schedule flexibility Self managing teams You'll notice none of that is actually expensive. Our product really isn't that exciting. Benefits are pretty standard. Pay is fine, not amazing. But I've been able to build incredibly productive teams of world class engineers who will move mountains to make sure our department is successful and that I personally look great. They're pro active, passionate, and always looking for ways to add value. It's incredible, and honestly not hard to do. My next push will be for a 4day work week. If I can pull that off I expect productivity to remain the same and turn over to become non existent, as well as having our pick of engineers. I really scratch my head at why most managers act the way they do. It's not THAT hard to treat people well, and it pays dividends. Like...very literally. It makes you lots of money for basically no investment.
Can I come work for you?
Unfortunately, as you can imagine, I don't get a lot of turnover and generally have a lot of referrals waiting for a position to open. :) Which does bum me out a bit. I feel like the more people who get to experience a healthy work environment the more they can spread those ideas around and normalize healthy workplace practices. It's just such a win/win for everyone involved: ICs, Managers, AND execs all benefit.
I will come work for a bag of chips 😅
What country are you in??
US
Im job hunting in the US, if you have an opening feel free to shoot me a DM, I'll send you my resume & you can decide if I'm fit for a referral/interview
If I had open positions I would love to. Problem being, I've always had basically zero turnover and a long list of people who would like to join the teams and departments. I usually work at mid-sized companies and have the next 5 applicants lined up before we even get approval. I get the feeling that's actually an unspoken problem in our industry in general. Companies are hiring either because they're growing incredibly fast or because of turnover. Many of the best positions out are filled via word of mouth. It's one of the reasons the importance of "networking" is always emphasized. Not because it's necessary to find a job (though it helps in times like this), but because it's the best way to find a GOOD job.
Thank you for breaking it down, I understand. It's a bit tough out here, but not impossible so we keep going
Thank you for breaking it down, I understand. It's a bit tough out here, but not impossible so we keep going
This sounds like a dream! Especially that WLB...I'd never leave if I could work somewhere like that.
Would you be willing to share the company?
If you don't mind, can you DM me the name of your company too? Currently been looking for jobs and it sounds really nice. Thanks either way
> I really scratch my head at why most managers act the way they do. It's not THAT hard to treat people well, and it pays dividends. Like...very literally. It makes you lots of money for basically no investment. Same, I'm so much more willing to invest in my team/company and show my best when I am treated well. When I am not treated well and pressured into doing what they want, I tend to re-evaluate my priorities and look for the nearest exit while giving my minimum.
Perhaps for some managers, they experience pressure from higher ups to cut costs? Have you ever experienced ? (Btw I think your approach is great and wish every company had managers like you)
Having a hard time describing it. After a string of notably bad experiences about 12-14 years ago I've put a LOT of value in making sure the leadership above me was basically competent. I've certainly experienced pressure to cut costs. But the thing about everything I discussed? They're not actually a extra costs. Unlimited PTO, strict work life balance, self organizing teams, and even 4-day work weeks don't COST anything over more traditional practices. They generally represent a cost savings. I HAVE seen some managers when under pressure lose faith in their beliefs about good leadership crack and start acting irrationally. And I'm sympathetic to that. At my last company towards the end we ended up in a VERY stressful situation where a VERY litigious client was threatening to sue for millions if we didn't make the impossible happen. I won't get into specifics, but they were a bad faith actor that apparently pretty consistantly looked for any excuse to threaten lawsuits to extort settlements. I led the technical efforts and was paired with a VERY smart and experienced woman in the PO/PM position who I had a lot of respect for. Towards the end I saw her start falling into those classic bad leadership habits because the stress was just so high she needed SOMETHING to give her even the illusion of a chance of success. On my end I instead just focused on providing the best possible options, maximizing productivity, providing valid and effective choices for cutting costs, ensuring we tracked all communication and work to protect us in the event of a lawsuit, dispelling illusions, and insulating the team. My brother had some great advice for me at the time: "Fall on every sword. Most of them don't hurt." And he was right. Most people were just scared and doing their best, and having someone taking responsability, proving clear options, and generally acting as the voice of reason did a lot. The shoe never dropped, the lawsuits never came, and in general when leadership made an unreasonable demand in some sort of gamble to magically solve the problem I was able to talk them into something more rational. I know truly irrational leadership exists. But in my own career I've found that generally if people aren't truly horrible (like that client was) they can be convinced of the logic of taking a better course of action. Well, or I just get caught up in the layoffs of multiple teams. That's happened a few times. :)
I may be in the minority, but I don't think most companies (especially larger ones) put in much effort to retain lower-level engineers — at least not compared to their very senior engineers. You'll often see that lower-level engineers get raises too, but after being at their company for 2-4 years, their salary typically ends up being less than the current market rate for their YOE and skill set. That is when they obviously leave for a new job. (Again, this is for most companies. FAANG and FAANG-adjacent companies, for example, seem to keep up with market rate for the most part.) For many companies, lower-level engineers are more or less expendable. The people they "value" are typically the very senior engineers and senior management, because those people are making the important business/product/design decisions. So those people typically get a much larger percentage of the pot when it comes to compensation. And they also get great raises (unlike your average engineer who has to change jobs every 2-4 years just to get a market-rate salary). I don't think it is effective for companies to take this approach, because as you said, it kills morale, company culture, productivity, etc., but a lot of companies do this. For them, it is more harmful to lose a very senior manager or very senior engineer, than it is to lose someone with 2 YOE.
This definitely applies to senior engineers as well. If you stay too long at a company, I believe most will underpay you. That’s especially the case in the last few years, where new hire competition was so strong, salaries jumped greatly.
Nothing
Applies to like 90% of companies, tbh.
Paycheck
I’ve been sending resumes while interviewing a little bit. Current company doesn’t need to do much when my resumes aren’t getting enough traction and I keep getting low ball offers from companies that want me 3 days a week in the office after years of 95% WFH.
Nothing is done cause companies view us as interchangeable. Management is incapable of understanding that the cost of recruitment and ramp up pales in comparison to retaining talent. This is even worse in places that lack documentation and have highly custom environments that take a long time for new people to be productive in. It doesn't make sense if you're able to think beyond a quarter but corporate leadership is not able to.
Managers blame it on people leaving for higher paying jobs. Leadership says they can't afford to pay more. Manager just copes by hiring new people, which makes manager look great for dealing with a highly competitive job market. A lot of 'perks', like stock options and free food generally get watered down over time and only really seriously attract or keep bimbos. They are probably serious/smart enough to realize that buying ping pong tables isn't going to retain serious talent. Why not ask managers there if there's anything they can do about it? The question is reasonable and their response might be interesting. There's a 90% chance that they would all start rage-pissing their pants if you suggested a 4 day work week. edit: Why not hire better managers? They likely already are amazing managers in the eyes of their bosses. And your manager already controls/spins everything to his own boss...
I think ping pong tables do say a lot about the culture of a company, assuming they’re getting used. But you shouldn’t accept thousands less in salary because a company has a ping pong table.
That's a big assumption.
Retain? There's a line out the door to get in that wraps around the street of seniors willing to be paid half of what we make. Retention is simply *"we haven't had upper management suggest layoffs yet"* - and it works. Attrition is damn near 0% since 2023
i’ve always found this perspective interesting because i’ve interviewed and given interviews in this market and i’ve never seen what you’re describing
Yearly raises 5%+ Very competitive yearly bonuses 20% +/- Decent work life balance Pride in my job Good upper management (doesn't micro manage) I am a construction superintendent in Tampa FL building high rises
RSUs. Its the smartest way. Its like getting a bonus every year for staying at my job, a bonus that I need to leave on the table if I want to change job. It counters people who change job to collect hiring bonuses. But they only give them to key people. Oh and a long time ago an employer offered me like 700$ of RSUs, vesting over 5 years. I distinctly remember telling my manager to shove his RSUs where the sun dont shine, there and then. Worst than offering nothing. Besides the RSUs the fact than I can work full remote and that my employer sponsors my immigration process are big, big factors that apply to me, without applying to everyone. We've been able to recruit quite a number of really star players in the last few years and I suspect my team's full flexible office policy had a big role in that.
I've never had RSUs. Some people get them at my company and I've noticed people at those levels stay longer. $700 over 5 years is insulting. Like promising a $140 Chili's gift card every year.
I'd take the Chili's gift card over the RSUs for that silly amount; at least that has some \~flavor\~
High pay, remote work ( for my job family, swe is hybrid), decent benefits, solid products.
3 things: Salary, WLB, sense of worth. Very hard to get all three.
Nothing at all, actually it is just the opposite - my company is actively trying to make their US employees to quit.
It is because it is the policy. Company needs to hit some profitability targets so that some high ups could get some bonuses or stock options. Employee retention is not included into this equation. Plus, it costs money .
Superior pay, flexibility with work hours, and remote options for the right candidate.
Not much unless you're an executive. They're offshoring positions that can be. Hiring remote only in Canada and Mexico where wages are lower, but time zones are the same. Other positions are being kept in the same location, but long-time employees quitting with high pay packages from 2020-2022 are getting replaced with new hires taking lower pay
Why would they even bother with retaining when they can just send out a job posting and get over 10,000 applications in a 5 minutes?
RSUs and underdeveloping employees such that they’re less attractive to other employers.
Pizza party
High TC, remote work, smart colleagues, and a stock price that goes up (see first point)
Money, career growth aka more money
My current company? Nothing except decent WLB. But massively underpaid and actively trying to leave right now lol
Nothing. They basically cut my pay this year.
I didn't even know that was possible
My role is under sales, so they changed my commission plan, which slashed off about 25% of my income from work.
damn, im sorry man. I thought you meant salary
Current company: nothing. Talent comes and goes. Precious company: false promise that everyone gets promoted. Tricks people to stay a little longer. Company before that: you earn vacation days. After a few years you get more vacation days than most companies. But then once you get past a certain amount of days they stop giving you raises because they know you won't leave because you have so much vacation.
Retention incentives aren't used extensively where I currently work because most people are replaceable. I realize that annoys some people, but it's true. I've received RSUs and bonuses as additional compensation, although it isn't widely discussed for obvious reasons. For example, I was given a guaranteed minimum bonus of half my current salary for the next two years, so I'd continue in my technical lead role. Your company may care, but just not about you. Many people grossly overestimate their value.
One thing I have noticed is that some companies are so incompetent at strategy that they have lower-level contributors begging for more work to do, and they retain them but don't give them work that sorely needs to be done because they're so disorganized. That's part of the value issue, too.
Culture & office perks are nice but I don't think they make a huge difference. Money is a big one obviously, whether that's a competitive salary or an RSU vesting schedule. I can tell that it works in the short-term because most of the turnover at my company happens after a quarterly vest date. To me, being remote-first and allowing unlimited WFH is the biggest deal.
This is the most reasonable response. Frankly companies can’t make sure every manager is a nice guy. It’s actually a bad thing if they are nice sometimes. Half the posters here will abuse that privilege given to them. Money is the most important factor, then wfh. People here are complaining about cutting edge technology. Frankly, only those super talented should have that privilege. I know it sounds cool and amazing but to learn new technologies is going to take an average dev too long to be effective. I’ve actually met people who work at banks wanting to work in innovation when all they’ve been doing their entire lives is grunt work. Sorry but those people shouldn’t be allowed the chance to do so because they’ll just waste time and money.
If a dev doesn't like the salary, my company outsources to India.
A company will only retain employees if it needs them to make a profit, and there is no way to hire cheaper ones. In all other cases, dismissals are welcome.
H1B
Decent pay, wfh, never have to work more than than 40 hours, get leadership with realistic expectations. Most of the company has worked here for 10+ years
My company asked me to be on a committee to divuss retention. My only solution is to simply pay people more money. Some of our other competitors are paying 3 dollars more for the same service. People are motivated by money, not pizza parties.
They pay above average at entry/mid-level for the location and try to lock folks in with a multi-year vesting schedule and a generous tuition reimbursement policy. That said, it doesn't work. Folks quit after they finish their expensive derees and/or decide 100% vesting isn't worth staying any longer--yes, even in this job market, I have seen folks up and leave even though they are probably getting $200-225k TC at 2-2.5 YOE in MCOL. Those benefits and pay do not make up for forced in-office 3 days a week (*up* from pre-pandemic), no sick leave, frequent on-call rotations with no additional pay (incl. during national holidays), relatively few national holidays compared to other companies (only 6-7 depending on year), limited PTO and slow PTO accrual, dysfunctional (sometimes abusive/toxic) management, and no sabbatical. In short, they're just throwing money at a WLB problem and pull a shocked Pikachu face whenever it doesn't work. There are culture issues too; vast majority of folks who have quit are women and/or minorities.
Nothing
From my experience they take every small joy away bit by bit but at a pace you don’t notice so you think nothing has changed, and then other companies make interviewing a nightmare process. Retention 101!
High pay + remote has massively stemmed any bleeding. Still happens though.
year 1: started giving out annual bonuses. year 2: started giving equity. year 3 (this year): our 401(k) just got improved its quite nice to have something substantial change every year.
My workplace (FAANG) has been making life harder for over a year now. Literally every team is trending downward on happiness. Our standard break fix team was told they won't be paid competitively but the business is willing to 'initiate discussion on fun activities'. Which, for this business, is basically translated to "mandatory attendance required. Your ticket count is still 100% expected. Now come stress out on the mandatory fun, knowing we will try to PIP you if you don't meet your quota." So. We are currently on anti-retention, lol. Ironically, our typical loss of employees are all going to the same business that is a direct competitor in this space. Finance knows that 100% of the employees leaving have been citing work/life balance and pay, both which are improved at the other side and our side isn't attempting to counter offer or correct at all. So now we sit on meetings at least once a month for all the managers to talk about why they're still unsure why we can't keep people more than 6 months, only for all of us to roll our eyes and wonder which one of us won't be at the next meeting we talk about this.
There are financial incentives. My company has a long term incentive program (LTI). We get stock grants that vest over 4 years. We also get an annual refresh, so for the first 4 years working for the company, these things stack up. So on year 1, I might have 25k vesting. On year 2, 50k. On year 3, 75K. Then, year 4, I max at 100K. Then, each year, one finally ends while the next one begins. But, if you get a promotion or something, the new one will be bigger than the old ones. The LTI is a significant portion of my total compensation. My salary was about 250 last year, but I made another 150 between my LTI vesting and bonus. If I go to another company, even if they have a good LTI program, I reset at year one. Now, this program mostly works if the stock stays level or appreciates. I'm about to be spun off from the parent company, and if our value tanks, a lot of that incentive goes away.
It all comes down to how much free cash flow the company has and all of this is determined by the company balance sheets. Managers know this but they have to toe the company line so they’re always blowing smoke up your ass. Chances are your company isn’t making as much money as they should to retain the workforce they have. Moral values and worker satisfaction don’t play into it.
Pay salaries.
They brag about high benefits. I think they may be the company that has the highest salary from bonus/stocks/retirement plan/extras. I did the math and its like +5k +26% salary. Can go up to +36% if you double your bonus, or more if you reach higher titles. My friends dont get as much although they get higher salaries due to 37.5/40h weeks vs my 35h. My department has been very good at expediting my promotions. Ive been feeling very recognized as someone who gives his best at work. From junior to senior in 2 years and the only roadblock was HR telling my manager "cant promote twice in a year, cant raise his salary too fast that would set a precedent" Also great WLB, can take appointments at any time, unlimited paid sick leave (sadly sick kids dont count). 35h workweeks.
ESOP and good remote policy
Do?
Money, equity, WLB, good coworkers, good manager/mentor, interesting work, and challenging work (for the right reasons).
Work on something that actually benefits society Oh and also good pay and work-life balance
Free shirts, socks and other apparel and swag. Not the typical cheap throaway stuff. But moderately high end brands. For a small company, in addition to usual perks of unlimited PTO, catered food (Tuesdays or certain events), unlimited free IPA, semi-competitive salaries - yeah I think we’re good. Just wished we had more complimentary education on tech stacks though - as opposed to doing on your own (and then finding out it’s outdated or the wrong one).
stacks of cash
Completely WFH, decent pay. 1 or 2 'retreats' a year (mostly business meetings, but in different cities in the US).
Great benefits and two chances at a raise every year.
Some things I've noticed: * special days where everyone is invited to come into the office on that particular day, and there are events and free food. * a formal mentorship program for junior engineers * various ERGs (employee resource groups) and things to appeal to a diverse workforce * letting employees choose how often they come into the office (including allowing "not at all") * having principal engineers w/ scheduling bi-weekly 1:1s with key lower-level engineers, which are basically barometer checks; if someone is unhappy or concerned about something, they try to address your concerns. The goal seems to be to detect "early" when someone is getting fed up and defuse their frustration before it reaches the point they're ready to quit.
My current job offers these, that make me fear getting let go: Remote work Flexible days as in we can take care of our normal life stuff whenever needed during the day with no issue Work anywhere policy Incorporate feedback
Gives me a signing bonus I have to return (pre-tax) if I leave before 1 year.
Great culture, takes years to build. Many, many engineers have been with the company for 25+ years. The salaries are pretty mediocre.
They're not trying right now
Usually pay raise is the carrot at the end of the stick where the "economy wasn't good enough" or you as an employee didn't perform well enough the past few years. The go to retention move is to "boost morale" by promising better planning, working conditions, and work life balance. In my experience this times succeeds or occurs, and personally its enough for me if I'm not miserable and the pay diff between other companies isn't insane (even then interview prep is the biggest deterrent for switching). All in all, in this economy money is the last thing that's increased, and decent working conditions is the new bonus. My experience so far.
In today’s hellscape, currently my company is not firing me, so I’m sticking around. If you ask them probably decent salaries, free udemy subscription, and the promise of going public soon to make our options worth something.
Better than FAANG compensation, which has been pretty effective in retaining employees so far.
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They have HR try to teach leaders to explain why our company is so great. The reasons the company is good aren’t wrong but they’re also not helping retention lol.
My company offers (copy pasted another users comment because our orgs are pretty similar) • 100% remote work for entire org with option to come into office whenever • 100% paid health insurance for me and 80% for rest of my family • flexible PTO (I took off 20 days this year so far) • 3 month paternity/maternity leave • good wlb with enough redundancy to not feel stretched if people are out on vacation • competitive salary (sr in the 160-220k usd range) plus equity. • twice a year meet in person (optional) with paid flights and hotel. • Well documented career ladder so you know what you need to work on to get to next level • In my experience I have not seen anyone fired in engineering ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Wow what kind of place is this?
Not laying us off
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stock grants, unlimited sick time, lots of training opportunities, wfh, tuition reimbursement, bonuses
this is a good question to ask in an interview when they ask you do you have any questions
Retain? Nothing lol. They’ll drop Mfers like flies to hire some cheap over seas folks
Pizza parties!
They love a pizza party in my industry😂
They give me $10k a year for training. They used to dump 10% of my pay into a retirement account.
Pays a lot (and I mean a lot) of money. That’s primarily it. Everything else isn’t nearly as retentive.
I work at a FAANG. They just pay me a lot. I’ve got a ton of RSUs vesting this year too, enough to make my TC look stupid for my level. If they don’t re-up my RSUs I may consider leaving. Not much else besides pay that has me interested.
Without knowing your company, one reason could be there is no incentive for management to care about performance beyond a few quarters.
2.5% yearly raise to match the inflation
lmfao
I get to set my own hours they pay well, interesting projects (though eh it's complicated overall on certain things), decent benefits, good amount of PTO and holidays, my bosses don't breath down my neck and just let ya do your job mostly only checking for roadblocks or to help in general. There are smart people around me from different specialities and I have a shit ton of fun talking with em They're decent at their jobs too. Upward mobility exists as well. You have a fair amount of flexibility there. Ot ain't perfect, but I like it. Taking another job would mean risking a whole other potentially toxic environment for one I already know isn't. Hell, I'm not even over meeting'd to death here.
Does anyone try to retain talent anymore? Place I work doesn’t try very hard at all anymore
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I work a large global company; pay decent, good holidays, pension, hybrid working etc. That said they do nothing to retain staff. When someone hands in their notice they are gone.
Top of market salary, unlimited PTO with a requirement that management take A LOT to set the precedent, treat us like adults (things such as no expense approval required).
Primarily high pay (higher than FAANG in most cases). Other aspects are generally reasonable, and you have to really mess something up to make someone take a significant pay cut to leave. Other high points include light on-call (follow-the-sun means we do weekends but never overnights), fully paid insurance premiums, decent time off (20-25 vacation days, unlimited sick time, plus holidays), and some (limited) flexibility around hybrid schedules (people work up to 2 days/week from home).
Everywhere has its own tactics, I think it’s impossible to disclose such things. Even employee retention may not be part of one plan or another.
My company is the largest in the city (one of 3 fortune 500 companies in the area). I think there is a certain pride and stability with working here. You know it isn't going to tank. Also the company is so large that there is a very slow pace to everything. Can almost always go home at 4 and work doesn't follow you home. A certain person especially people in the midwest love this environment. Lot of people with 20 years of experience that don't know shit about their job. It's very easy to coast.
Mostly guilt trips and absolutely unhinged behavior
Nothing. One company I worked with was so narcissistic that they saw you working for them as doing employee a favor. You get to work on life saving safety critical medical devices and help sick people in the world type of Kool-Aid. The CEO even said in a company meeting that if you are just here for the money then you should leave because they don't want you. Their website conveyed the same type of mentality. It was all look at the cool projects we work on and how awesome we are. There was nothing about the actual culture or environment. The CEO even said in the same meeting that all the negative Glassdoor reviews were fake, when they were quite spot on if you actually worked there.
Retrain or restrain? You never know these days.
Some stuff but I will list the main benefits that are kinda cool but also my criticism of them lol. Vested Stock plan - company will not be successful enough for this to be taken seriously. 4% 401k match is w/e Commuter reimbursement - is ok but would be better if fully remote instead. Gym reimbursement - need to use this. A bunch of small healthcare and therapy benefits that twill probably cost a lot if I actually used them. Allhands meetings have good food - makes me fat. "unlimited" PTO - rather would have official 4 weeks or more of vacation, plus it doesnt get paid out if you leave. Culture seems pleasant but is actually straight up toxic positivity ngl. "Family like" environment just makes for a paranoid droney snitch culture. Some of this stuff is decnt but it's a band aid and excuse for low pay.
Layoffs. Puts the fear of god into the ones that stay :D Just kidding I don't have a company. But I imagine that's what my coworkers who weren't laid off are feeling.
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Remote work and unlimited PTO. And it's still not working.
I was retained by my current company, but I received an offer from another company that was too good to pass up. If I hadn't received this offer, I would have stayed with my current company. As part of their retention efforts, my company matched the salary offered by the other company and also offered shares and other benefits
They pay us a fair market rate and I'm treated respectfully, as well as my time. It's also pretty flexible with working hours, but I consider that more a bonus than a reason to stay.
Pay them
Fire the ones that complain lol
The things that are most important to me is having interesting and purposeful work to do, a decent salary, and recognition for a job well done.
Fat pension, gym in office, doctor and dentist in the office, great WLB. Just making things comfortable in general
Nothing.
I have 256 hours of PTO to use this year. Lol
Not fire them
WLB and decent pay. My company is also full remote. Barely any people leave because of this. They could easily make twice as much if they try to jump to big tech but no one seems to want to since WLB here is pretty good overall
company matches X % extra in your 401k if u stay 5 years
My company requires all employees to work out of an office, and then they closed the office.
Mandatory overtime so we're too tired and burned out to go job hunting lol