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Comment by rantallion | Hacker News Reader

> 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.

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Yeap. Work my ass off and got rewarded with 3% this year. I have golden handcuffs with a retention bonus in early *2024* so they think I am locked in. Cue the shocked Pikachu faces when I resign soon because the idea of being there in 1.75 years almost gives me a panic attack.

> 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.

A raise keeping up with inflation says to employees that you do not believe they are any more valuable this year than they were last.

Most other companies would view e.g. 7 years progressing experience worth more than 4 years.. or 5 years with AWS experience is better than 2..

So I would argue it is not alright, unless it was the anomaly, not the expectation...

I'd argue that what you describe is seniority, which should be reflected in job title changes - with related salary increases. If your title does not change, you're effectively expected to carry out the same job as last year, so it makes sense to keep your salary static after inflation.

If your title does not change after 3-4 years, you can assume that management has no real intention to help you with career progression.

If your job title changes but you don't get a salary increase with it (apart from inflation matching), then that is probably the time to go to the job market and see what that title is worth elsewhere.

> I'd argue that what you describe is seniority, which should be reflected in job title changes - with related salary increases. If your title does not change, you're effectively expected to carry out the same job as last year, so it makes sense to keep your salary static after inflation.

this is what they say, but companies don't actually operate this way in my experience. companies tend to expect more of you after you've been there a while, whether or not they formalize this with a promotion. the title denotes a fairly wide compensation band with a lot of variation.

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