The brain drain they call out is real, and big tech ignoring it now will cost them later.
The people leaving now are heavily seniors and higher, who can easily jump ship. The juniors either don’t know how much they’re being screwed, or will take a bit longer to find a role.
Losing that senior talent though, that hurts, that sets projects back, that takes time to learn new things.
They think they can make it up with H1B workers they will underpay and abuse, and to some extent they’re right, but it’s just selling their futures down the river. Eventually the H1B employees will dry up or start demanding better wages as well. To some extent this is already happening with India, and some companies are now shifting their outsourcing and H1B hires to Pakistan. Anything to avoid paying compensation that actually reflects the contributions to the org’s success.
It tracks with the enshittification that every major tech company seems hellbent on these days
The same thing happened in journalism starting in the early aughts, and I don’t see anyone saying the field is better for it 20 years on. When your entire stable is people less than three years out of college, you’re going to get what you pay for.
