Why Good People Leave Large Tech Companies
This post rings eerily true. Recently had a company all-hands where the CEO said basically the exact same lines. The whole &quot;if you don&#x27;t love working here, then you should leave&quot; bit made me cringe. Easy for you to say when you&#x27;ve got a significant equity share in the company.<p>The saddest realization I&#x27;ve had working at companies is how power-hungry people are, how little respect the people in power often have for those &quot;below&quot; them, and how important politics is even in a field like engineering that you&#x27;d expect to be meritocratic. Sweeping decisions are often made in a small room of a few &quot;higher-ups&quot; without any input or regard for those &quot;below&quot; them. Providing counter-arguments that question the decisions of the executive caste is often seen as a threat (how dare you question your leader?). The shy and humble rockstar coder who kicks ass gets little recognition while the smooth-talking sycophant gets accolades and climbs the ladder.<p>Corporations are authoritarian tyrannies with strict hierarchies. America was founded on the principles of democracy, but we tolerate tyranny in our workplace. The only way to change this is to remove the asymmetric dependency of the employee on the employer (eg. UBI).