Are We Losing Our Best People?
When we have recessions (or whatever this economic slowdown is), people lose their jobs. At first, the marginal people lose their jobs, along with people who made bad job choices. However, since the layoffs started in the high tech industry, more experienced people are losing their jobs and have stopped looking for technical jobs.One of my colleagues, someone who could be a developer, tester, technical lead, technical project manager, is going to start a home-repair business. He’s an experienced person, who can teach how to develop more effectively, how to test more effectively, how to do effective process improvement. He’s only in his mid-40’s. But, he can’t wait any longer for a job. It’s time to make some money.He’ll be ok. In a couple of years, he may even return to technical work, assuming the jobs are there (as I assume they will). But he’s just one of a dozen or so people I know who are transitioning in their careers. So, are we losing our best people, the people with the most experience, and the knowledge to take us out of bad projects?I don’t know, and I’m concerned.
1 comment April 11th, 2003