I told my boss at the time that the reason I was leaving was because they where forcing us back into the office to do meetings from our desk in the middle of the pandemic (which it was, 18mths ago June).
I also told him that if they didn't change that policy they'd haemorrage their most senior staff.
Of the 9 lead devs they had at the time (including me) they lost 7 over the next 8mths (I already knew three where leaving in the interview just hadn't announced it yet).
It took them another 8mths to decide that remote might be an option, after literal decades of experience on their systems (not me I was a relatively new hire) walked out the door.
Now they are constantly posting vacancies for leads and fighting in a market where a lot the good jobs offer remote first if wanted.
Now if my boss was smart he'd have seen the writing on the wall, saved his dev team knowledge and could have hired before the boom in remote dev.
The thing you realise as you move up in seniority is that the people in "charge" are really no brighter than the people they are in charge off, he was my boss because he was the senior of the two devs on the original spinoff company and so just moved up a level every time they expanded, he was a fairly terrible manager of people and didn't have the backbone to deal with his boss when it was necessary.
References really aren't a think in the UK (at least no one has ever checked mine that I know off) so I was less concerned about that and I had zero intention of ever working for that company again so if I set the bridge on fire, so be it.
> Of the 9 lead devs they had at the time (including me) they lost 7 over the next 8mths (I already knew three where leaving in the interview just hadn't announced it yet).
> It took them another 8mths to decide that remote might be an option, after literal decades of experience on their systems (not me I was a relatively new hire) walked out the door.
I am starting to see this happen at work. We've undergone a re-org and it has been handled very poorly. Management doesn't seem to care, or at least they won't really acknowledge the struggles that we're dealing with at the team level, and as far as I can tell there's no plan in place to prevent the more skilled and experienced folks from walking right out the front door. Pay raises for most people were subpar this year. Many people were denied promotions for bullshit reasons. Etc.
> References really aren't a think in the UK (at least no one has ever checked mine that I know off)
I don't even list references. I offer to give references up if they're requested and that is stated plainly on my resume. My references are people I have had meaningful working relationships with, so if some potential employer is going to ring these people up I like to give them a heads up. They're people who I've spent time with in the trenches and who can speak to my technical competence, ability to operate under pressure, and my technical leadership abilities. Two of them have storied careers in technology, spanning back to the 80s, and are people that could be Googled.
Anyway, in nearly 15 years in this industry, I think that I've maybe had 1 company I was interviewing with ask me for my references and I can't even recall if they used them.
Pretty much the same with references. Of course, not really surprising. If I give the contact information for three hand-picked people does anyone really think any of them are going to say “run away fast”?
> Anyway, in nearly 15 years in this industry, I think that I've maybe had 1 company I was interviewing with ask me for my references and I can't even recall if they used them.
Background checks wont even always ask your permission before verifying your employment history. They usually won't even need contact info from you.
I also told him that if they didn't change that policy they'd haemorrage their most senior staff.
Of the 9 lead devs they had at the time (including me) they lost 7 over the next 8mths (I already knew three where leaving in the interview just hadn't announced it yet).
It took them another 8mths to decide that remote might be an option, after literal decades of experience on their systems (not me I was a relatively new hire) walked out the door.
Now they are constantly posting vacancies for leads and fighting in a market where a lot the good jobs offer remote first if wanted.
Now if my boss was smart he'd have seen the writing on the wall, saved his dev team knowledge and could have hired before the boom in remote dev.
The thing you realise as you move up in seniority is that the people in "charge" are really no brighter than the people they are in charge off, he was my boss because he was the senior of the two devs on the original spinoff company and so just moved up a level every time they expanded, he was a fairly terrible manager of people and didn't have the backbone to deal with his boss when it was necessary.
References really aren't a think in the UK (at least no one has ever checked mine that I know off) so I was less concerned about that and I had zero intention of ever working for that company again so if I set the bridge on fire, so be it.