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Comment by Traubenfuchs | Hacker News Reader

I don‘t understand how someone smart enough to make 300.000 a year (That is an insane fortune to almost everyone, even in first world countries) feels entitled to a month-, year-long reduction of performance expectations because of personal tragedy.

There are thousands waiting for his position and they would kill to get it.

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I don't understand how a company who has been paying someone 300,000/year (not a fortune for a FAANG, in the slightest) does not understand that by acting this way, they guarantee they will lose an employee when the situation is over, vs gaining loyalty from them.

Loyalty is a farce, there is none. And the vast majority of FAANG employees are replaceable.

Not really, compensation is off the charts right now.

a) highly competitive landscape b) irreplaceable workers

pick one

What? The “competitive landscape” is for companies trying to hire people who can deliver anything, thus creating workers who absolutely cannot be replaced without severe ramp-up times on many projects.

The competitive landscape is across the board, not just for superstar devs. The vast majority are not "people who can deliver anything". The vast majority can be replaced.

Perhaps I was misunderstood: the competitive market is for devs who can deliver _something worth having at all_, not _any thing_ you want to deliver.

Not only lose an employee, but lose future employees as well. I'll never work for Amazon because of this crap, and I know I'm worth well more than $300k/year to them.

Companies, and Amazon isn't alone in this, don't care about employee loyalty. They will all hem and haw about giving someone making a 100k a 5% raise and talk about how they can't do a raise that 'high' but when that employee leaves, they'll backfill their replacement at 120k.

Yes, 300k is a lot of money, but for better or worse, a US based L5/6 at Amazon is just another cog in the wheel. They probably fired 100 or so of them the day this person was fired, and the following Monday, another 100 started.

It seems no more entitled than expecting health insurance or personal disability leave to me. Nearly all of us will face a few personal derailments that leave us unable to function much at some point in our lives. We could recognize that fact and mutually insure each other against it. Or we could just throw each other to the wolves? Do you want a cut-throat hellhole that will dispose of you as soon as possible, or just a nice place to work? Most of us want the latter, I think. Probably shouldn't be up to the employer like this anyway. The public employment insurance in my country covers partial pay for up to a year to look after a dying relative.

> That is an insane fortune to almost everyone

Pfft. No it isn't. It just illustrates how badly underpaid some sectors are.

The author seems to have been in a bit better position by not relocating to a high cost of living region. Still, when the "American Dream" term was coined - decades ago - the wages were much more "insane", as you put it. Even minimum wage could support a couple with a child above the poverty line.

300k a year (before taxes) likely can't even pay for his wife's healthcare, if he were to pay out of pocket (due to losing his job).

> There are thousands waiting for his position and they would kill to get it.

Not really. There are companies that pay even better, for a similar amount of effort, and better policies.

Human beings are entitled to a little empathy from other human beings.

Effectively tens of thousands of dollars stops being little empathy to me. I think reasonable move would have been new role like warehouse worker with new pay and clear expectations to fullfill.

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