Ask HN: How common is it for people to come back to a previous employer? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How common is it for people to come back to a previous employer?

38 pointsjtc33147 comments

Over the years I've seen a few former coworkers return and be rehired which got me wondering: how common is this?

I don't necessarily mean in an absolute sense (I think obviously it's a small percentage), but do you notice it "regularly"?

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It happens sometimes for any number of reasons. At GE people wrote 'see you soon! :)' on a co-worker's retirement card because retirees typically would return as a contractor doing the exact same job.

Perhaps less common, Larry David rage quit his writing job at SNL on Saturday and returned to the office Monday like nothing happened [0].

[0] https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/10/larry-david-re-enact...

Yes, it's also an episode of Seinfeld when George quits and acts like he was joking:)

the retire and come back as contractor is one of the problems with defined benefit (i.e. pension) plans vs defined contributions. there's no real point in doing that if its defined contributions (its your money). In a defined benefit, it only becomes yours upon actually leaving employment and hence you have these gimics. happens in govt too.

I see it pretty frequently. In my department of about 100, you see someone return every year or two. Leaders sometimes joke at employee departures that they will be back in 3 years.

I think it shows respect for employee autonomy and talent, and that good relations are not temporary.

It doesn't always sit well with the employees who stay and see peers getting 2 raises and two starting bonuses, but then again, nobody is stopping them from trying the same.

In 8 years I saw it once. A mobile app lead dev couldn't increase his salary at his old company, and they seemed a bit stuck on allowing him to do certain things. He joined my workplace at the time and was responsible for an app that moved nowhere. After 8 months he'd refactored the entire app, couldn't come up with more to do, and was slightly frustrated about the pace and anarchy, and he negotiated a deal with his old employer, who had realised how valuable he was. Nobody was upset, it was all cool.

I often considered joining an old employer. I never did because the ways in which they were stuck are still true, and I think "changing the system from within" can be a lost cause. But if I were truly stuck, I'd know who to call.

I did it once myself and it was one of the best career choices I made. When I returned, it was a much better place for me personally, it was a great morale boost for the entire team. I was truly welcomed and returned into an environment that was still very familiar to me, which was a much nicer feeling than joining a new company and dealing with all the unknowns.

I don't know about the moral boost, but I just had the same experience. Came back to the studio that I left 15 years ago because they wouldn't get the software package I wanted. They eventually did 3 years later.

It's a relief on every level to come back to such a great team.

I would say it is extremely common if: The company sells something where development needs a _lot_ of domain knowledge AND the employee is a subject matter expert in said niche domain knowledge.

In this situation a lot of the top people will just keep doing stints anywhere between 2 and 7 years bouncing between major competitors in the field.

Pharma, Automotive, Semiconductor fabrication, are good examples of this.

Arguably in some countries where the law allows it non-compete terms may limit this.

I don't see it in tech circles as much, but in other circles like consulting, banking, advertising, it's pretty common to see people constantly cycle back and forth between the same set of employers every couple of years. Think Goldman Sachs trader leaves for JP Morgan, then leaves for Morgan Stanley, then leaves for Goldman Sachs, and so on

It's not uncommon at all. I think every place I've ever worked I can think of at least one person who came back after leaving for some other opportunity. I also have at least one friend who left a FAANG and later went back to the same one after some time at a place they weren't happy with.

I've done it myself. I was with a small company for about six years. Over time, the focus of the company shifted away from what I was originally hired for, and it took me over a year to realise I was bored out of my brain.

Resigned and went freelancing. Remained on good terms and did the occasional small bit of work for them. About six years later the company focus swung back and they approached me with a, "We need to redesign our entire tool-chain and reckon it will take about two years, are you interested?"

I was, so said, "I might as well come back full time for that," and that was over six years ago now. They keep finding more stuff for me to do as technology bases are an ever moving target.

I've never done it myself, but I know quite a few people who have left companies I've been at and then come back. In all cases the companies were happy to leave the door open from the beginning. For me it is a sign of a good company. When I was leaving said company myself, it wasn't because I was unhappy there but because I felt like I needed to try something new. So I can imagine others doing the same and then deciding that the grass isn't necessarily greener after all. I am very happy where I am right now and it was the right decision, but I can totally imagine happily ending up back there one day. In some ways it still feels like "home".

I've seen it, and done it. It seems common enough in larger companies. Most of the time, it only can work if the departure was not for negative reasons - if the person left to pursue a new job, go to school, have or care for children, or those kinds of reasons... why not call your old job back up when you are ready to return to work?

I've also seen it when people work in a specific niche, but do not want to work under specific executives - when that exec leaves a company, their former staff are willing to return. In those cases, even though the departure was due to negativity, everyone tends to understand and respect that some people just don't work well together.

My last gig was about two years at a $1bn / 400 employee SaaS company. In my tenure, multiple people re-joined after leaving, and several people who left while I was there have since returned after I left. When I stepped down, I was basically given a standing offer to return whenever I'd like.

In my gig before that, at a blue chip tech company, in 7 years I never saw anyone return, but most of the departures were due to layoff/RIF so that somewhat makes sense.

I think it depends. I think in many companies it's unusual, but I've also worked for a company where it was not unusual for someone to leave, work somewhere else for a year or more, and then come back. But I think it was the only company where I've seen that happen.

I think it depends on why people leave. People who are fired because of the way they function are unlikely to get rehired, but people who are fired because the company is in financial trouble, might get rehired when the company is in calmer waters. Similarly, someone who leaves because they don't like it, are underpaid, hate the work environment, their manager, etc, are unlikely to return. But someone who likes it, but wants to try something else, might want to return.

The main risk that I see is that a company that knows you might see you as the person they used to know, and ignore any growth you may have had in the mean time. Rejoining a former employer requires open minds on both sides.

I have seen this good number of times. Few examples.

1) The employee leaves company. On first day, at other job figured that this is not the job profile he had expected. Calls back old manager. Old manager was more than happy and this person comes back as same positions.

2) A second level manager leaves company, joined back after 6 months as higher level manager. Salary increase was almost 25% than earlier.

3) Couple of women left after pregnancy as the maternity leave was not enough. Came back after things settled.

4) Couple of employees from India left the job. Went to US for study. After completing the study joined the same company in US.

I think it's pretty common for a few reasons.

If you're in big tech and love your job and know you're in a position where nobody else does it as well as you, you might see a career jump as your opportunity to get "rehired" into a higher level. This is very common with companies competing for talent in the same locations.

I also think from the expectations perspective, some people don't know how good they have it until they join another company. This can be eye opening and you want what you once had.

Lastly, for smaller companies, this is very common. There's something about smaller talent pools where your "deal" can be negotiated better than most big tech ones.

I did. Best thing I ever did. Was hired back with 25% more pay. After switching I realized the job I had was a very rare “not a web app with a database” and I wanted back to my old gig with actual interesting problems.

Just out of curiosity, what made you decide to leave in the first place?

I moved to a different, much more expensive city. Maybe could have asked to be allowed to work remotely, but I couldn't ask to be able to work remotely and get a 25% raise. But was asked to rejoin remotely and then I could of course ask to be paid competitively where I was living.

I know people who've done it. One person I know did 3 stints at the same company.

I almost returned to a prior employer and was in final discussions before accepting a different opportunity.

A good lesson to never burn bridges when you leave.

Depends on the company a lot. I had my first return employee last year and it was a huge morale boost. I know from a friend this is super common at Stripe. In general it’s a good sign of a supportive company.

I have done so one time. I actually would go back again but at this point it would have to be a remote job and the company culture is not remote.

It happens. I also had a few people come back. An entire team quit (4 people) to go work for a competitor. Two came back when the competitor screw them over, offering higher wages just for 3 months, and then linking the wages to an impossible schedule. One manager quit because of stress and came back a few years later for a similar job with a few less responsibilities.

Not in tech, but I've seen it in my current company across all departments and in middle management to upper management.

It seems to me it happens more when there's truly great people and interesting projects in general at the core of the company, but the dealbreaker is "temporary" stuff like salary, a stinker of a project, refusal to promote, etc.

Yes, It is usually related to individuals tied to a particular city or industry. There are only a handful of companies you can work for. Our CEO even once joked about how the best way to get a raise is go work somewhere else and then come back. (Which of course is saddening it has to be that way.)

It happens all the time. Large companies have specific processes for onboarding such employees, because you'd rather go in and reactivate all their old accounts vs creating all new ones again. Most will even add your past tenure to the years of service number (for benefits).

I've seen it before several times. I've also seem people leave, then change their mind later and (sadly) not be able to come back.

What's much more common to me is people from two organizations collaborating on a project and people leave one side and appear on the other.

My employer would essentially blacklist you if you left so you could never come back. They're getting desperate for people and are now making some exceptions. It's not very common though. Plus, most people don't want to come back (pay tends to be lower).

I may be an exception to the rule, but I went back three times to the same company in the last ten years for large pay increases and promotions each time (30% increase over previous salary the first go-'round, 50% increase over second turn's salary the second go-'round). I ended up leaving again both times after 1.5-2 years, largely for the same reasons I left the first time, i.e., fatigue and widespread low company morale. Totally worth it though as ultimately it helped increase my negotiating power for other opportunities I pursued in between those stints.

It's been about a year and a half since I last left them - I suspect one of their veeps will be reaching out sometime in the next few months just to "see how (I'm) doing"...I don't think I'd go back this time if they do reach out unless they throw obscenely obscene amounts of money my way.

some employers have a policy of not hiring back people who left (I believe Bloomberg used to have such a policy (if not officially, very well understood), but that might have changed when their CEO returned). Personally, I always thought that was a bit self defeating.

I did it myself. Just two months and half back I joined back a company I left in 2018. I left the company to work on more machine learning related projects and now I joined back as a senior DS. I really feel good about this move and I am happy I did it.

At my longest company, maybe 2/3rds of my group had left and come back at some point, including me. One was even was on his third time. After an acquisition, I was laid off with half my team and 2/3rds of them were back there within a year.

Happened to me 4 times at separate companies. One company I almost went back to a third time. Note that all of these were contract positions and usually just let go due to seasonal work shortage. All of them were tech companies except one.

Depends on the business. In electronic design automation it's common, because it's a small world, only three major companies, sometimes people go off and do a startup and it's bought up by one of the big three.

Seen it.

Did it myself. Laid off with a large group.

Attempted a start up.

Then someone who wasn't laid off called with an interesting new project, so I went back. Then I was laid off again, along with the person who had called me back.

Not going back for a third time...

Not uncommon at all.

I was recently brought back to do a weekend's worth of consulting for a former employer and help them bid on a new project, with the offer for a lead position on that project should they get it.

I think this is much more common for large companies (still rare though). I saw it happen exactly once when I was working for a large company early in my career. Never saw it happen again anywhere else.

I've seen it a couple of times, usually with a long-time employee who leaves for a new job, quickly realizes they landed in a bad situation, then comes back within a few months.

At a former employer, the running gag when someone was leaving was: See you in two years.

So yes, it happens more often than you'd think.

Happens often but I haven't done it myself. Depends on the management chain as to whether they "allow" it.

I've seen it once in my entire career. It worked out well for everyone involved, but it seems really rare to me.

It happened often enough at Amazon that people who did it were called Boomerangs.

Very common be it as a new employee or contractor.

It depends on the size of the company. At a large company, it seemed like people never really left the ecosystem. People find that "understanding how Microsoft works" is a highly paid skill that doesn't transfer well.

At one smaller company we had a lot of "boomerangs" - there was a new CEO and a new culture, and a niche talent pool in the industry. At first it was a sign that things had turned around. But after a while you get the sense that people who did this were kind of stuck in their career and horse trading their position around.

It is common around here. The local company is the biggest employee of the whole area and generally offers the biggest salaries. People often quit to try new and exciting things, but when it fails they come back, and if they didn't burn any bridges we often take them back, because why not.

A former co-worker of mine boomeranged at-least twice to the same company and team.

As other commenters have pointed out, its not uncommon, but my co-worker is an exception rather than the rule.

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