[bluefirebrand]

I think it's partly because companies have become very complacent with regard to employee retention.

I think a large majority of companies are happy to simply extract as much productivity as they can from their workers and reward them as little as possible. Employees are treated as disposable resources, not just in software but everywhere. No one has a vested interest in helping people climb the ladder.

In software we're very lucky because we can often improve our income and seniority level by finding new jobs. Most workers don't have that kind of opportunity.