[crop_rotation]

Most of them sadly can not get even a non remote job easily. Most of big tech, and Amazon specially, massively lowered their hiring floor to hire more over the years, and are full of extremely incompetent people who will find it hard to survive elsewhere. Orgs are more like fiefdoms and full of incompetent people. A lot of such incompetent people know they are incompetent and go to massive lengths to survive (getting credit for everything they can, acting as information gatekeepers whenever they can).

[neilv]

> Most of big tech, and Amazon specially, massively lowered their hiring floor to hire more over the years, and are full of extremely incompetent people

If that's true, it'd add insult to injury, for the people who were interested in the better FAANGs... but got turned off by the stack of months' worth of prep materials that FAANG in-house recruiters would send to candidates, for their kabuki theatre of interview processes.

One of my recent theories about the interview processes promoted by FAANGs is that they (by accident or design) tend to neuter students against becoming upstart competitors. Think of all those students in school who could have time for side projects, considering startups, developing skills that woudl be useful in startups... and instead FAANGs have trained students to conceive of the very skills as passing the FAANG interview rituals, and to spend their spare time practicing for those rituals. Not only are those students less likely to start a startup, but startups that happen still have to find the workers who are amenable to thinking like creative engineers, and working as a team focused on a shared goal, despite all the FAANG-like messaging to young developers that has infected CS departments and broader industry.

[crop_rotation]

The interview process, despite all it's shortcomings, was a good filter. It has been massively neutered in the recent years and is gamed every which way now by the hiring team's leadership, which is the one of the main reasons responsible for massive dilution in median talent.

The interview process is flawed, but it did prevent totally incompetent candidates. Now instead of being replaced with an alternative which measures something else, it has just been watered down.

[CSMastermind]

Large tech definitely hires in part defensively. They might not need all those people but no one else can have them either.

[x86x87]

Who can get a remote job easily? The top performers. Incoming dead sea effect.

[crop_rotation]

Yes, so return to office will cause top performers to leave. The incompetent people are not going anywhere due to such policies.

[hw]

I know lots of top performers who enjoy being back in the office, and low performers who would prefer WFH so they can coast under the radar

[x86x87]

Lol. Lots! All of the top performers.

Because sitting in traffic pissing your life and time away is #worthit.

Because being able to eat a healthy lunch you make youself is lame.

Because going to the office to attend virtual meetings on Chime is the best.

[DenisM]

Astute observation. I imagine this effect will eventually consume any company. Or will it? Do we know of a way to stave it off?

[crop_rotation]

No, sadly there is no good way to stave it off.

The thing is, the incompetents who are not experts in org politics get sidelined/moved out, and the ones who remain relevant are experts who keep rising with the singular goal of building their fiefdoms. They would sell the company for pennies if they could get 2 more promotions.

By now there are enough incompetent people at VP and director levels in most companies. There is no way to identify performers from the CEO level, and at VP and director levels the incentives are to find the people best for yourself, not for the company.