(Translation) "Why Your Best Engineers Are Interviewing Elsewhere" - by Junghan
Reading this article, I felt an empathy so deep it went beyond refreshing to feeling completely one with the content.
The article explains information delays in reporting across hierarchical levels within companies, improper problem handling,
dishonest reporting methods, and how these snowballing issues lead to employees quietly leaving,
situations that C-level executives can't comprehend, and the significant additional costs
incurred for new hires and technology maintenance as side effects—all connected through logical reasoning.
It's a fun read.
While reading this article, I realized that foreign companies face remarkably similar issues.
I understand that the company's perspective and each individual employee's perspective are inevitably different.
That's why freedom exists.
Companies have the freedom to pursue their mission, race toward their goals, and choose people to run alongside them.
Individuals have the freedom to align personal growth with company growth and pour 8 hours of their daily lives into the company.
This may sound ideal on paper, but there are always flaws.
For individuals, there's a high likelihood that their life at the company and their true personal life are separate.
So they end up choosing companies based on benefits and salary that allow them to sufficiently enjoy their actual personal lives.
Of course, that makes sense. Starting a family, pursuing hobbies, handling responsibilities outside of work—there's a lot going on.
Even the early-30s employee who once aligned their mission with the company's and charged forward
may find their personal life becoming more important in their 40s and 50s.
People naturally change over time with the seasons of life.
So to state my conclusion upfront:
since you can't align with a company's goals forever,
I want to say that you need to create your own goals to live by.
I'm also heading into my mid-30s, and I had strong ambitions for work and achievement.
Though just a junior employee at the company, I actively promoted myself
and took on many challenges and attempts to get my abilities recognized.
However, it seems these efforts didn't look good to middle management.
They probably felt I was disrupting the hierarchy, perhaps thinking I was overstepping.
As a result, being dismissed became routine, and even when I was right, my ideas were rejected
only to be recycled from their own mouths before being accepted.
At first, these situations frustrated me, but I've come to refreshingly (well, not quite refreshingly yet)
accept that these are things an individual can't change, and I'm trying to just do everything moderately while spending my time developing my personal life.
A colleague my age has a different perspective.
"I'm at a stage where I need to prepare for marriage, moving, and many other things. I hope things continue to flow comfortably and not too busily like now. This company is cozy and comfortable," they say.
Honestly, I find it disappointing.
Is it inevitable that employees' passion eventually cools and leads to resignation?
From the company's perspective, there must be many problems that could be improved, so why maintain the status quo?
Of course, the company did attempt a major overhaul to improve its closed and conservative internal culture,
but the reformed elements were all reverted due to pressure from long-tenured employees.
The company is making efforts, but since major changes carry risk, they're probably preparing gradually.
Or perhaps the current maintenance costs are more stable and cheaper than the opportunity costs.
It's a world where there's no need to feel disappointed—just prepare diligently and switch jobs to solve everything.
But since this was my first company, I have a lot of affection invested in it, which is probably why I'm rambling.
And I need to continue sharpening my individual skills as much as possible within the company!
If I prepare well, opportunities will surely come, and I'll be able to seize them.
The reason I'm writing this is because I want to show it to my future 40-year-old self, my 50-year-old self.
I'm curious whether I'll be representing the perspective of today's long-tenured employees, and how I'll be living then.
I'm also curious how this category of "work life" will change with the rapidly transforming world.
In the end, perhaps an era will come where individuals within companies take full ownership of a project from start to finish,
and their performance evaluations are based on that project's outcomes.