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(Pexels)
Her breaking point came before the new year going into 2021. She was having a night in with Chinese food when she noticed she had missed calls from a client. She returned the call and was met with expletives and yelling. The next day, her manager tried to talk to her about it and she replied that she was off duty when the calls came in.
“He pretty much told me that work comes first and that I should be more responsible and deal with the situation before I go and do what I want to do,” said Buscemi, a 24-year-old South Austin resident. “And that was kind of the last straw.”
Buscemi left two months later, joining the chorus of people taking part in the Great Resignation, when the quitting rate reached historic highs.
(Maddie Buscemi)
Many of those workers took on new roles that gave them better pay or flexibility. As in Buscemi’s case where she now works for an e-commerce hosting platform entirely remote. “Definitely, I think the grass is greener on the other side sometimes,” Buscemi said.
But there are others who didn’t get a leg up after quitting in what’s being coined the Great Regret, and it reflects a March survey for USA Today that found that about one in five workers who quit during the past two years regret it.
A survey by the Pew Research Center found many people who switched jobs decided to leave due to low pay, a lack of opportunities for advancement and feeling disrespected.
And while many saw improvement in those areas after a job change, there are others who saw a shift in the other direction.
Fewer than half of workers who quit a job last year, 42%, say they now have better benefits, such as health insurance and paid time off, 36% say it’s about the same and 22% now say their current benefits are worse than at their last job.Brittany Buck, an Austin HR expert with Employer Flexible says in some cases, workers who made a switch didn’t consider how the company culture at the new job would impact their experience. Buck says that in the tech industry, this is especially common and workers made a decision solely on money.
For those reasons and others, some are hoping for a return to their old employer, a group that’s become known as “boomerangs.”
“At the end of the day, they may feel more embarrassed to ask for their job back,” Buck said.
But just because someone is coming back doesn’t mean employers are off the hook from reflecting on the reasons people leave. Buck says it’s important to think through what really happened. “Was it just money?” she asked. “Was there more on the table that we're not aware of?”
In Austin, especially, sometimes it can simply come down to pay. Buck noted Apple and Google can afford to pay high salaries.
Meanwhile, startups, which also play a major role in Austin’s job ecosystem, might not be able to absorb the costs of compensation offered by the big leagues. For example, one of Buck’s clients is trying to hire robotics engineers. “When you’ve got Tesla coming in, it’s a tough sell,” Buck said.
Buck says that can require the employer to consider some other perks workers might want aside from money, mentioning Elon Musk’s comments recently that Tesla workers need to be in person 40 hours a week.
For those like Buscemi, that’s a dealbreaker. When she made the leap out of her old job, she worked as a bartender while she applied for jobs that fit what she needed: remote and a livable wage.
“I've talked to quite a few companies when I was interviewing for the role. And they were telling me that it's remote and then in about a month or two months it's going to be back in the office, and they weren't paying according to that,” Buscemi said. “Gas prices are going up, everything's becoming more expensive. And then they want to pay you $40,000 a year? That's just not a livable wage.”
She eventually found something she likes with decent pay and sees room for other workers to do the same.“You can just go on LinkedIn and find a new role for a different company that will appreciate you and will not just replace you because you don't want to do crazy hours or revolve your life around work or always have to jump on if something happens,” Buscemi said. “And there's always something out there for somebody, you just gotta keep looking and keep digging until you find that position.”From Your Site Articles
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Popular
Google and Meta top list of compensation for Big Tech workers. (Pexels)
Big Tech, in particular, is driving record levels of job creation and population growth in Austin, so how high of salaries are these workers raking in? A March study found Austin is the best paying city in Texas for software engineers, with an average salary at $128,524. But aside from that role, these companies also have workers at warehouses and retail shops. Disclosures from the Securities and Exchange Commission give a peek at what the typical worker at these companies earned in the past fiscal year:
The average Google worker makes around the highest out of all Big Tech. In 2021, the median worker compensation was $295,884. The company, which first came to Austin in 2007, has more than 1,500 workers in Central Texas and will soon move into its downtown sailboat-like tower.
Meta
Just below Google, the median worker compensation at Facebook turned Meta last year was $292,785. With plans to take over what could eventually be Austin’s tallest tower, the company had around 2,000 Austin employees last summer and plans on adding 400 more. Outside of Austin, the company is growing its Central Texas presence with an $800 million data center in Temple that will start construction this spring.
Apple
AppleLast year’s median worker compensation at Apple sat at $68,254. Those part of the AppleToo movement, which includes some based in Austin has pushed for pay equity and career advancement opportunities. Its massive northwest Austin campus is set to initially bring in 5,000 employees in a variety of roles like operations, finance and engineering. Bringing down the median income compared to Meta or Google is the abundance of Apple retail stores; there are two Apple retail stores in Austin.
Amazon
Median worker compensation for Amazon workers is less than half of Apple’s at $32,855. At the start of the month, warehouse workers in Staten Island, New York voted to unionize and are now hoping to unionize Amazon workplaces across the country. Job security, better working conditions and union pay are among the priorities for the movement. In Austin, the company already has 3,000 Austin employees and will tack on more than 2,000 corporate and tech jobs in the coming years with its latest expansion at the Domain.
Tesla
The median compensation for a Tesla worker in 2021 is unclear. The disclosures list this information with executive compensation, which is required to show the ratio that CEOs make compared to other employees. Tesla has said it will be included in the 2022 proxy statement, which will be filed within 120 days after the end of the fiscal year. In 2020, it was $46,150, down from the year prior when it was $58,455. Indeed shows a range of average salaries at Tesla for this year, including $135,602 for a software engineer to $20.23 an hour for a production associate.
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