To revist this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories.

To revist this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories.

To revist this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories.

To revist this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories.

Tech workers are moving between jobs with new demands, including the ability to work remotely, more flexibility in work hours, and more time spent on meaningful tasks.

“When I’ve talked to engineers, one of the things they’ve been prioritizing, in addition to freedom and flexibility, is really about how the work can be important,” says Kit Merker, the COO of Nobl9, a software reliability platform.

Merker runs a conference for site reliability engineers, and says many people in that line of work have been burnt out by the demands of keeping platforms up and running in the pandemic.

Merker says that some engineers are questioning whether the stress is worth it.

“One of the dumber things I’ve seen big companies do is survey their workers and say, ‘What would you like?’ What you get back is a 7-year-old’s Christmas list,” he says.

(He cited an executive whose assistant has refused to return to the office because of a pandemic puppy.) Giving individual employees their own custom work arrangements can become an HR nightmare, he says, and can lead to the expectation that employers have to accommodate any request.

“What is it actually going to take to retain talent and win competitive battles over new talent?” says Merker

Employers might not be able to compete without making concessions around where, when, and how employees work