Anti-poaching sentiment is an attempt by executives to drive down the status, pay, and perks of talent.
Programmers' and technicians' status and benefits are already artificially low due to lack of a professional licensing or guild system (thank goodness) and poor negotiating skills rampent in the profession (bad). Execs who pretend to value programmers and participate in anti-poaching schemes are stabbing their workers in the back.
Anti-poaching agreements, formal or implicit, are also illegal everywhere in the USA and most developed countries. They violate the Sherman Anti-Trust Act and its successors. These interviewees who brag on about how they're respecting their investors, partners, and friends by not poaching are admitting to a federal crime. The US Attorney from New York should be investigating.
Of course, the execs and our culture have succeeded in driving down the status of programmers enough that nobody much cares about crimes committed against them. Maybe they do need a guild.
Programmers' and technicians' status and benefits are already artificially low due to lack of a professional licensing or guild system (thank goodness) and poor negotiating skills rampent in the profession (bad). Execs who pretend to value programmers and participate in anti-poaching schemes are stabbing their workers in the back.
Anti-poaching agreements, formal or implicit, are also illegal everywhere in the USA and most developed countries. They violate the Sherman Anti-Trust Act and its successors. These interviewees who brag on about how they're respecting their investors, partners, and friends by not poaching are admitting to a federal crime. The US Attorney from New York should be investigating.
Of course, the execs and our culture have succeeded in driving down the status of programmers enough that nobody much cares about crimes committed against them. Maybe they do need a guild.