When I last worked at a FAANG I was very clear on exactly what they had to pay me to put up with their bullshit (I happen to be independently wealthy). This kind of “nominal raise” below inflation actually meant my salary went down, so I quit.

How did you know you're independently wealthy enough to do this? I'm at a stage where I'm sort of there and getting more and more annoyed by large organizational BS, but I keep thinking "one more year is that much more of a buffer."

Funny enough, it happened because of the 2022 layoffs. I figured I'd be fine (and was), but it made me go though the math and realized I was close to escape velocity. On one hand, it made getting excited about uninteresting work that much harder, but because I wasn't quite there with enough buffer, the bad job market still gave me anxiety.

I’ve never known anyone to escape that situation. The “one more year” attitude is pervasive.

In my case it was easy because I didn’t join the company until after I was already independently wealthy, from an IPO (quitting that company was an easy decision too, due to all the magical changes that happen after IPO).