The parent's loyalty isn't to the company, it's to their direct reports (I assume). After you've been shielding people from the shitstorm for long enough, it can feel very difficult to fold up your umbrella and leave. Even if it's strictly better for you, it might violate your utilitarian instincts or personal ethics.
Of course, companies know this and use it as one of the many tools to suppress wages.
That's totally fair; if you think your replacement is going to make people under you's life worse, it might be hard to leave. I've never been a manager or had anyone reporting to me, so I can't speak to that point.
But I agree, I think this is kind of weaponized by corporations to avoid employee churn.
But it sounds like they didn't do great by their reports:
"I was a manager for over 25 years. I feel that I was a good one. My employees seemed to agree. I kept many of them on board for decades, and these were folks that could walk out the door, and get huge pay raises (my company paid "competitive" salaries)."
It sounds like they did great by the company shareholders who captured the value from below market salaries.
Kindness, respect and trust should be table stakes but it's not going to pay for my kid's college fund, keep up with 7% inflation, or help me build my rainy day fund for a pandemic driven recession.
Sadly, this is the type response I always get, around these parts, when I talk about things like kindness, integrity, honesty, and empathy.
In our industry, we get paid a lot, for our ages (I never made as much as even entry-level folks, these days, but I had plenty of money, and still do).
It's not my fault that so many people decide to live beyond their means. Many folks would be crazy grateful for the money we waste on frivolities.
I'm not a threat to anyone here. I live my life, the way I live it. I write the software I write, and I chronicle it here. There are alternative points of view, and alternative ways of living.
I'm almost deliriously happy, in my life now. I never understood how incredibly valuable it is, to be in a position, where my work is not getting turned into raw sewage, by clueless corporations.
There are other measures of success, in life, besides money.
Of course, companies know this and use it as one of the many tools to suppress wages.