Inc.

Coming Clean

Want to take the taboo out of an employee’s leaving your company? Begin by telling your staff the truth.

The average tenure in the software industry is short—somewhere around 18 months. Ours is higher. Just about half the 56 people at Basecamp have been with us at least five years, and 12 have been with us for more than seven.

But people still leave. Some want to try other things at other companies, or the fit isn’t right, so we have to let them go. It’s

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