The mass exodus of safety engineers as described in a Science article makes me think that there's a parallel between the concept of exit, voice, loyalty and the concept of brain-drain, which I see as a potential Gresham's Law mechanism.
The staff effectively said "if our work is given so little heed here, we'll go elsewhere where it is" -- a classic brain-drain mechanism (and a frequent response to a declining firm or corporate culture).
That's also effectively a mechanism of the generalised concept of Gresham's Law -- applied not only to money, but to any quality valued (or costed) differentially, whether in one or multiple markets. A parallel that dates to the earliest descriptions of the phenomenon -- Greek playwright Aristophanes in "The Frogs" describes the behaviour as common to both coin and politicians, an observation repeated by American journalist H.L. Mencken in the 20th century, see his "Bayard vs. Lionheart".
A high-quality (and high-cost) team saw low professional rewards at Los Alamos, and decamped for greener pastures. Brain drain occurs for various causes, and not just compensation, but if the conditions for work, rewards, or oppression are discouraging in one location, the talent will generally go elsehere.
In WWII, much scientific (and other) talent, including much of that which developed the U.S. nuclear programme fled Nazi-occupied Europe. From the 1950s through the 1970s, and to an extent still, black artistic, musical, and business talent leaves the U.S. for Europe, for much the same reason: to escape oppression, and to seak greater opportunities.
(Talent flow between subnational regions, industries, academia and business, etc., follows similar patterns.)
The staff effectively said "if our work is given so little heed here, we'll go elsewhere where it is" -- a classic brain-drain mechanism (and a frequent response to a declining firm or corporate culture).
That's also effectively a mechanism of the generalised concept of Gresham's Law -- applied not only to money, but to any quality valued (or costed) differentially, whether in one or multiple markets. A parallel that dates to the earliest descriptions of the phenomenon -- Greek playwright Aristophanes in "The Frogs" describes the behaviour as common to both coin and politicians, an observation repeated by American journalist H.L. Mencken in the 20th century, see his "Bayard vs. Lionheart".
A high-quality (and high-cost) team saw low professional rewards at Los Alamos, and decamped for greener pastures. Brain drain occurs for various causes, and not just compensation, but if the conditions for work, rewards, or oppression are discouraging in one location, the talent will generally go elsehere.
In WWII, much scientific (and other) talent, including much of that which developed the U.S. nuclear programme fled Nazi-occupied Europe. From the 1950s through the 1970s, and to an extent still, black artistic, musical, and business talent leaves the U.S. for Europe, for much the same reason: to escape oppression, and to seak greater opportunities.
(Talent flow between subnational regions, industries, academia and business, etc., follows similar patterns.)
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/06/near-disaster-federal...
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exit,_Voice,_and_Loyalty
http://www.jstor.org/stable/983793?seq=1#page_scan_tab_conte...