## The Most Expensive Line Item is Empty Chairs

When a Senior Software Engineer making $140,000 resigns to take a job offering $155,000, Executives often think "Well, we saved $14,000 a month while the role is empty." This is a catastrophic misunderstanding of modern knowledge-worker economics.

### FAQ

**Q: How does replacing someone cost 150% of their salary?**
A: When the engineer leaves, that product feature halts entirely for 4 months while HR recruits. You pay a Headhunter 20% of the new salary ($30k fee). When the new hire arrives, it takes them 5 months to understand the spaghetti code the last guy wrote, producing zero net value while consuming the salaries of the two Senior Devs doing the training. The true cost of losing average talent is catastrophic.