Within the org that I was in (GSO - Global Sales Org), salary for technical individuals are capped at below market, so eventually most technical people go to other companies after a few years. The senior management has a very "old corp" culture when it comes to promotions ("pay your dues", "let's not set a precedent", "we'll talk in a year") that is based on age and tenure rather than skill. The management structure also favors MBAs managing technical teams, so the technical ICs have to teach their managers, while not getting meaningful feedback and support. This I believe was unique to the GSO and not a problem for other parts of LinkedIn.
Career path was another problem. There's a very low ceiling within the GSO for an IC. You'd hit that ceiling very quickly and will have to make the decision to either be a manager, or be an IC with a capped comp even though you are providing more value year over year. Within the GSO, management is the holy grail (a bit like old corp) for many people, and because managers don't do IC work, some ICs try to learn how to be managers by getting other people to do their work. It's a talker's culture within the GSO, not a doer's culture. There are more meetings than war room sessions. People sit down and talk about execution, talk to stake holders, looping in everyone but their grandmas, and then get the poor IC who is the lowest paid person at the table to slug it out. Management often take credit for that work by representing it to senior leaders without crediting back to the IC.
Morale was a problem on our client facing team because their managers are very much "yes men" serving the sales teams, that means the client facing team has to work all hours, have surprise quick turn around projects, and are faced with management practices that are contrary to LinkedIn's core values (such as a manager saying "I'd be careful about your professional image" when a teammate voiced concerns about being verbally abused during a meeting).
The senior leadership also has an ineffective way of dealing with talent competition. The comp package seems to be tightly regulated and capped below market, it is fairly easy for competitors to swoop in with what seems to the candidate as amazing offers. The management's response to this has been to create uncertainty with the new position, and attempt to offer delayed rewards (we'll promote you in a year) - basically anything that doesn't involve in materially making good on a better offer. The person leaving will be subjected to repeated meetings with their manager and their superiors to question the candidate's intent, whether if they were team players, and whether they'd want to let their team down. All in all, not a great way to try to win someone back, and makes them more determined to leave.
