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Amazon laying off corporate employees in rare cutback

seattletimes.com

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Re: Amazon laying off corporate employees in rare cutback

#81

Post by davidw »

qubex wrote: post #78
davidw wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Got one today too. Put on a Gore tex coat and stood under the shower, on cold, for a half an hour, and decided that Seattle is probably not to my liking outside of, say, late July.

I’ve only ever visited Seattle in the second half of July and found it to be stellar.

The PNW west of the Cascades is glorious in summer. Blue skies, clean air, no humidity, warm temperatures but not too warm. But the long, drizzly, gray winters are hell for those of us who like sunlight.

If you want to move to the area, visit in November or March or something to get an idea of what it's really like.

Re: Amazon laying off corporate employees in rare cutback

#82

Post by skookumchuck »

leggomylibro wrote: post #26
walrus01 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They have very nearly exhausted the pool of strong technical talent that can be recruited locally within the seattle area, who are not already gainfully employed at some other tech company. Also because building new office campus space in Seattle is becoming a bottleneck. Amazon is spread out through a bunch of temporarily leased buildings until the new towers are finished. Also they have sort of exhausted the number…

Also, a lot of the people who were willing to relocate to Seattle are reluctant to stay after years of worsening ostracization and seething resentment.

Before Amazon the resentment was directed at Microsoft employees, and before that Boeing employees.

Re: Amazon laying off corporate employees in rare cutback

#83

Post by egypturnash »

davidw wrote: post #81
qubex wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve only ever visited Seattle in the second half of July and found it to be stellar.

The PNW west of the Cascades is glorious in summer. Blue skies, clean air, no humidity, warm temperatures but not too warm. But the long, drizzly, gray winters are hell for those of us who like sunlight. If you want to move to the area, visit in November or March or something to get an idea of what it's really like.

January and February. That's where I always start to break down in misery. It's been cloudy for ages. The days are starting to get longer but they're still short. And I start wondering if moving back home to New Orleans would be all that bad. Surely that wouldn't coincide with a hurricane trashing the place twice in my lifetime, would it?

Re: Amazon laying off corporate employees in rare cutback

#84

Post by seanmcdirmid »

seibelj wrote: post #37
leggomylibro wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, a lot of the people who were willing to relocate to Seattle are reluctant to stay after years of worsening ostracization and seething resentment.

For me personally, I cannot ever relocate to Seattle because of the weather. I live in Boston, which has its own issues, but at least it's often sunny during the winter and I can get out for a walk most days. I have a lot of family around Seattle and have visited frequently. One year I visited in May and it rained nonstop, oscillating between a soft drizzle to a torrential downpour, for 10 straight days! Too depressi…

I live in Bellevue (across the lake from Seattle), and get out for walks everyday with my 1 year old. Sometimes I have to put a rain guard over his stroller, but the rain is almost always light enough that I don't need to even bother with an umbrella for myself.

Rain in May is a bit weird (only 1.9 inches on average according to wiki), torrential down pours in Seattle are even weirder, especially outside of October/November.

EDIT: Ok, I get it...I get it.

Re: Amazon laying off corporate employees in rare cutback

#85

Post by seanmcdirmid »

spklin wrote: post #62
piffey wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perception is a funny thing. Average annual precipitation for each city and sunny days per year: Boston: 43.76in / 137 days Seattle: 34.1in / 152 days https://www.usclimatedata.com/climate/boston/massachusetts/u... https://www.usclimatedata.com/climate/seattle/washington/uni...

People do form weird perceptions, especially from short trips to places they don't know well, but your numbers are wrong. 137/152 are the number of days w/ precipitation, not sunny days. ie, Seattle has less rain, but more days of precipitation. This is typical comparing Seattle with many other cities: less rain total, but spread over more days. Those more days are concentrated in winter, more so than in is typical i…

It also doesn't help that the Seattle rises so late and sets so early for a couple of months during the winter, leading to more feelings of gloom.

Re: Amazon laying off corporate employees in rare cutback

#86

Post by gnahckire »

davidw wrote: post #77
KallDrexx wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's funny if they've had a hiring freeze since last week I got contacted by an Amazon recruiter wanting me to move to Seattle

Got one today too. Put on a Gore tex coat and stood under the shower, on cold, for a half an hour, and decided that Seattle is probably not to my liking outside of, say, late July.

I know you're joking but it's actually not even raining today in Seattle. In fact, it's irritatingly bright (it's sunny).

I prefer the overcast & rainy unless it's summer/spring.

:(

Re: Amazon laying off corporate employees in rare cutback

#87

Post by Negative1 »

At first I assumed this was a stack ranking type "cutting the dead weight loose" move but doesn't appear to be so. The article cites "too much staff for the work" but that seems strange; Amazon has never been bereft of ambition ("Think Big"). What would be the real strategic impetus for slashing hundreds of positions? How does this jibe with leadership principles like "Hire and Develop the Best" and "Insist on the Highest Standards"?

Re: Amazon laying off corporate employees in rare cutback

#88

Post by [deleted] »

Animats wrote: post #67
leggomylibro wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, a lot of the people who were willing to relocate to Seattle are reluctant to stay after years of worsening ostracization and seething resentment.

Eventually, as in SF, they will be in the majority and will take over, after which they can ostracize the people who resent them.

[deleted]

Re: Amazon laying off corporate employees in rare cutback

#89

Post by gorbot »

Negative1 wrote: post #87

At first I assumed this was a stack ranking type "cutting the dead weight loose" move but doesn't appear to be so. The article cites "too much staff for the work" but that seems strange; Amazon has never been bereft of ambition ("Think Big"). What would be the real strategic impetus for slashing hundreds of positions? How does this jibe with leadership principles like "Hire and Develop the Best" and "Insist on the Hi…

Another leadership principle is frugality. No idea who or why people were fired, but could be to save $. I know that amazon in general is trying to get more frugal / profitable

Re: Amazon laying off corporate employees in rare cutback

#90

Post by enknamel »

amznthroway wrote: post #69

The hiring freeze has already been horrendous. We're told to keep hitting all our goals even if we lose people and can't hire to backfill. Now we're just straight up losing people to layoffs? Keeping the lights on alone is barely possible with the resources we have. It would be one thing if we were in dire straights as a company. Imho, this is just short-sighted nonsense so some senior leader can hit an arbitrary goa…

As someone working in Amazon retail, I have to say I'm now worried. Though it does feel like we don't have enough people to do the work we are planning to do for the year.
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