Amazon laying off corporate employees in rare cutback • Hacker News Board

Re: Amazon laying off corporate employees in rare cutback

#111

Post by tyingq » Tue, Feb 13, 2018, 2:21 AM UTC

lev99 wrote: post #35

myroon5 wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"less than 10% of their Seattle staff" even less than 1%

The problem is "a few hundred" is an undefined number. 400 would be about 1%, which would be fairly reported as a few hundred. My ceiling number is very high, but I would believe more than 1% are let go.

Having to enact a layoff to deal with 400 people when you already have a reputation about being ruthless with "up or out" is interesting though. As I understand it, it's not hard to fire deadwood at Amazon. So why risk the PR hit with "layoffs"? Seems curious.

Re: Amazon laying off corporate employees in rare cutback

#112

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Feb 13, 2018, 2:28 AM UTC

thinkling wrote: post #110

toomuchtodo wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s the other way around. AWS subsidizes everything.

AWS is not digital devices. Digital devices is Kindle, Kindle Fire, Echo/Alexa, etc. Q4 results [1] say North America produced $1.7bln in operating income, and AWS produced 1.35bln. When Amazon says "North America", I think they mean "North American retail". So while international retail lost almost a billion dollars, I wouldn't say "AWS subsidizes everything". [1] https://seekingalpha.com/article/4142526-amazon-com-…

[deleted]

Re: Amazon laying off corporate employees in rare cutback

#113

Post by southphillyman » Tue, Feb 13, 2018, 2:29 AM UTC

BookmarkSaver wrote: post #98

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…

>It would be one thing if we were in dire straights as a company. Oh, so as long as the company is profitable, it should just throw money at employees that are no longer adding net value? >Imho, this is just short-sighted nonsense so some senior leader can hit an arbitrary goal and get a bonus. Based on what? Reading an article with no internal insight and absolutely no knowledge of the business itself? Sounds more l…

>I mean, you didn't even read the article.

They work at Amazon, probably doesn't have the time to read full articles

Re: Amazon laying off corporate employees in rare cutback

#114

Post by praneshp » Tue, Feb 13, 2018, 2:35 AM UTC

southphillyman wrote: post #113

BookmarkSaver wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>It would be one thing if we were in dire straights as a company. Oh, so as long as the company is profitable, it should just throw money at employees that are no longer adding net value? >Imho, this is just short-sighted nonsense so some senior leader can hit an arbitrary goal and get a bonus. Based on what? Reading an article with no internal insight and absolutely no knowledge of the business itself? Sounds more l…

>I mean, you didn't even read the article. They work at Amazon, probably doesn't have the time to read full articles

My wife works at amazon, and has time to read such stuff as well has have a lot of fun, intellectually and otherwise, at work.

Re: Amazon laying off corporate employees in rare cutback

#115

Post by praneshp » Tue, Feb 13, 2018, 2:36 AM UTC

mabbo wrote: post #93

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.

Eight months of the year it's drizzle every day. But the other four months, well they almost make up for it. I spent a couple of really great summers in Seattle. Plus, no snow unless you want it- then you drive to the mountains.

An ex-manager (who was from Microsoft) told me that's how they cheated interns. 4 months of great views and weather, the intern is hooked, and when they join full-time they discover the other 8 months.

Re: Amazon laying off corporate employees in rare cutback

#116

Post by perseusprime11 » Tue, Feb 13, 2018, 2:53 AM UTC

They may be falling into the short term trap of wall street. With all the praise on Jeff Bezos recently, he will have to do anything to not take a step back and keep up with wall street’s expectations.

Re: Amazon laying off corporate employees in rare cutback

#117

Post by paulddraper » Tue, Feb 13, 2018, 3:15 AM UTC

tyingq wrote: post #109

A layoff of any kind or scale is interesting for AMZN, given that they have so much diversity of teams, jobs, skills, products, etc. It's interesting that they couldn't repurpose a few hundred people, even given their infamous up or out mentality. Sounds like they are knowingly giving up good people since the current culture fires anyone that doesn't produce already. Willingly giving up good people doesn't seem like…

> Sounds like they are knowingly giving up good people since the current culture fires anyone that doesn't produce already.

I wouldn't be surprised if these lay offs were also chosen to increase average employee quality.

Re: Amazon laying off corporate employees in rare cutback

#118

Post by throwawaypanda » Tue, Feb 13, 2018, 3:19 AM UTC

halbritt wrote: post #106

mabbo wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eight months of the year it's drizzle every day. But the other four months, well they almost make up for it. I spent a couple of really great summers in Seattle. Plus, no snow unless you want it- then you drive to the mountains.

The first time I visited Seattle was the middle of July. The weather was warm and sunny. I recall going swimming in Lake Washington. Everyone was really, really happy and joyful, to the extent that I wondered if I had been lied to all my life about Seattle. I guess SAD is a thing. Is there an anti-SAD?

People living in places that have long, dark, cold, wet winters certainly appreciate the shit out of summer while it lasts.

Re: Amazon laying off corporate employees in rare cutback

#119

Post by pzh » Tue, Feb 13, 2018, 3:26 AM UTC

tyingq wrote: post #111

lev99 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is "a few hundred" is an undefined number. 400 would be about 1%, which would be fairly reported as a few hundred. My ceiling number is very high, but I would believe more than 1% are let go.

Having to enact a layoff to deal with 400 people when you already have a reputation about being ruthless with "up or out" is interesting though. As I understand it, it's not hard to fire deadwood at Amazon. So why risk the PR hit with "layoffs"? Seems curious.

Maybe it's not bad PR with Wall St given how the stock went up after the announcement.

Re: Amazon laying off corporate employees in rare cutback

#120

Post by philipwhiuk » Tue, Feb 13, 2018, 3:35 AM UTC

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…

> Keeping the lights on alone is barely possible with the resources we have.

Surely with half a million employees you have at least one person on lightbulbs.