Which manager came up with this brainwave of an idea to make themselves appear useful?
It's probably an interpretation of why Bezos wants (he's been quoted as thinking workers are lazy by default).
So it's from the top.
Amazon tells bosses to conceal when employees are on performance management plan
111–120 of 300 posts
Re: Amazon tells bosses to conceal when employees are on performance management plan
#112Meanwhile Amazon recruiters keep spamming me to join their cult. No one *wants* to work for you anymore. You don't need to recruit. If someone is desperate enough they'll let you know.
For 500k? Yeah I’d do it even for a year, working on the most dullard shit then have 3 years off.
There are plenty of other employers that pay that and more and aren’t Amazon. Amazon typically lowballs.
If anything you only benefit from being in Washington and not paying half of that 500k in income tax:
Re: Amazon tells bosses to conceal when employees are on performance management plan
#113Earlier quoted context omitted.
This isn’t the complete picture. It’s true that the vesting schedule gives you only 5% of RSUs in your first year, but employees’ cash signing bonus is increased to offset that. So if the total compensation target for a role is generally $500k (say, a principal engineer or a director, maybe?) and your salary is capped at $160k, you’d be given a signing bonus of $500k-$160k-(total stock vest x 5%) in cash. It’s not as…
I keep hearing all the letters of FAANG have more or less similarly competitive total compensation if you factor in RSUs, appreciation, etc. But then I hear things about "cliffs" and how extremely high TCs are possible only because of stock appreciation. In that sense, is Netflix basically untouchable in terms of compensation, if F/A/A/G (and other companies like Uber, Lyft, Airbnb, Microsoft, etc.) can only be compe…
I wouldn’t want to work at a place like Netflix that doesn’t comp with equity, especially after a year like 2020. A 500k TC could easily be 800k+ now, if that’s cash it’s still 500k and worth less due to inflation.
If the stock significantly depreciates there will be layoffs anyway.
Re: Amazon tells bosses to conceal when employees are on performance management plan
#114Earlier quoted context omitted.
A toxic culture of fear is the intended effect here. People at amazon love to discuss the flywheel effect[1]. The flywheel here is the culture of fear that keeps employees on their toes. Bezos believes that employees are inherently lazy[2], and it seems like fear is tool the S-team have chosen to solve the problem of lazy employees. This has a lot of unintended consequences[3], but the executives with the power to ch…
Do you think that this culture will shift with his retirement, or do you think that this culture is so embedded within the fabric of Amazon itself, that there is no separating this kind of behavior from the company without a dismantling of the corporate structure itself?
Unless they dump the entire senior management and bring new folks in, its not changing. That culture is at the core of Amazon, and perhaps even a contributor to its success, at the detriment of its own employees of course.
Re: Amazon tells bosses to conceal when employees are on performance management plan
#115Earlier quoted context omitted.
> should be permanent, regardless of your performance? You're assuming that the tool will only be used objectively and transiently, a big if in a tool with mandated secrecy. The real question is should the tool remain secretive so that people in power can use it completely unchallenged as a weapon against employee?
> “Should I tell an employee that I entered them into Focus?” the question reads. The response: “Do not discuss Focus with employees. Instead, tell the employee that their performance is not meeting expectations, the specific areas where they need to improve, and offer feedback and support to help them improve.” > “If the employee directly asks, ‘Am I in Focus?’ you should answer honestly,” the response continues. “H…
That sounds like employees who are well-connected enough to know to even ask that question will get more information on their status than people who aren't as extroverted/social/charismatic/privileged.
Re: Amazon tells bosses to conceal when employees are on performance management plan
#116> “Should I tell an employee that I entered them into Focus?” the question reads. The response: “Do not discuss Focus with employees. Instead, tell the employee that their performance is not meeting expectations, the specific areas where they need to improve, and offer feedback and support to help them improve.” The headline is editorialized. IMO whether you’re told you’re in Focus or not is irrelevant. If your manag…
> If your manager is telling you you’re not meeting expectations, that’s plenty of signal of what’s going on. Isn't this the part that's not being made transparent to the employee? Asking the employee to constantly read the manager's mood to guess if you're on the "list" or not is incredibly stressful. What if your manager is just having a bad day?
LOL My manager used to discuss my promotion doc with me, and talk about who we can approach for promotion feedback.
I found out about 'focus' or my 'performance issues' when I resigned from Amazon.
Re: Amazon tells bosses to conceal when employees are on performance management plan
#117Are performance improvement plans actually genuine in most cases? If I were put on one or got a negative performance review, I would assume that I have essentially been fired but my boss is waiting on key paperwork.
Re: Amazon tells bosses to conceal when employees are on performance management plan
#118I never understood the secretive nature of these Amazon "devplan" / "FOCUS" lists. If an employee has a performance issue, they should know. Period. If they are on a formal list, they should know that too. The only "positive" here is that it can affect the individual's moral to know you are not meeting expectations - but that has to be communicated regardless. If it's understood it has to be communicated and there is…
A toxic culture of fear is the intended effect here. People at amazon love to discuss the flywheel effect[1]. The flywheel here is the culture of fear that keeps employees on their toes. Bezos believes that employees are inherently lazy[2], and it seems like fear is tool the S-team have chosen to solve the problem of lazy employees. This has a lot of unintended consequences[3], but the executives with the power to ch…
yes here. if no person knows if is on performence management plan all must act like they are on probation of some sort, work much extra. like dictatorship where person may be monitored any time and so always act like this.
Re: Amazon tells bosses to conceal when employees are on performance management plan
#119Earlier quoted context omitted.
doesnt Amazon cap base salary around $180k and only 5% of RSUs vest the first year? my understanding is that, barring a massive RSU package, you cant get to $500k in the first year.
This isn’t the complete picture. It’s true that the vesting schedule gives you only 5% of RSUs in your first year, but employees’ cash signing bonus is increased to offset that. So if the total compensation target for a role is generally $500k (say, a principal engineer or a director, maybe?) and your salary is capped at $160k, you’d be given a signing bonus of $500k-$160k-(total stock vest x 5%) in cash. It’s not as…
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Re: Amazon tells bosses to conceal when employees are on performance management plan
#120Earlier quoted context omitted.
Discovering that I misunderstood the seriousness of an issue is more stressful than being told something explicitly. And a major misunderstanding decreases trust. It would be much better to explicitly be told I'm on a pre-PIP plan than to assume it's a less serious issue and find out when I try to change teams.
I’m pretty sure they won’t let someone change teams, and many of the people on this list aren’t expected (and for some managers, maybe not even allowed) to improve.
That's the point. They don't want a blocked transfer to be the first sign they could lose their job.