Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Leaked Amazon memo warns the company is running out of people to hire

vox.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 764 posts

Re: Leaked Amazon memo warns the company is running out of people to hire

#41

Post by _dqna »

throwaway894345 wrote: post #15
zionic wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is one reason why these types of megacorps support mass immigration, it provides a steady stream of desperate people they can exploit. Those from other countries also might lack the collective cultural knowledge to stay away.

I hadn't really thought before about how left-wing folks typically want higher wages as well as more mass immigration which inherently suppresses wages. In their defense, they want raises waged by law rather than by market (an elevated minimum wage would raise wages irrespective of immigration), but considering how unlikely a minimum federal wage hike is, it seems like they're pursuing two contradictory goals. EDIT:…

[flagged]

Re: Leaked Amazon memo warns the company is running out of people to hire

#43

Post by sophacles »

jaywalk wrote: post #6
blakesterz wrote: post #2

I've always wondered about this, at Amazon and also at Uber/Lyft/DoorDash etc... They seem to burn through people quite fast. Won't they all just run out of people at some point, or will just increasing pay bring enough people back?

They can only increase pay so much before they have to increase their fees beyond the point people are willing to pay them. As an anecdote, I have completely stopped using DoorDash because they recently increased their fees to a level that I consider to be absurd.

I mean they could also not set record profits, and just have regular profits for a while.

Re: Leaked Amazon memo warns the company is running out of people to hire

#44

Post by dktoao »

no_wizard wrote: post #9

This is specifically in reference to warehouse workers, not the tech side of things. Though I've heard from many recently ex-Amazon engineers that they're having real trouble recruiting engineers now too

From what I have heard, they are a terrible company to work for (even for SWE). I could be wrong but that reputation alone has made me ignore most job postings and recruiters reaching out. Even if they could offer me a 20+% pay rise.

Re: Leaked Amazon memo warns the company is running out of people to hire

#45

Post by zwieback »

crikeyjoe wrote: post #8

There's no shortage of workers, there's a shortage of workers wanting to work for Amazon.

Not really what the article says - Amazon's enforced-churn policy leads to workers that want to continue working there being fired for no good reason.

Re: Leaked Amazon memo warns the company is running out of people to hire

#47

Post by sidvit »

no_wizard wrote: post #9

This is specifically in reference to warehouse workers, not the tech side of things. Though I've heard from many recently ex-Amazon engineers that they're having real trouble recruiting engineers now too

I'm a fairly inexperienced software engineer (<2 yrs experience) and I've been contacted by 3 separate Amazon recruiters on Linkedin in the past month alone if that means anything

Re: Leaked Amazon memo warns the company is running out of people to hire

#48

Post by throwaway894345 »

reaperducer wrote: post #18
throwaway894345 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hadn't really thought before about how left-wing folks typically want higher wages as well as more mass immigration which inherently suppresses wages. In their defense, they want raises waged by law rather than by market (an elevated minimum wage would raise wages irrespective of immigration), but considering how unlikely a minimum federal wage hike is, it seems like they're pursuing two contradictory goals. EDIT:…

I hadn't really thought before about how left-wing folks Can't HN be the one place on the internet that isn't sullied by tribalism?

I don't have a political tribe, I'm not a partisan, etc. I was hoping HN would be the one place on the Internet where we could discuss things maturely. Notably, I'm not attacking left-wing people or viewpoints here, but observing that there are two goals that are in apparent conflict (which isn't to say they contradict each other or that they're ignoble or anything else).

Re: Leaked Amazon memo warns the company is running out of people to hire

#49

Post by lumost »

jaywalk wrote: post #6
blakesterz wrote: post #2

I've always wondered about this, at Amazon and also at Uber/Lyft/DoorDash etc... They seem to burn through people quite fast. Won't they all just run out of people at some point, or will just increasing pay bring enough people back?

They can only increase pay so much before they have to increase their fees beyond the point people are willing to pay them. As an anecdote, I have completely stopped using DoorDash because they recently increased their fees to a level that I consider to be absurd.

It is not a given that all service economy business models will survive. Historically as goods got cheaper relative to labor, service prices rose. In poor countries service jobs such as doorman or shaver are much more common than in rich countries. The classic example is that below a certain income level, the majority of men start to have their faces professionally shaved rather than doing it themselves.

Having another person spend 15-30 minutes in a high stress situation to deliver you food should be a high cost activity that gets more expensive relative to your income over time. Traditional delivery services only made this cost effective by making food for low cost. The alternative is an economy where wages cannot rise relative to goods.

Re: Leaked Amazon memo warns the company is running out of people to hire

#50

Post by the_only_law »

kayodelycaon wrote: post #3
blakesterz wrote: post #2

I've always wondered about this, at Amazon and also at Uber/Lyft/DoorDash etc... They seem to burn through people quite fast. Won't they all just run out of people at some point, or will just increasing pay bring enough people back?

If it's anything like retail, a lot of these places work on the assumption that there are enough people who too desperate for a job that they'll come regardless of the working conditions.

Having worked in conditions like this, god it's horrible.

The people that were there when I started were rough guys, but they could do their job.

After I started the company apparently could only hire angry alcoholics, lazy stoners, and fresh out of jail domestic abusers who were proud of it. How many of these people could the job effectively, no.

Then the company had a merge and corporate came down with a brilliant plan to force all the fulltime employees (read legacy employees with some level of leadership responsibilities and the only ones good at their job) into part time positions or offer them severance to leave. You can imagine what happens.

So then it was me, a couple other guys, and a slew of incompetent bums. I managed to take advantage of the situation to demand a pathetic raise and near total autonomy of my hours. These concessions ended up being not enough and one night I decided not to show up anymore, as management was constantly moving responsibilities of their "friends" to use.

Luckily I had been using my time to make my break into the software industry. A couple years later, I read that triple merged company had to file for bankruptcy.

Post reply on HN