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

Amazon to Lay Off over 17,000 Workers, More Than First Planned

wsj.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

441–450 of 498 posts

Re: Amazon to Lay Off over 17,000 Workers, More Than First Planned

#441

Post by deebosong »

spoils19 wrote: post #389
zxcvbn4038 wrote: post #369

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is usually the part where I shake their hands and wish them luck in their next endeavor. If they are not there because they love working with technology, there are other places for them to be.

Agreed. I personally have seen divorces and breakdowns of entire families and friend groups of my colleagues, but what is most important is making sure that they stay up-to-date with the latest technologies and look to further improve themselves for the company.

Dang you didn't have to do em like that!

Re: Amazon to Lay Off over 17,000 Workers, More Than First Planned

#442

Post by wildrhythms »

okokwhatever wrote: post #406

Millenials and GenZ discovering cynicism. Such a great moment to be alive.

Increasingly I get the impression that those groups have long held such cynicisms (find an endless stream #genz #wfh on Tiktok), and it's the much older 30 and 40-somethings that are trumpeting the corporate kum ba yah.

Re: Amazon to Lay Off over 17,000 Workers, More Than First Planned

#443

Post by scarface74 »

mindentropy wrote: post #415
scruple wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And network, network, network!

In my whole career it was very rare that someone from my network helped. All calls for help would be met with a polite "sure" and then went missing. Some give me a lecture on how to lower my expectations or something else.

My “network” includes external recruiters. I’ve met them for lunch, in their office etc.

Mostly boutique shops. I only dealt with local recruiters in my former city (Atlanta) before remote work got to be big. I haven’t looked for a job post Covid.

Hopefully, I will never have to look for a job again. When I leave my current job - hopefully by choice - I will be semi-retired and doing consulting gigs (not staff augmentation).

Ironically, I work for the very company that this article is about. But, I work in the consulting department at AWS. There is a direct easy to measure metric of how much my work contributes to the bottom line compared to my compensation - I’m a billable consultant.

Re: Amazon to Lay Off over 17,000 Workers, More Than First Planned

#444

Post by emodendroket »

VincentEvans wrote: post #36

Here’s a thought that has been percolating in my mind for a bit since these “market adjustments” began a month or two back. Somehow at some point, in what perhaps could be blamed on the ever-hated mass produced MBAs - companies got really comfortable with the “it’s not personal, it’s just good business” of letting go of their employees for a slightest reason, or sometimes for no reason at all - just to make it look t…

Honestly I think it has a lot to do with a hot market, at least to this point. You get a lot more pliant if you don’t think you can find another job easily (one reason why some tech executives don’t actually mind this downturn too much even though it costs them money).

Re: Amazon to Lay Off over 17,000 Workers, More Than First Planned

#445

Post by ogre_battle »

Adraghast wrote: post #217
i_have_an_idea wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have no opinion on the MBA bit, but I think you're spot on about people starting to treat companies the way the companies are treating them. ~10 years ago, when I got my first job, I was in the minority, pretty much the only person cynical about big companies' claims how "people are our most important resource", how important is the company "culture" and all of that corporate kumbaya. And, at that point, the vast m…

> ~10 years ago, when I got my first job, I was in the minority, pretty much the only person cynical about big companies' claims how "people are our most important resource" Tell that to Johnny Paycheck.

Difference here is that Johnny Paycheck was signing about the common man being screwed.

White collar STEM jobs have historically been very lucrative and most Dev / IT types have had a good incentive to shut up and play ball.

Re: Amazon to Lay Off over 17,000 Workers, More Than First Planned

#446

Post by ogre_battle »

silisili wrote: post #396
i_have_an_idea wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have no opinion on the MBA bit, but I think you're spot on about people starting to treat companies the way the companies are treating them. ~10 years ago, when I got my first job, I was in the minority, pretty much the only person cynical about big companies' claims how "people are our most important resource", how important is the company "culture" and all of that corporate kumbaya. And, at that point, the vast m…

Nearly 20 years ago, when I was trying to find HR for my first day, there was an older man talking with them already. He said, and I quote, 'Fuck you all, I got your exit interview right here' while grabbing his crotch. He turned to walk away, smirked at me, and said 'what? I'm retired now.' Point being, I don't think you were the only one who didn't love the company 10 years ago.

Plenty of folks didn't, but even in the 90s and 2000s there was still a good reason to play ball, esp. if you were in a white collar STEM field.

Dude might have grabbed his crotch on the way out, but he probably made $$$$$ for 20-30 years. Modern hires deal with just as much BS but often for lower pay and less long-term stability.

Re: Amazon to Lay Off over 17,000 Workers, More Than First Planned

#447

Post by marcodave »

spoils19 wrote: post #389
zxcvbn4038 wrote: post #369

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is usually the part where I shake their hands and wish them luck in their next endeavor. If they are not there because they love working with technology, there are other places for them to be.

Agreed. I personally have seen divorces and breakdowns of entire families and friend groups of my colleagues, but what is most important is making sure that they stay up-to-date with the latest technologies and look to further improve themselves for the company.

spoils19 has been awarded +200 corp tokens, congratulations!

Re: Amazon to Lay Off over 17,000 Workers, More Than First Planned

#448

Post by patentatt »

kubectl_h wrote: post #305
VincentEvans wrote: post #36

Here’s a thought that has been percolating in my mind for a bit since these “market adjustments” began a month or two back. Somehow at some point, in what perhaps could be blamed on the ever-hated mass produced MBAs - companies got really comfortable with the “it’s not personal, it’s just good business” of letting go of their employees for a slightest reason, or sometimes for no reason at all - just to make it look t…

There is an interesting exchange in Bourdains "Parts Unknown" [1] that he did in Montana where he's talking to a former labor leader and politician from Butte where he says "the company is a son of a bitch, but they were our son of a bitch" (very much worth watching the entire show, but in particular the Butte segment). I grew up in a union family and that held true of the union as well. Something changed in my lifet…

In the 90's the Democratic party abandoned the labor movement because they thought they could get more votes from moderate republicans if they spew the same free market and free trade ideology. And Clinton did that and won, so since then there's been a cohort of political leaders on the left that firmly believe that this is the right and correct path. Literally the same people, they've been in power for 30-40 years. What they miscalculated was that Clinton won the presidency because of his insane charisma and also the Ross Perot spoiler on the right, not the free market stuff. But it was enough cover to dismantle the long-term alliance of the labor movement and the Democratic party.

Re: Amazon to Lay Off over 17,000 Workers, More Than First Planned

#449

Post by patentatt »

JakeAl wrote: post #279
VincentEvans wrote: post #36

Here’s a thought that has been percolating in my mind for a bit since these “market adjustments” began a month or two back. Somehow at some point, in what perhaps could be blamed on the ever-hated mass produced MBAs - companies got really comfortable with the “it’s not personal, it’s just good business” of letting go of their employees for a slightest reason, or sometimes for no reason at all - just to make it look t…

> it hasn’t hit Amazon pocketbook now, has it? Are they in danger of running out of money? What happened to “people are our most important resource”? Amazon just had to take out an $8B unsecured loan to be paid back in a year to cover operating and capital expenses. Despite what the government is telling you, things are really bad and about to get a lot worse. The lowest hanging fruit/the least valuable employees get…

This is the story that will be told to support austerity which will be used by a small cohort to accumulate even more wealth at the expense of everyone else and cause a generation of misery. What this story misses is that the government controls the money. The US Government can't go "bankrupt," it is the bank. The US Government doesn't have to "live within their means" - it is the means. The US Government can't "overspend money [they] don't have," because it has all the money, and the money printer. Sovereign nation 'debt' doesn't work like any other debt, and it's so incredibly useful on it's own that it makes sense to make a lot of it. This idea that the US Government has to pay back its debt is a fiction that has no utility any more.[1]

I will agree with you that most military spending is inefficient at best, and that we should shift our focus and values to something more productive rather than something literally destructive.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_Monetary_Theory

Re: Amazon to Lay Off over 17,000 Workers, More Than First Planned

#450

Post by amyamyamy2 »

wildrhythms wrote: post #442
okokwhatever wrote: post #406

Millenials and GenZ discovering cynicism. Such a great moment to be alive.

Increasingly I get the impression that those groups have long held such cynicisms (find an endless stream #genz #wfh on Tiktok), and it's the much older 30 and 40-somethings that are trumpeting the corporate kum ba yah.

Anecdotally I definitely agree with you -- I'm Gen Z and most of my SWE friends from outside of work have very similar perspectives. Don't think anybody actually cares about their job beyond the money.

Even some of my more passionate friends from school have developed a lot of cynicism after companies they loved rescinded their full time offers

Post reply on HN