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Amazon cuts 16k jobs

reuters.com

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Re: Amazon cuts 16k jobs

#61
post #27

I've been hearing about massive Amazon layoffs for a few years now. How come the company still exists? Are these layoffs followed by hiring at cheaper regions or different parts of the company? From my perspective as an occasional Amazon customer, things are pretty much unchanged.

One disturbing possibility is us laborers aren't as important we think we are.

Re: Amazon cuts 16k jobs

#62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe the support scammers can get some real jobs as prompt engineers? Hey I'm trying to find some upside around all this.

> Hey I'm trying to find some upside around all this. More AWS outages means more breaks from work?

Sorry, VP says we're migrating. What? Will they see it through? Of course not!

Re: Amazon cuts 16k jobs

#64
post #33

It would be too much to ask to have fair and equal society, so instead we observe how capitalism/fascism will ruin the world over and over again.

FWIW, the employees in question are at least in the 90th percentile of US salaries if not 99th percentile (L5 is ~ $250K, L6 is ~ $399K, and L7 is north of $500K)

Re: Amazon cuts 16k jobs

#66
post #30

How's the $100K H1B fee that was announced to distract from the Trump Gold Card announcement [0] going? The HN hive mind said it would bring back the jerbs and those of us who warned [1][2] it would incentivize mass layoffs and offshoring were hounded. Before the layoffs were announced Amazon also committed to expanding hiring and infra expansion in India [3], and depending on the org, affected employees on work visa…

> How's the $100K H1B fee that was announced to distract from the Trump Gold Card announcement [0] going? The HN hive mind said it would bring back the jobs and those of us who warned [1][2] it would incentivize offshoring were hounded. Yep, offshoring needs to be heavily penalized as well.

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Re: Amazon cuts 16k jobs

#68
post #4

Every large company is updating its standard layoffs announcement press release from "economic headwinds" to "AI".

Excuse is only half the story. I don't fully understand why they are doing it though. Companies hire people to make money, not as an act of social conformance.

Global economy doesn't look that terrible. Nor is the AI story that believable. Is it just the CEO Zeitgeist? All the guys at Aspen talking about what fraction they cut, just as 5 years ago they bragged how bloated their org chart is?

TBH the "ZIRP overhiring" seems like the most likely real reason. I could never understand how all these companies could hire so many people for so much money, only to have them work on later-to-be-canned open source projects.

But if that's really it, no idea.

Re: Amazon cuts 16k jobs

#69

I feel like this is the most natural layoff I've seen in twenty years (that is not the same as saying I feel good about it). Truly, most software companies need to cut their entire roster and re-draft quite frankly. You will need less people and have entirely new goals. This is beyond "economic" reality, AI has made it intuitive to restructure and reorient. Not doing so will just mean you will be blind-sided by any c…

This is the way I see it. A lot of people can already be replaced or should be doing entirely different work to boost productivity. It is going to be a battle between people fighting for inertia and those that are looking to be ahead of the curve. If it wasn't for an ageing society we would probably be seeing things move along faster but people have children to raise and mortgages to pay so we will see more inertia f…

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Re: Amazon cuts 16k jobs

#70
The one phrase I've come to despise is "entrepreneurial risk", especially when it's used to justify exorbitant salaries of the higher ranks. Because, really, that "risk" for the most part is trickled down to the peasants who get laid off at a heartbeat whenever business is bad. They're not people with families and liabilities and lives, they're commodities.

I'd say your risk of losing your livelihood is higher as a simple employee than as a CEO when we're talking about post-startup companies.

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