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Amazon cuts 16k jobs

reuters.com

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Re: Amazon cuts 16k jobs

#491

Post by toddmorey »

shartshooter wrote: post #144

This summer I went camping and at the campground next to me was a middle manager at Amazon. I’ve been out of the workforce for about a year, so I asked him how much of an impact AI was having in his role. He told me that he had worked to develop a tool that would replace effectively all of the middle management function that he was responsible for: gathering information from folks below him, distilling it down and re…

“He should’ve been so aware that his job was going to be the first one cut, and he was responsible for building a tool to cut his own job”

That tool was going to get built whether he did it or someone else did. Maybe only thing to do is buy time building it while actively looking elsewhere.

Re: Amazon cuts 16k jobs

#492

Post by [deleted] »

shartshooter wrote: post #144

This summer I went camping and at the campground next to me was a middle manager at Amazon. I’ve been out of the workforce for about a year, so I asked him how much of an impact AI was having in his role. He told me that he had worked to develop a tool that would replace effectively all of the middle management function that he was responsible for: gathering information from folks below him, distilling it down and re…

[deleted]

Re: Amazon cuts 16k jobs

#493

Post by Aurornis »

shartshooter wrote: post #144

This summer I went camping and at the campground next to me was a middle manager at Amazon. I’ve been out of the workforce for about a year, so I asked him how much of an impact AI was having in his role. He told me that he had worked to develop a tool that would replace effectively all of the middle management function that he was responsible for: gathering information from folks below him, distilling it down and re…

> He told me that he had worked to develop a tool that would replace effectively all of the middle management function that he was responsible for: gathering information from folks below him, distilling it down and reporting that to people above him.

Any manager whose job was this simple was on borrowed time anyway.

I think the person was feeding you a story around the campfire to impress you. Real management work doesn't operate like this.

Re: Amazon cuts 16k jobs

#494

Post by 15155 »

ra7 wrote: post #228
y-curious wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess we just need the other shoe to drop: punish companies that are based in the US and outsource to India. It’ll happen in time if this trend continues

If you want American companies to not outsource any jobs AND have full foreign market access, get ready to get market access revoked from places like India. They’ll just incentivize their local companies to compete, and Amazon has plenty of local competition there already. Amazon themselves have experienced in the past how heavy-handed Indian regulators can be. It’s not a zero-sum game anymore. You cannot have only o…

> They’ll just incentivize their local companies to compete

They already do.

Re: Amazon cuts 16k jobs

#495

Post by Aurornis »

aorloff wrote: post #490
baxtr wrote: post #476

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh dear. I wish middle management was simply "gathering information" from the decks below and reporting it to the bridge.

Tell you what, why don't we get rid of management altogether and just have a flat org ?

Been there, done that. It brings its own set of chaos and office politics. The shadow org structures can be worse than the official ones.

Re: Amazon cuts 16k jobs

#496

Post by varjag »

avalys wrote: post #485
conscion wrote: post #304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Actual effective managers do much more And how many managers are effective vs. only information funnels?

Firing a bunch of ineffective managers because they can easily be replaced by AI seems like a net improvement to me.

Where are the failed programmers supposed to go then?

Re: Amazon cuts 16k jobs

#497

Post by [deleted] »

nxm wrote: post #243
shartshooter wrote: post #144

This summer I went camping and at the campground next to me was a middle manager at Amazon. I’ve been out of the workforce for about a year, so I asked him how much of an impact AI was having in his role. He told me that he had worked to develop a tool that would replace effectively all of the middle management function that he was responsible for: gathering information from folks below him, distilling it down and re…

Actual effective managers do much more than "gathering information from folks below him, distilling it down and reporting that to people above him."

[deleted]

Re: Amazon cuts 16k jobs

#498

Post by allknowingfrog »

andai wrote: post #384
dzonga wrote: post #375

Insightful Comment from X - https://xcancel.com/PlumbNick/status/2016500347053773198?s=2... I was an L7, I led global AI enablement. I built systems executives depended on, moved wherever the company needed me and fixed problems that had been sitting untouched because no one else could untangle them. And I was still cut. Here’s the part we’re all supposed to politely ignore: in the U.S. right now, experience isn’t an…

Yeah, it looks to me like the best time to be a business owner, and the worst time to be employed.

Americans pay a pretty hefty health insurance penalty when they leave steady employment to start their own business. There have definitely been better times to be an entrepreneur in this country.
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