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

Amazon plans to lay off 14,000 managerial positions to save $3.5B yearly

techstartups.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 285 posts

Re: Amazon plans to lay off 14,000 managerial positions to save $3.5B yearly

#111

Post by ta2234234242 »

basisword wrote: post #97

I don't understand the shit 'managers' get on here. I've been in this industry for 15+ years and with one or two rare exceptions every manager has been great. They respect my time, when I need something they're incredibly helpful, and they care about my career development. IMO the culling over managers over the past few years is really a way to make sure you don't have someone you can discuss career development, prom…

There was that comic about org charts a decade ago:

https://bonkersworld.net/organizational-charts

The reality is that the Microsoft style of organization is very prominent in the industry.

Re: Amazon plans to lay off 14,000 managerial positions to save $3.5B yearly

#112

Post by segmondy »

steveBK123 wrote: post #103
basisword wrote: post #97

I don't understand the shit 'managers' get on here. I've been in this industry for 15+ years and with one or two rare exceptions every manager has been great. They respect my time, when I need something they're incredibly helpful, and they care about my career development. IMO the culling over managers over the past few years is really a way to make sure you don't have someone you can discuss career development, prom…

Genuinely unique experience for you probably. I think career wise in 20 years I'd break down my experience as - 25% benign, 25% malign, 50% good. This is across 6+ companies, 15-20 managers.

Do the break down for developers.

Re: Amazon plans to lay off 14,000 managerial positions to save $3.5B yearly

#113

Post by lysace »

silisili wrote: post #109
lysace wrote: post #16

Amazon (the online retailer nowadays mostly hawking Chinese alphabet-salad-named brands) and/or AWS the cloud service behemoth? I continue to find it so bizarre that they are the same company.

It seems weird but realizing one supports the other it kinda makes sense. For example, Discover spun out from Sears attempts at having an in house credit card. Ally started as a financing division of GM. In both cases, you'd think similarly how it's weird one company runs both a bank and builds cars or sells houses. It doesn't seem that different, in that Amazon started AWS to support its primary business, then reali…

> For example, Discover spun out from Sears attempts at having an in house credit card.

I guess I agree; Amazon should split up.

Re: Amazon plans to lay off 14,000 managerial positions to save $3.5B yearly

#114

Post by timc3 »

lysace wrote: post #75
bsimpson wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The yellow|white|red jacks on the back of your TV are "RCA jacks." RCA stands for Radio Corporation of America. The same RCA launched NBC, which launched CNBC, which is a dominant source of financial news in the US. You plugged your Nintendo into a TV using jacks designed by the same company that told your parents which stocks to buy and sell. Gets even weirder when you get into acquisitions, where Ben and Jerry's ic…

We mostly didn't have RCA jacks in Europe when I grew up. But nevermind; this is not the same. Amazon largely consists of two internally grown businesses: Retail and AWS. They are wildly different.

Then you must have grow up at a particular time which didnt have them. There was a time period where it would be unusual to have a TV or VCR without them.

Re: Amazon plans to lay off 14,000 managerial positions to save $3.5B yearly

#115

Post by TulliusCicero »

hsbauauvhabzb wrote: post #27
wubrr wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The managers are just following the (fairly absurd imo), amazon internal processes for the most part. If the processes don't change, there are just going to be a bunch of overloaded managers. The current processes, culture, and 'principles'/dogmas are inefficient, contradictory and toxic af.

Who created the policies and procedures?

Execs.

Re: Amazon plans to lay off 14,000 managerial positions to save $3.5B yearly

#117

Post by newsclues »

basisword wrote: post #97

I don't understand the shit 'managers' get on here. I've been in this industry for 15+ years and with one or two rare exceptions every manager has been great. They respect my time, when I need something they're incredibly helpful, and they care about my career development. IMO the culling over managers over the past few years is really a way to make sure you don't have someone you can discuss career development, prom…

A lot of managers can be automated. Few are making creative decisions that can be replaced by a computer, and smaller teams of managers.

Re: Amazon plans to lay off 14,000 managerial positions to save $3.5B yearly

#118

Post by disambiguation »

basisword wrote: post #97

I don't understand the shit 'managers' get on here. I've been in this industry for 15+ years and with one or two rare exceptions every manager has been great. They respect my time, when I need something they're incredibly helpful, and they care about my career development. IMO the culling over managers over the past few years is really a way to make sure you don't have someone you can discuss career development, prom…

One or two rare exceptions over 15 years must account for several bad years, no?

As for giving and getting shit, if you evenly distribute matches over a quadrant of good and bad dev-manager pairings, then 3 out of 4 matches are gonna have a bad time. And even in the top 25% where both devs and managers are good, you can still have a personality mismatch, or other troublesome contextual factors, like your boss's boss, the company's success, the head winds, etc. Work relationships can strengthen or crumble under strain. Of course, the best way to maximize your odds is to do your best to be a good person to work with, but the odds are simply not in your favor in the first place for either party.

Re: Amazon plans to lay off 14,000 managerial positions to save $3.5B yearly

#119

Post by malfist »

newsclues wrote: post #117
basisword wrote: post #97

I don't understand the shit 'managers' get on here. I've been in this industry for 15+ years and with one or two rare exceptions every manager has been great. They respect my time, when I need something they're incredibly helpful, and they care about my career development. IMO the culling over managers over the past few years is really a way to make sure you don't have someone you can discuss career development, prom…

A lot of managers can be automated. Few are making creative decisions that can be replaced by a computer, and smaller teams of managers.

The primary output of managers is not "making creative decisions" in fact that's probably not anywhere close to the top line.

Re: Amazon plans to lay off 14,000 managerial positions to save $3.5B yearly

#120

Post by ryandrake »

lovich wrote: post #83
random3 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

that's the definition of an incompetent / mediocre manager. Most organizations expect their employees and managers in poarticular to be "breaking doors", which is the opposite attitude to blindly following any internal process.

You have a very warped view of the world if you think most companies, or even Amazon in particular, are expecting their employees to be “breaking doors”. They are literally mandating people come in to sit in a room on video calls with people sitting in a room in other offices all around the country/world. That’s the most egregious one, but add up all the controls, pair it with layoffs and threats of more, and you’re…

To be fair, OP was talking about the companies' expectations, not the behavior they are incentivizing. Many companies expect their employees to innovate, while implementing processes that prevent innovation. Many companies expect their employees to "take courageous risks" while punishing risk-taking that goes wrong. Many companies expect their employees to "act like they are owners" while giving them no equity or profit sharing.
Post reply on HN