That is why software engineers also need unions. (but the time to organize was back when we still had the upper hand)
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Amazon braces for another major round of layoffs, 14,000 jobs at risk
121–130 of 169 posts
Re: Amazon braces for another major round of layoffs, 14,000 jobs at risk
#122Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why would you explain this with a conspiracy theory of collusion instead of Occam's razor -- that they were responding to similar changes in market conditions, with input from similar shareholders?
This is not a conspiracy theory, even though what I'm about to say will sound like it. If you can talk to someone from the exec class in confidence (which unfortunately may require a close personal relationship or high trust), they'll tell you there was a clear -- if somewhat tacit -- understanding that the job market had gotten too hot during Covid and something "had to be done" about it after ZIRP ended. Elon's lay…
Responding to identical market conditions in similar ways based on input from overlapping shareholders does not require collusion between execs.
Re: Amazon braces for another major round of layoffs, 14,000 jobs at risk
#123Earlier quoted context omitted.
What makes you think this is on top of some other layoff process?
I’ll say that the parent comment is correct and explain why I think it’s correct. Amazon has demonstrated a preference for “unregretted attrition” (URA). URA is the name for what happens when engineers exit the company and Amazon is happy that they do. The exit can either be due to a PIP failure (performance improvement plan) or just unhappiness with the company. If you believe URA works well, then URA is how Amazon…
Meta also does something like 5% in unregretted attrition a year. I just don't know why you think AMZN wouldn't include those people in layoffs preferentially to higher performers.
Re: Amazon braces for another major round of layoffs, 14,000 jobs at risk
#124Earlier quoted context omitted.
> but the time to organize was back when we still had the upper hand This is learned helplessness. It's not going to get better for software engineers anytime soon, I'm afraid. The time to organize is like planting a tree: the best time is 20 years ago, and the second best time is now. Especially if you're an early-career SWE, you seem to have little to lose anyhow.
There's no unions for H1B workers. If there's any union stepping up for their interest, it would find mass enrollment tomorrow. Unfortunately, there isn't support by non-h1b engineers, let alone unions.
I am a non-h1b engineer and I declare it is in my best interest to advocate for h1-b engineers. Otherwise management would simply calculate why would they hire me and treat me well when they can hire a more desperate h1b holder and treat them like trash.
Re: Amazon braces for another major round of layoffs, 14,000 jobs at risk
#125Outsourcing is the main reason for the layoffs, but I’m sure no one is going to mention it.
Re: Amazon braces for another major round of layoffs, 14,000 jobs at risk
#126Earlier quoted context omitted.
Fallouts been pretty good. Not sure what they did right there
I found the first season OK enough, but the second season to be unwatchable.
Agreed, the characters now just abandon their established traits from one scene to the next in service of a contrived story
Re: Amazon braces for another major round of layoffs, 14,000 jobs at risk
#127The only AWS service I still use is SES, for sending emails from client applications. Surely that can be self hosted? Can anyone reccommend a competitor?
Re: Amazon braces for another major round of layoffs, 14,000 jobs at risk
#128Earlier quoted context omitted.
They're fine expanding in India. Turns out announcing a $100k fee to distract from the Trump Gold Card announcement during the same press conference [3] leads to a reverse brain drain [0] and a $35B commitment to invest in India [1]. For example, much of AWS SageMaker's team is out of AWS India, and unofficially Amazonians on work visas are being offered transfers to India [2] while paying L6/7 [4] roughly the same a…
This is real. I work at one of the big tech and have access to their internal head count breakdowns. The overall headcount is mostly stagnant but the US headcount is decreasing with a corresponding increase in Europe and mostly India based HC.
Same at my company. No new hiring in the US.
Re: Amazon braces for another major round of layoffs, 14,000 jobs at risk
#129Earlier quoted context omitted.
Back in 2018-19 because their founder Karan Bedi was smart and recognized he could leverage his past corporate experience in Big Media in India in order to make MX Player a streaming platform targeting India2 and India3, and thus build a scalable business.
2nd and 3rd tier cities?
Yep!
Re: Amazon braces for another major round of layoffs, 14,000 jobs at risk
#130Earlier quoted context omitted.
> It seems like 5%/year is sort of industry norm. That's because the people running these companies learned the hard way not to write their collusion down, so now they just all totally coincidentally act in the same way that ends up driving wages down and keeping workers afraid and in line https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-Tech_Employee_Antitrust_L...
It's not some global conspiracy, it just aligns with the end of the ZIRP era. Companies could ignore headcount and hire endlessly just to singla growth to investors, while free money was raining from the sky.
Amazon made $17.4 billion profit in Q3 2025 alone. That is, they made so much money they couldn't find any way to spend over five BILLION per month even with this 'excess' headcount.