Live data from Hacker News

Leaked Amazon memo warns the company is running out of people to hire

vox.com

131–140 of 764 posts

Re: Leaked Amazon memo warns the company is running out of people to hire

#131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"use illegal immigration for meat packing" isn't a broadly-held right-wing position, it's something certain unprincipled business owners do (and I'm not even sure that they're universally right-wing). In contrast, "increasing wages" and "increasing mass immigration" are broadly-held left-wing positions. Again, this doesn't suggest incoherence on the left.

I think your use of the word "mass" is causing a lot of confusion, but I'm not sure who's "fault" it is. According to your edit on your original post, you say you're using it to mean "less selective" immigration, which, to me, is a way different sentence - but it's completely possible this is a domain-specific use of the word "mass" that I am just not familiar with.

Fair enough. The idea was that the left wants to lower the barrier for "asylum seeking" or perhaps just admit more asylum seekers irrespective of their educational value or their ability to support themselves (i.e., minimal selection criteria). This isn't a criticism or value judgment.

Re: Leaked Amazon memo warns the company is running out of people to hire

#132
post #119

I would not work for Amazon unless my life depended on it (and even then I would have to think twice) but I have to say (reluctantly) that as a customer, both retail and AWS, I absolutely love them. The power that Amazon is acquiring scares the hell out of me, but at the same time, when I need to buy some random thing, no one else even comes close in terms of convenience and reliability. Sometimes I will make an effo…

[deleted]

Re: Leaked Amazon memo warns the company is running out of people to hire

#134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, my honest impression is that left-wing people generally (i.e., it's a very popular position on the left) wanted to lower the barrier for "asylum seekers" which implies admitting lots of people without respect to their educational background or skill (hence "mass immigration"). I didn't realize this was controversial (I thought everyone agreed that this is a popular position on the left). This also isn't a value…

Ah, yeah, I agree. But I don't agree that that position is tantamount to "supporting mass immigration", by the normal colloquial meaning of that phrase. I think that wording, unqualified as in your original usage, implies antagonism toward the position you're describing (though, as I mentioned in another reply, "mass immigration" might have a domain-specific definition I'm not aware of? Sort of like how "obese" techn…

Fair enough. I didn't know that phrase was loaded. I just meant it in opposition to highly-selective admissions processes.

Re: Leaked Amazon memo warns the company is running out of people to hire

#135
post #66
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From the tech side, I'd say Amazon and Facebook are by far the most frequent to reach out on LinkedIn asking if I want a job compared to other big tech companies.

I have five different recruiters from Amazon messaging me every week here in Vancouver. They acknowledge that other Amazon recruiters have been messaging me at the same time. They must have a lot of open roles here, but all of the stories of having to grind leetcode style tests for the interviews puts me off from engaging.

I’m regularly asked to talk to AWS recruiters, but always decline unless they assure me up front they will never ask me to sign a non-compete agreement. They’re still not hurting enough for that common sense step to have been taken, so I will not be talking to them.

Re: Leaked Amazon memo warns the company is running out of people to hire

#136
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There's a surplus of management eager to exploit workers. Can also be written "There's a surplus of customer eager to pay the lowest possible price even if that means exploiting workers." As shown by the success of Chinese super low cost brands wether we are talking electronics, fashion etc.

> "There's a surplus of customer eager to pay the lowest possible price even if that means exploiting workers." This is just wrong. First, Amazon’s prices and their wages for warehouse workers aren’t directly connected. If they were, amazon wouldn’t have posted 200B in profit in 2021. Given the 1.6mil employees, that’s $125k per employee of profit. Amazon could pay MUCH more, and still hold the same prices. Second, t…

EBITDA is 60 bn from 470 bn revenue. Net income is 33 bn USD.

They couldn't spend 125k per worker.

Re: Leaked Amazon memo warns the company is running out of people to hire

#137
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hadn't really thought before about how left-wing folks typically want higher wages as well as more mass immigration which inherently suppresses wages. In their defense, they want raises waged by law rather than by market (an elevated minimum wage would raise wages irrespective of immigration), but considering how unlikely a minimum federal wage hike is, it seems like they're pursuing two contradictory goals. EDIT:…

[flagged]

It's zero sum. You're hurting your fellow citizens by diluting their labor. You may think this is a righteous position, but from the perspective of a nationalist, you are strictly harming not helping your fellow countrymen, and therefore you set yourself up as their enemy.

>only cares about

And the prosperity of their own country. It is "selfish" yes. But a selfishness that extends out to their kin and their neighbors. They recognize the world is an arena of competition for scarce resources and power, and so they fight for their community and country to be as prosperous and powerful as possible, because they know foreign nations will do the same for their own people.

See: "Ideological differences in the expanse of the moral circle" [0], specifically Figure 5: Heatmaps indicating highest moral allocation by ideology [1] for a nice visualization of the difference between the moral allocation of right vs left.

[0] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-12227-0?fbclid=Iw...

[1] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-12227-0/figures/5

Re: Leaked Amazon memo warns the company is running out of people to hire

#138
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There's a surplus of management eager to exploit workers. Can also be written "There's a surplus of customer eager to pay the lowest possible price even if that means exploiting workers." As shown by the success of Chinese super low cost brands wether we are talking electronics, fashion etc.

> "There's a surplus of customer eager to pay the lowest possible price even if that means exploiting workers." This is just wrong. First, Amazon’s prices and their wages for warehouse workers aren’t directly connected. If they were, amazon wouldn’t have posted 200B in profit in 2021. Given the 1.6mil employees, that’s $125k per employee of profit. Amazon could pay MUCH more, and still hold the same prices. Second, t…

AMZN did not have $200B profit in 2021.

https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/AMZN/amazon/net-in...

Re: Leaked Amazon memo warns the company is running out of people to hire

#139
post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A significant portion of Amazon profits comes from AWS. If you remove AWS from the equation, AWS does make money, but not the truckloads you are pointing. And AWS profits are in now way linked to amazon warehouse workers salaries. If Amazon increases wages - and thus prices - what do you think will happen: 1. People will still buy amazon because they have a higher wage so they ca afford it 2. People will buy more stu…

Again, you’re simply wrong. https://www.shacknews.com/article/128660/amazon-amzn-aws-rev... 17.78B in 2021, or $11k per employee. That’s less than 10% of the per employee profit. Amazon can increase wages without raising prices.

The numbers you are using are wrong, and that article is sloppily written. Revenue and profit (net income) are not the same thing.

Redo the math with the correct numbers:

https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/AMZN/amazon/net-in...

And note that Walmart/Target/Home Depot/ and all the other retail public companies have profit margins of low single digits. It is safe to assume Amazon has the same low single digit profit margins from its retail operations.

Re: Leaked Amazon memo warns the company is running out of people to hire

#140
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There's a surplus of management eager to exploit workers. Can also be written "There's a surplus of customer eager to pay the lowest possible price even if that means exploiting workers." As shown by the success of Chinese super low cost brands wether we are talking electronics, fashion etc.

> "There's a surplus of customer eager to pay the lowest possible price even if that means exploiting workers." This is just wrong. First, Amazon’s prices and their wages for warehouse workers aren’t directly connected. If they were, amazon wouldn’t have posted 200B in profit in 2021. Given the 1.6mil employees, that’s $125k per employee of profit. Amazon could pay MUCH more, and still hold the same prices. Second, t…

No idea where you are getting your numbers, but Amazon did not post $200B in profit in 2021. The list of top five annual profit (adjusted to current USD) by any company ever is:

1. Saudi Aramco (2018) - $120B 2. Saudi Aramco (2021) - $115B 3. Vodafone (2014) - $113B 4. Fannie Mae (2013) - $98B 5. Apple (2021) - $95B

Perhaps you are thinking about revenue?

Post reply on HN