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Amazon confirms 14,000 job losses in corporate division

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Re: Amazon confirms 14,000 job losses in corporate division

#441

Post by JustExAWS »

ericmay wrote: post #435
JustExAWS wrote: post #434

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No one is advocating for “communism” any more than Obama was a “secret Muslim trying to bring Sharia law into the US”. If you want to talk “socialism” that’s what you call tariffs that US citizens are paying and redistributing the taxes to farmers hurt by the tariffs. Again do you think if the terrorist on Jan 6th had bern minorities there wouldn’t have been overwhelming force? Even if they did manage to get to Pelos…

> No one is advocating for “communism” No, there are many progressives who are quite literally calling for communism or to implement economic policies we know are destructive. This is like you trying to tell me MAGA goons don't want a 3rd Trump term. Call a spade a spade. > Again do you think if the terrorist on Jan 6th had bern minorities there wouldn’t have been overwhelming force? Even if they did manage to get to…

So let’s say the mostly Black Million Man March had turned violent and decided to invade the Capitol - what do you think the reaction would have been?

What Democratic candidate on the national stage is saying that the government should take over all private industry and pay everyone the same and control industry? This is real “communism”

Re: Amazon confirms 14,000 job losses in corporate division

#442

Post by t-writescode »

anon-3988 wrote: post #378

I don't understand this thread. Is Amazon supposed to keep expanding ever and ever again? If those people are needed, then Amazon will fall (good riddance), if they are not needed then that's just good business. I don't see any issues as long as everyone plays a fair game.

Once a company reaches a certain size, it can limp along, hidden to everyone, for years - decades - before they go away.

“Amazon will fail”, maybe, in 50 years, from decisions made now.

Re: Amazon confirms 14,000 job losses in corporate division

#443

Post by gruez »

madamelic wrote: post #288
rco8786 wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"job loss" is purposefully passive to remove culpability from the entity (Amazon) that is making the active choice to terminate these people's jobs. It's the same as language like "officer involved shooting" to avoid saying "an officer shot a person" or calling a "murder" a "loss of life".

It's also a total gut-punch to employees. "We had a great quarter!... not a good enough though, so GTFO" I can only imagine what this will do to morale. If even positive quarters means job cuts, why even try to have a positive quarter.

>It's also a total gut-punch to employees. "We had a great quarter!... not a good enough though, so GTFO"

If you take the comment about "AI" at face value, isn't that exactly what you'd expect? If a textile mill is making record profits because of new textile machinery, would you consider it reasonable for the business to keep the old workers around, even though they're not needed anymore? Yes, it always sucks to lose a job, but I don't see how Amazon did them dirty or even broke some sort of informal contract.

Re: Amazon confirms 14,000 job losses in corporate division

#444

Post by gruez »

fooqux wrote: post #204
JKCalhoun wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or they know something that the current Administration does not (or is withholding)? Maybe it's time to buckle up for a coming economic storm.

Oh no, they might only make $15 billion instead of $18 billion next quarter?

>Oh no, they might only make $15 billion instead of $18 billion next quarter?

Exactly. It's a for-profit company, not a charity or a jobs program.

Re: Amazon confirms 14,000 job losses in corporate division

#445

Post by fnordpiglet »

stanleykm wrote: post #399
fnordpiglet wrote: post #292

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s actually not warehouses. It’s groceries. Amazon jumped from a few hundred thousand to 1mm+ with the acquisition of Whole Foods. The corporate jobs is inclusive of engineering and aws. They do an annual “top grading” layoff that’s variable in size from 5% to 10% which are performance based. There is obviously attrition as well. This leads to a constant hiring flow as these are typically backfilled. These layoffs…

well, one reason people might stay is they are on a visa and the government has a nice corporate friendly visa system in this country.

I’m not sure I get what part of what I said this relates to, but the visa system in the US is extraordinary draconian compared to other countries for high skill work visas. It’s extremely limited in quantity and if you lose your job you need to find a new one within weeks or need to leave the country. Converting to a permanent visa is difficult and has long time commitments and even then you are not secure in your status. As of recently even minor vehicular infractions can lead to violent deportation and family separation, losing all your belongings and if you own a home forced to sell and remove your kids from school. I know a lot of folks on H1-B and other visas and they live in constant fear especially in competitive cultures like Amazon where people are let go almost capriciously - jeopardizing their life with their families and constantly leaving them insecure in everything in life.

To your point the system is friendly to the employer, but it’s very much not to the employee.

Re: Amazon confirms 14,000 job losses in corporate division

#446

Post by gruez »

Covenant0028 wrote: post #170
UncleMeat wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My experience with these sorts of layoffs is that they are not tightly bound to performance. If you have underperformers you can fire them the ordinary way.

Exactly. How is it that an org suddenly discovered thousands of employees are under performers? And how is it that the number of under performers coincides with the number McKinsey and Co (or similar company) said it would be?

>Exactly. How is it that an org suddenly discovered thousands of employees are under performers?

The more correct statement is they suddenly cared about under performers. It's not any different than say, you noticing your grocery bills going up and as a result you cancel all the subscriptions you don't need. It's not like all those SaaS services' value propositions suddenly plummeted because the price of eggs went up, but now you suddenly have an eye for cutting costs.

Re: Amazon confirms 14,000 job losses in corporate division

#447

Post by gruez »

JustExAWS wrote: post #424
ericmay wrote: post #390

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok so the US military is going to drop a nuclear weapon on Dallas or Buffalo to stop insurgents? Why even bother writing something like that when you know it’s stupid? Obviously governments have superior firepower and can and have quashed rebellions. But rebellions have been successful as well. Taking away arms from the people makes rebellion in the case of tyranny that much harder. I don’t think it’s unfair to quest…

If today, the National Guard dropped a non nuclear bomb on a blue city, 40% of the US population would shrug if not outright cheer. https://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/socprac/vol10/iss1/15/ Rebellions have been successful in underfunded countries with few resources. Can you actually come up with a scenario where a few yokels in the south running around the field playing militia could overthrow the US government? And th…

>https://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/socprac/vol10/iss1/15/

Strange you linked to some random journal article describing the incident as "In 1985 police bombed the Philadelphia headquarters occupied by members of the black counterculture group MOVE.". The wikipedia article adds far needed context:

>The 1985 MOVE bombing, locally known by its date, May 13, 1985,[2] was the aerial bombing of a house, and the destruction of 61 more houses by the subsequent fire, in the Cobbs Creek neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, by the Philadelphia Police Department during an armed battle with MOVE, a black liberation organization. MOVE members shot at Philadelphia police who had come to evict them from the house they were using as their headquarters. Philadelphia police aviators then dropped two explosive devices from a Pennsylvania State Police helicopter onto the roof of the house, which was occupied at the time. For 90 minutes, the Philadelphia Police Department allowed the resulting fire to burn out of control, destroying 61 previously evacuated neighboring houses over two city blocks and leaving 250 people homeless.[3] Six adults and five children were killed in the attack;[4] two occupants of the house, one adult and one child, survived. A lawsuit in federal court found that the city used excessive force and violated constitutional protections against unreasonable search and seizure.[5]

Furthermore it's a stretch to claim that some incident that killed 11 people is somehow expandable to nuking a whole city.

Re: Amazon confirms 14,000 job losses in corporate division

#448

Post by ericmay »

JustExAWS wrote: post #441
ericmay wrote: post #435

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> No one is advocating for “communism” No, there are many progressives who are quite literally calling for communism or to implement economic policies we know are destructive. This is like you trying to tell me MAGA goons don't want a 3rd Trump term. Call a spade a spade. > Again do you think if the terrorist on Jan 6th had bern minorities there wouldn’t have been overwhelming force? Even if they did manage to get to…

So let’s say the mostly Black Million Man March had turned violent and decided to invade the Capitol - what do you think the reaction would have been? What Democratic candidate on the national stage is saying that the government should take over all private industry and pay everyone the same and control industry? This is real “communism”

> So let’s say the mostly Black Million Man March had turned violent and decided to invade the Capitol - what do you think the reaction would have been?

I don't really know, are they a Black Million Man March for a sitting president named Donald J. Trump? You're just throwing straw man arguments out there.

> What Democratic candidate on the national stage is saying that the government should take over all private industry and pay everyone the same and control industry? This is real “communism”

There's always talk about things like nationalizing industries and such. Government run grocery stores, you name it. Some ideas are worth trying, some aren't, but as we do try new ideas we should be vigilant against authoritarian ideologies whether those are coming from MAGA or commies. Keep in mind I'm separating out Progressives from Democrats because like the Republicans they're not all united.

As I know you are well aware with MAGA goons, you don't have to come out with a piece of paper and say "Hello, we are Communists and we want to implement these specific things to achieve our stated goal of Communism. Thank you". It's emergent from policy and platforms, terms of usage "equity" etc.

Re: Amazon confirms 14,000 job losses in corporate division

#449

Post by raw_anon_1111 »

ericmay wrote: post #448
JustExAWS wrote: post #441

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So let’s say the mostly Black Million Man March had turned violent and decided to invade the Capitol - what do you think the reaction would have been? What Democratic candidate on the national stage is saying that the government should take over all private industry and pay everyone the same and control industry? This is real “communism”

> So let’s say the mostly Black Million Man March had turned violent and decided to invade the Capitol - what do you think the reaction would have been? I don't really know, are they a Black Million Man March for a sitting president named Donald J. Trump? You're just throwing straw man arguments out there. > What Democratic candidate on the national stage is saying that the government should take over all private ind…

You’re still being hand wavy. Saying “we should have government run grocery stores where there are food deserts and wouldn’t be profitable for private corporations” is not “communism”. Do you know what Communism actually is? Give a specific example.

What Democratic candidate is saying we should be a “communist country”?

But your original arguments was that J6 was evidence that a few people with guns could have taken over the entire federal government and that the full force of even local SWAT couldn’t have intervened.

Re: Amazon confirms 14,000 job losses in corporate division

#450

Post by rightbyte »

jvanderbot wrote: post #375
LargeWu wrote: post #284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is absolutely nothing in the world I would like less than an AI device listening to all of my conversations at home.

It works by listening for the keyword (it's name), and only then opening a connection to servers. You can verify this by removing internet connectivity and it'll still "turn on" when you say it's name, but will be unable to respond.

It can buffer your words as text until you call it. How many kB do one speak per day? 50?
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