Amazon cuts 16k jobs

Post by speleding » Thu, Jan 29, 2026, 9:30 AM UTC

booleandilemma wrote: post #784

Aurornis wrote: post #493

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 do…

Actually I've worked at companies where management is exactly like this. Literally just status updates and asking when things are going to be finished. I have no respect for middle managers whatsoever. These people are a parasite on the industry.

Post by disgruntledphd2 » Thu, Jan 29, 2026, 9:46 AM UTC

khazhoux wrote: post #859

hyperbovine wrote: post #716

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uhm, plenty of phrases like this existed before 12 months ago.

Apparently, before ChatGPT, the english was devoid of any occurrence of "It's not X, it's Y"!

Post by disgruntledphd2 » Thu, Jan 29, 2026, 9:49 AM UTC

kburman wrote: post #693

pm90 wrote: post #681

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They can capture the market without moving the workforce there. Meta/Instagram/WA have dominated Indian market for a decade now. It seems like this is pure labor arbitrage. Growth is gone so the only way to increase profits is by cutting costs, with labor force being the top line item.

You are describing a colonial model, extract all the wealth while investing nothing in the local economy. That era is over. If anything, Meta is the anomaly, not the role model. They should be required to invest more given their dominance, rather than being praised for extracting maximum value with minimum local footprint. Regulators will likely close that gap eventually.

Post by booleandilemma » Thu, Jan 29, 2026, 9:58 AM UTC

speleding wrote: post #901

booleandilemma wrote: post #784

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually I've worked at companies where management is exactly like this. Literally just status updates and asking when things are going to be finished. I have no respect for middle managers whatsoever. These people are a parasite on the industry.

> management ... literally just status updates and asking when things are going to be finished. True. But there are many people whose productivity slumps unless they are asked for progress updates every day. You have to offset this against the people whose productivity slumps BECAUSE they are asked for updates every day. In large orgs with unknown quality of people I guess it's not impossible that middle managers add…

Post by Bombthecat » Thu, Jan 29, 2026, 10:33 AM UTC

mrtksn wrote: post #472

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…

TBH the last 20-30 years was exactly like that but computers were eliminating other peoples jobs for really good profits for the investors and really good salaries for the workers doing the elimination. Before that people were eliminating blue colar workers with highly productive machines and industrial robots. I don't see how eliminating your co-workers is any different. Software ate the world and now AI will eat th…