Do other FAANG companies also follow strict bell curves and keep targets for attrition? At Amazon this is followed quite strictly. While it is a forcing function for everyone to continuously keep raising the bar, it adds an extraordinary amount of stress level and unfortunately leads to back stabbing, politics and throwing people under the bus at times. In some organisations particularly I have come across good people (good at work) getting the short end of the stick because they either lacked social skills to navigate this mess of a policy or simply got on the wrong side of a table with an L7 or L8. How do things work at Facebook, Microsoft and Google?
The companies have no obligation to be nice or even to not be evil. So what if there is backstabbing and politics? Why should the shareholders care?
My post isn't about politics and backstabbing. It is specifically snout Bell curve and forced attrition.
Facebook isnât strict about curving. We donât sacrifice the bottom 10% every cycle.
I think only amazon has a strict curve , lay off the bottom 5-10% every year as a must .
It is the same at MS if not worse.
In your dreams
Sr manager here.Forcing a curve != as firing and yes, you need to rate your top and your bottom employee and merge with other managers. . Kind of the same existed in Microsoft before the âupgradeâ that now peanut butters everyone instead and since rookie managers are not forced to think about this problem hard, you can end with low performers that zap from the top performers. Also, attrition is not a target in amazon, but a âsignalâ and looked at the VP/director level. Basically, if at around 300 engineers, there are no 4%-6% that could like be replaced with better ones or make room for the lower ranks to climb, it invites questions of the org being managed like a country club and not forcing to ask hard questions. My observation so far: in a 300 org there are always 10-15 people who you always wonder: wtf is this guys doing here
Thank you. I agree that in a large sample size of 300 there are always stowaways who can be challenged to raise the bar or move out. And yes technically forcing the curve! = firing. But the direction on URA is very clear from my L8 and HRBP. 10% must be met at the L10 level. That said there are teams abound being run as country clubs and no mechanism seems to be able to break those.
There is curve at google. Ppl get NIs
Why canât Amazon do anything about it? I see SDMs here on blind. I am sure they must be aware of such situation and yet they do not do anything to improve it. Whyâs that?
Because they view it as a strategy to not getting bloated with low performers which is easy to have happen when you are hiring so many people. Even if Amazon loosened up and didn't force low performers out, it still wouldn't be in the best interest for those people to stay at Amazon. Amazon won't allocate additional stock or raises to the low performers so their compensation will drop significantly.
Everyone has a boss, even SDMs. Get out of line on this policy as a manager and you will find yourself forced out for failing to manage performance on your team.