Amazon is advertising that they are hiring thousands of people in Seattle but quietly laying off loads of people to make room. It is a publicity stunt. I have 3 friends at Amazon from my previous teams all laid off the same way, all on 3 different teams. Now it is happening to me. This dark side of Amazon is being swept under the carpet. Here is how it works. You find out your manager put you on a "dev plan" or "coaching plan". Now you are stuck. You can no longer switch teams and are stuck with the manager that put you on the list until he deems you "good enough" to get off the list. Switching teams at Amazon is super easy but once on this plan, you can not. Now he starts listing what he expects of you. Whatever you turn in is torn apart as being not good enough. He raises expectations, shortens due dates, and moves the expectations so you cannot meet them. Holding you to standards and expecting things nobody on the team has ever been asked to do before. You try hoping you can, losing sleep, losing self esteem, working hard, but nothing works. This is the exact same story all 3 people I know had recently (this year) until they ultimately failed the dev plan and were pushed out. I am in the middle of it now, looking for jobs outside Amazon of course, but that takes time. Previous reviews all stellar. This boss (who did not hire me, he came in later) just doesn't like me. Same with my buddies. Exact same stories. Boss came in that didn't hire them. Then plan. Then tears them apart documenting all their misses for HR. Then they leave amazon never to be able to work there again. It's a toxic, evil system. HR won't talk to you. They say "talk to your manager" Your skip level must side with your boss. Your colleagues will be urged to side with him too. Out of fear, they will. They will turn on you to your disbelief. Mine have. I don't blame them. Their jobs are at stake. Amazon is a dangerous place to park your career. You have all been warned.
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😞
Good luck.
+1
"Amazon is a dangerous place to work" -> everyone on blind knows. In future, I'll work there only if I don't have any other job and have Amazon as the last option.
This is a measured response. Kudos
My theory is if I ever want the resume stamp, I'll take it hoping to come out on top, but fully expecting to get put to the gauntlet.
This is sad. Start up company like where I work also (which has management influenced by Bezoo) has started to follow “Hire fast, Fire fast”. 🤬
Watch out for any companies that copy the Bezos LP.. it’s a red flag
Def a red flag. Startups like this often don’t invest sufficiently in the hiring process to ensure a good fit because they feel like they can just fire someone without appropriate regard to how damaging that can be to the person’s life. Not saying that anyone owes you a living but the burden falls disproportionately on the employee in these situations.
Btw this is not laying off, this is part of unregretted attrition. Amazon does this all the time. LEs (or better put what the manager thinks are LEs) are put on dev plan, pip and then eventually given severance and let go. It sucks that new manager is not able to see your worth. I hope you come out of this stronger.
What is the full form of LE?
Least Effective
Take you 🍌
This is a known and common phenomenon at Amazon. This is same company with managers who hire people just to do what you described above and meet the quota. Common sense says to start looking elsewhere immediately after being put on PIP.
If you quit while you are on dev plan, can you return to Amazon at some point in the future?
My understanding is no, not without VP approval
No, always wait for severance package instead of leaving on your own.
+1
Amazon incentives are setup in a way that encourage managers to behave like that. You give people a shitty vesting schedule where most of their shares will only vest on year 3 and 4. Then you give managers the power to block internal transfers and blacklist people from being re-hired. The two things combined mean that if someone joins and 2 years later the stock is way more valuable, the manager knows they can be abusive AF since you want the rest of your package. It'd be naive to think the top brass doesn't know that. They do and that's "by design".
OP, sorry for how you feel, but you also lose all credibility for apparently deliberately advertising untrue headline like "laying off en masse". That's a terrible extrapolation from some people being put on performance plan.