Amazon Pivot, Negotiating terms?
It happened. My spouse was put on Pivot after being placed on Focus when returning from paternity leave. They also kept him on a Focus plan since November after exceeding manager expectations, basically so they could have someone to PIP for URA. Such bullshit they're not supposed to do. Does anyone have first-hand experience accepting Pivot? My husband is thinking of returning to school in the fall and getting a degree using his GI Bill, so having access to unemployment would be nice, given the awkward timing. When I look online for our state, (a smaller blue state), it explicitly says that severance does not necessarily preclude you for employment. Also, COBRA? Our son needs an ophthalmologist appointment in May. I've heard some negotiated a longer period of coverage. He's an American citizen, if it matters. Thank you to anyone who has gone through this awful situation and can share.
Really sorry to hear this. I have not gone through it but I have been a manager there in the past. In general, you have three options (at least when I was there) and they are to accept severance (it’s usually like 3 or 4 months depending on level), to go through the pivot plan (which only has like a 20% success rate), or to appeal (I have seen this succeed once but I don’t know how likely it is and I’d assume it’s difficult). Unless you really want to try dearly to hold on to this job, I’d take the severance and move on. As for cobra, I don’t know anyone who has negotiated getting it for free, but you are entitled to get it by law if you pay for it. It’s very expensive though (like $1200 a month at the minimum). So I would try to look on your local exchange, especially if you have something affordable like Kaiser Permanente available in your state. Lastly, as a naturalized immigrant who is grateful for my life in this country, please thank your spouse for their service.
This is happening a lot at Amazon right now.
It's awful. Just do a proper layoff unless someone is legitimately bad.
I was blindsided by Pivot in a normal 1:1, I never knew anything about being on Focus and was shocked. I didn't take the severance and was hoping to exceed expectations that seem uncontrollable. I actually sent responses to the pivot plan asking my manager how we handled uncontrollable metrics. I have his response of just show attempts with traceable communication. I shared this with my HRBP and "Career Ambassador". I was told if my manager says I did not meet expectations at the end of the plan and I have proof of hours responses I could appeal. I want to beat this just because I know I'm good at what I do. I hope the outcome is keeping my job and moving on to a different team/position.
Going through the same rn. What do you mean by "proof of hours response". I have not been told that I am on focus formally but I could tell that I am on focus based on my managers emails. I can ask him but don't know if hom formally telling me that I am on focus will change anything
As someone who just went through this less than a month ago, those metrics were picked specifically so you could fail. I had everything documented as to how it was impossible to be successful in the tasks given, took my shot at an appeal, and it failed. Not trying to make you feel worse, but people do get targeted. Best you can do is have an exit plan.
Are they not going to tell us if we are on focus
Sometimes they don’t.
One of my friends posted this blog on severance negotiation. https://codeoffinancy.com/2023/02/12/severance-negotiation/
Same story with me. Found out by surprise that I was on focus since November. According to my manager I met all expectations by 95% and HR still pushed for a pivot. He managed to get me an extended focus, this time with clear expectations and I'm knocking it out of the park. I'm curious to see if I'm gonna get pipped anyway, that would be proof that they set me up. Good luck for your partner and may we come out of this stronger.
Maybe this is confirmation bias, but I've seen too many cases of this lately (from anxiety scrolling on Blind). More aggressive forced attrition maybe? In my husband's case, he was told by his new manager he was on Focus, and he was meeting everything. I think it was bad luck because of all the new employees on his team who couldn't be touched yet, as he had been there for 7+ years and did well before.