Received "Final Written Warning" from HR, Amazon manager retaliating for me wanting to xfer teams.

Amazon
qeVI81

Go to company page Amazon

qeVI81
Mar 16 22 Comments

After informing my direct manager (L5) of my intention to transfer teams, he told me he would "do whatever it takes to prevent that from happening."

Manager is a new hire L5 with less than a year on. He's not from a tech background really, more military and municipal government. The team has seen significant turnover since his arrival, with four of our most senior engineers leaving within six-months. He's been extremely condescending during our 1:1s ("I've been doing this for 40 years and sometimes you have to do things you don't want to do"). He's offered no technical or administrative help, has never removed any blockers, he barely even assigns work. When he does assign work, there are no due dates, no scope, no information, he simply assigns an already created SIM to you and says " ask another engineer about this."

Shortly after our transfer conversation, he took some of my comments from meetings and slack conversations out-of-context and went to HR.

HR asked for my side of the story but clearly entered with a bias. She basically listened for a couple of minutes and attempted to frame everything as lining up with my direct manager's story. Her decision was to issue a written warning. At the end of our conversation she specifically stated, "yea, you can't transfer for 90 days."

I check my email and see it's a "Final Written Warning." Mind you, I've never been written up or verbally counseled before this. It's clear I'm being setup for termination here.

I'm currently documenting everything for my Director/VP and for further HR escalation.

Is there anything else I can/should do (beside study and gtfo obviously)? Just want to make sure this cannot effect my future opportunities with AWS or affiliates (say IMDB or Twitch) I'm not an SDE btw. #HR #amazon #

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TOP 22 Comments
  • Document everything thoroughly then call him out on LinkedIn. Damn, I’m terrible. Don’t do that.
    Mar 16 4
    • New
      Psynaptic

      New

      Psynaptic
      Nah, grow a pair and stand by your recommendation or remove it.
      Mar 16
    • It’s definitely not a recommendation. I’m more than welcome to a little stream of consciousness where I comment with things I wouldn’t do. I can see life is probably pretty frustrating for you with everything being so black and white. Good luck.
      Mar 16
  • New
    •|

    New

    •|
    leave. that’s it. the sooner the better for you and the worse for the mgr
    Mar 16 0
  • Google
    gSnail

    Go to company page Google

    gSnail
    Document everything. don’t even let them do this to you. Take this to the media, escalate this.
    Mar 16 0
  • Juniper
    Diwp91

    Go to company page Juniper

    Diwp91
    Lame company. Focus on finding a new job and get out of this shitty place.
    Mar 16 0
  • Google
    refer me

    Go to company page Google

    refer me
    This is shitty, you’re definitely going to get fired, lawyers can’t help you, documenting things doesn’t really help you. You’re an at-will employee. It sucks. You start leetcoding and interviewing. Amazon pays severance. You probably have 10-12 weeks to get a new job before you’re going to be in a difficult financial place. Cut bait, don’t focus your energy on fighting the inevitable, and just move on.
    Mar 16 1