4 ms·

Yeah doesn’t Amazon lay off 10% of devs every year as part of their stack ranking?

by symlinkk 6y ago

three_seagrass 6y ago
That was Microsoft for the longest time and it destroyed their work culture.
- atlgator 6y ago
  But it funded the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Silver lining.
- mrnobody_67 6y ago
  But it gave us Clippy!!
simonebrunozzi 6y ago
No, never heard of this systematic approach while I was there (AWS, 2008-2014), although the turnaround effect might have been somewhat close to that number just coincidentally.
- pmiller2 6y ago
  What's the "turnaround effect"?
  - OkGoDoIt 6y ago
    I assume they meant “turnover”. Amazon is notorious for burning through employees quickly. And if employees quit voluntarily, the company doesn’t need to pay severance, may reclaim hiring bonus or RSU’s, and it helps them politically/reputationally in aggregate (by being able to claim low lay-off numbers). Of course then you might wind up with those other than your worst performers leaving, so it’s not great in the long term.
    - simonebrunozzi 6y ago
      Correct, I meant turnover. My mistake.
reducesuffering 6y ago
Almost. 10% are put into a "Dev List" which starts with some coaching on how they should improve. It then likely leads to a "Pivot" where the employee is given the option to take a 3 month pay severance, or go on a Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) (likely biased against the employee, as manager and manager's manager have already put a lot of work into getting here and have made up their mind). Failing the PIP, they are likely going to be terminated soon and only get 1 month severance. So, they start with 10% but they target about 6-8% actually getting terminated.
- yetanta 6y ago
  Many of the places where I worked if they PIP'd you start looking. They already made up their minds. If they get a 'get rid of X% of people' you will be in that list.
aka1234 6y ago
Never heard of this in my organization. Have heard whispers of it in some corners, but not from anyone currently employed by Amazon.

Yeah doesn’t Amazon lay off 10% of devs every year as part of their stack ranking?

three_seagrass 6y ago

That was Microsoft for the longest time and it destroyed their work culture.

atlgator 6y ago
But it funded the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Silver lining.
mrnobody_67 6y ago
But it gave us Clippy!!

simonebrunozzi 6y ago

No, never heard of this systematic approach while I was there (AWS, 2008-2014), although the turnaround effect might have been somewhat close to that number just coincidentally.

pmiller2 6y ago
What's the "turnaround effect"?
- OkGoDoIt 6y ago
  I assume they meant “turnover”. Amazon is notorious for burning through employees quickly. And if employees quit voluntarily, the company doesn’t need to pay severance, may reclaim hiring bonus or RSU’s, and it helps them politically/reputationally in aggregate (by being able to claim low lay-off numbers). Of course then you might wind up with those other than your worst performers leaving, so it’s not great in the long term.
  - simonebrunozzi 6y ago
    Correct, I meant turnover. My mistake.

reducesuffering 6y ago

Almost. 10% are put into a "Dev List" which starts with some coaching on how they should improve. It then likely leads to a "Pivot" where the employee is given the option to take a 3 month pay severance, or go on a Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) (likely biased against the employee, as manager and manager's manager have already put a lot of work into getting here and have made up their mind). Failing the PIP, they are likely going to be terminated soon and only get 1 month severance. So, they start with 10% but they target about 6-8% actually getting terminated.

yetanta 6y ago
Many of the places where I worked if they PIP'd you start looking. They already made up their minds. If they get a 'get rid of X% of people' you will be in that list.

aka1234 6y ago

Never heard of this in my organization. Have heard whispers of it in some corners, but not from anyone currently employed by Amazon.