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I’ve been talking to close to a dozen current and former Amazon employees since the end of 2021, and reached out to people publicly sharing attrition observatio

I’ve been talking to close to a dozen current and former Amazon employees since the end of 2021, and reached out to people publicly sharing attrition observations. Amazon attrition is really bad, even in AWS (Amazon employees all agree that AWS is a much better place to work in tech than Amazon retail). At the same time, Amazon has had to pay very high for new hires. Hiring managers used to need to get L10 approval to go out of bands on offers outside bands, but starting late 2021, they could go out of bands up to ~20% higher with no approvals. To top all of this, Amazon has a 6% internal URA (non-regretted attrition) target: something that has been in place for close to a decade. The Amazon Music group revolted late 2021 as reported by the Big Technology publication in-depth [1] as they didn't have 6% of people to fire, at the very time when they could not hire. Yet they were forced to hit this URA target, just like all other orgs in Amazon. Apparently this “rebellion email” leaked across the company and is sparking Amazon-wide outrage, and adds fuel to the fire. Amazon has been extremely frugal for the skillset they hire for, very demanding and have created a stressful workplace. They still force 6% of engineers to be fired, even when their own leadership opposes this (Amazon Music). I wonder why they can’t hire. Also, why is Amazon still part of the FANG abbreviation when they have this culture across many of their organisations? [1] https://bigtechnology.substack.com/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=substack_profile https://bigtechnology.substack.com/?utm_source=substack&utm_...

foobarian 5y ago
> To top all of this, Amazon has a 6% internal URA So that's where all the Microsoft stack-ranking hawks went!
Tempest1981 5y ago
Your link took me to the home page. Is this the story? https://bigtechnology.substack.com/p/standing-up-for-us-plebs-amazon-leaders https://bigtechnology.substack.com/p/standing-up-for-us-pleb...
- gregdoesit 5y ago
  Yes, this is the one I meant to link. I can no longer edit my comment, unfortunately.
MattGaiser 5y ago
> Amazon attrition is really bad, even in AWS (Amazon employees all agree that AWS is a much better place to work in tech than Amazon retail). This one is interesting to me, as my anecdata is the opposite. People tell me not to go to Amazon, but if I do choose to go, refuse any job with AWS on the basis that they refuse to staff it properly.
cheeze 5y ago
> Amazon employees all agree that AWS is a much better place to work in tech than Amazon retail Nut sure where you're getting this from, but IMO this is not true at all. More 'hardcore engineering' is going on, on average, over Amazon Retail/CDO. But I would not say _at all_ that AWS is a better place to work. From the datapoints I've gathered, it's the opposite. Oncall for an AWS product generally sucks balls, and the re:invent death march is a real thing. But this is just like, my opinion, man.
gnaman 5y ago
>Also, why is Amazon still part of the FANG abbreviation when they have this culture across many of their organisations? Because the term had nothing to do with work culture. The term was coined by Jim Cramer, the television host of CNBC's Mad Money, in 2013, who praised these companies for being “totally dominant in their markets”. The original definition still holds true.
- orf 5y ago
  Is Netflix totally dominant still?
orf 5y ago
Here’s the actual substack link: https://bigtechnology.substack.com/p/standing-up-for-us-plebs-amazon-leaders https://bigtechnology.substack.com/p/standing-up-for-us-pleb...

foobarian 5y ago

> To top all of this, Amazon has a 6% internal URA So that's where all the Microsoft stack-ranking hawks went!

Tempest1981 5y ago

Your link took me to the home page. Is this the story? https://bigtechnology.substack.com/p/standing-up-for-us-plebs-amazon-leaders https://bigtechnology.substack.com/p/standing-up-for-us-pleb...

gregdoesit 5y ago
Yes, this is the one I meant to link. I can no longer edit my comment, unfortunately.

MattGaiser 5y ago

> Amazon attrition is really bad, even in AWS (Amazon employees all agree that AWS is a much better place to work in tech than Amazon retail). This one is interesting to me, as my anecdata is the opposite. People tell me not to go to Amazon, but if I do choose to go, refuse any job with AWS on the basis that they refuse to staff it properly.

cheeze 5y ago

> Amazon employees all agree that AWS is a much better place to work in tech than Amazon retail Nut sure where you're getting this from, but IMO this is not true at all. More 'hardcore engineering' is going on, on average, over Amazon Retail/CDO. But I would not say _at all_ that AWS is a better place to work. From the datapoints I've gathered, it's the opposite. Oncall for an AWS product generally sucks balls, and the re:invent death march is a real thing. But this is just like, my opinion, man.

gnaman 5y ago

>Also, why is Amazon still part of the FANG abbreviation when they have this culture across many of their organisations? Because the term had nothing to do with work culture. The term was coined by Jim Cramer, the television host of CNBC's Mad Money, in 2013, who praised these companies for being “totally dominant in their markets”. The original definition still holds true.

orf 5y ago
Is Netflix totally dominant still?

orf 5y ago

Here’s the actual substack link: https://bigtechnology.substack.com/p/standing-up-for-us-plebs-amazon-leaders https://bigtechnology.substack.com/p/standing-up-for-us-pleb...