3 ms·

Amazon lays off hundreds in Alexa division

6 points by Crunchified 3y ago

Crunchified 3y ago
Amazon is cutting “several hundred” jobs in its Alexa division to focus more on generative AI, the company announced Friday. (Seattle Times)
quantified 3y ago
Ouch. I guess there's no use for those employees elsewhere, just deadweight?
- rybosworld 3y ago
  Amazon is uniquely ruthless towards their engineers. There is a philosophy among the company's leaders that if a department as a whole is not doing well, all the people who are a part of it are to blame.
  - dkubb 3y ago
    Its usually leadership who are the problem if a whole department is failing. If they started firing from the top down they'd eventually reach competent people who stayed with the department out of loyalty or because they felt responsibile to hold things together. Seems such a waste to fire those people too.
    - rybosworld 3y ago
      Unfortunately most companies don't operate as a meritocracy. Leadership is almost never fired because it becomes a club/brotherhood. The first people who are fired when things go badly are those not in the club (individual contributors). There are always exceptions, but they are rare. People are innately tribal and political.
  - senderista 3y ago
    Unintended consequence: reluctance to join a high-risk initiative because you'll likely be laid off if it fails?
ChrisArchitect 3y ago
[dupe] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38305097 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38305097
- Crunchified 3y ago
  I know, now. I used search on this site for "Amazon" but results were obviously not complete enough to be helpful. Any advice on how not to duplicate, short of paging through the submissions to the nth degree? I checked the guidelines and FAQs. I emailed the contact info but haven't heard their answer yet, either. Sigh. This was my first submission, and I don't want to repeat this mistake!
  - dredmorbius 3y ago
    "Alexa" would be a more specific search. "Amazon" and one or more of "jobs", "cuts", "lay", "layoff", etc., would also be useful. Searching "amazon" alone, sorting by popularity, and limiting to the past 24 hours, turns up the prior submission as the first result: <https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=last24h&page=0&prefix=false&query=amazon&sort=byPopularity&type=story https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=last24h&page=0&prefix=fals...> (For future readers, bound on today's date: <https://hn.algolia.com/?dateEnd=1700261998&dateRange=custom&dateStart=1700092800&page=0&prefix=false&query=amazon&sort=byPopularity&type=story https://hn.algolia.com/?dateEnd=1700261998&dateRange=custom&...>)
  - dredmorbius 3y ago
    [dead]
  - ChrisArchitect 3y ago
    Oh just filter by Last 24hr since it's fresh news. There's like 3-4 right at the top you'll notice. Not too difficult.

6 points by Crunchified 3y ago

Amazon is cutting “several hundred” jobs in its Alexa division to focus more on generative AI, the company announced Friday. (Seattle Times)

quantified 3y ago

Ouch. I guess there's no use for those employees elsewhere, just deadweight?

rybosworld 3y ago
Amazon is uniquely ruthless towards their engineers. There is a philosophy among the company's leaders that if a department as a whole is not doing well, all the people who are a part of it are to blame.
- dkubb 3y ago
  Its usually leadership who are the problem if a whole department is failing. If they started firing from the top down they'd eventually reach competent people who stayed with the department out of loyalty or because they felt responsibile to hold things together. Seems such a waste to fire those people too.
  - rybosworld 3y ago
    Unfortunately most companies don't operate as a meritocracy. Leadership is almost never fired because it becomes a club/brotherhood. The first people who are fired when things go badly are those not in the club (individual contributors). There are always exceptions, but they are rare. People are innately tribal and political.
- senderista 3y ago
  Unintended consequence: reluctance to join a high-risk initiative because you'll likely be laid off if it fails?

ChrisArchitect 3y ago

[dupe] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38305097 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38305097

Crunchified 3y ago
I know, now. I used search on this site for "Amazon" but results were obviously not complete enough to be helpful. Any advice on how not to duplicate, short of paging through the submissions to the nth degree? I checked the guidelines and FAQs. I emailed the contact info but haven't heard their answer yet, either. Sigh. This was my first submission, and I don't want to repeat this mistake!
- dredmorbius 3y ago
  "Alexa" would be a more specific search. "Amazon" and one or more of "jobs", "cuts", "lay", "layoff", etc., would also be useful. Searching "amazon" alone, sorting by popularity, and limiting to the past 24 hours, turns up the prior submission as the first result: <https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=last24h&page=0&prefix=false&query=amazon&sort=byPopularity&type=story https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=last24h&page=0&prefix=fals...> (For future readers, bound on today's date: <https://hn.algolia.com/?dateEnd=1700261998&dateRange=custom&dateStart=1700092800&page=0&prefix=false&query=amazon&sort=byPopularity&type=story https://hn.algolia.com/?dateEnd=1700261998&dateRange=custom&...>)
- dredmorbius 3y ago
  [dead]
- ChrisArchitect 3y ago
  Oh just filter by Last 24hr since it's fresh news. There's like 3-4 right at the top you'll notice. Not too difficult.