Recently started at Amazon in finance within the last few months. I’m guessing that I’m bound to be laid off? I’m sure they will run a report on seniority and get rid of all of the people who have barely started here?
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Yes, they will layoff new hires .
@5fip+1jLssEuV Thanks. One of the most informative posts I've seen on this site.
What do these "models" consist of?
Do you feel that the finance department is too large at Amazon?
Glad you asked what finance does. Since I work in finance at Amazon allow me to explain. Please keep in mind that a lot of people in finance don’t understand the point of finance…I worked for CFOs in the past that had no idea how to run a finance org.
The point of finance is to run financial reports and create models and then ANALYZE the numbers in these reports and models to make actionable improvements within a company. For example, if I run a report and find that we are spending X% more on shipping or materials than we used to, it’s my job to find out why, and then find out if we can improve that. One small example but if there’s a true finance leader in a company then the finance team should be one of the most valuable teams in any company.
The problem is most people think finance is just running reports and sending them out. I’ve worked with many co workers who viewed it that way, and senior finance people as well. A lot of people in finance are scared of confrontation. Don’t want to get too involved.
I worked for a CFO that didn’t even care to check profit margins on our products. That’s another basic point of finance: make sure the things you do turn a profit. You’d be surprised at how many companies are creating, producing and selling things at a loss and don’t even fully understand that.
Finance is powerful when leadership and team understand and are capable of performing to the true point of finance.
Can someone explain what finance does? Are they the ones who press a button to generate the quarterly report? Maybe that's accounting. Or are they they ones who decide who should be laid off? They're likely the ones who tell the developers to create the software that tells the warehouse workers to ship those packages as fast as possible, causing them to forgo bathroom breaks.
Put Open to Work on LinkedIn just in case!!!
Same. Recently started and was re-orged.
I’m in the same boat and feel the same panic. We will also get the least amount of severance obviously. Not the best.
A couple of my colleagues started 4 months ago, then got re-org'd in Alexa (new Managers) and then one of them was recently laid off. I'd agree that this is an issue with the Upper Management - they've been watching inflation rise for a long time and knew the global situation, but decided to hire excessively and then sc--w their hires when things backfire (and make excuses about 'macro concerns'). It took them two days just to announce/acknowledge layoffs and still leave employees guessing. Sure, tell the affectded employees first, then create hysteria. It's so irresponsible. Upper Management needs to change. Morale at an all time low. Fu-k Amazon.