They fired many PMs and now senior and principal engineers drive projects to completion.
Is this our future? From now, we'll be expected to work twice if not three times as much for the same pay? I was overworked before this, so this is simply not sustainable in the long run. I guess they hope to get rid of more of us by making us quit.
We had 2 cardiac events at the DC Summit and one death.
According to Elon Musk's recent interview, he axed 50% of the workforce at Twitter.
Then an additional 30% quit on their own given the RTO and strict treatment they received from the new CEO.
That said, if the same is applied in FAANGs laying off people by the thousands and cutting salaries, I predict that about 15% will leave as soon as the market improves.
Amazon is a terrible place to work, especially if you have a family. A rising stock market covered for a lot of BS but now that the tables have turned -- get out!
I would expect at least 10000 employees quitting in the next 6 months, and likely many more if Amazon keeps its new policies in place. Financially, Amazon needs many more than a few thousand to leave or they'll just keep burning cash and then be forced to issue more layoffs ("we'll continue to evaluate what we're seeing in our business and proceed adaptively.") It'll be expensive to layoff expensive resources in the short-term ("headwinds"). It's strange that they're hanging onto so much property.
Regarding the comment on engineers driving the PM work, I have noticed the same. I suspect that may be what “leaner” means. Also I heard that in my department we will be asked to do “more ownership”, for survivals obviously.
But I will tell you i was interviewed for a principal position in one of Elon Musk companies. People told me during the interview that is te model over there. They rely on engineers to do both project planning and engineering. I would report to 1 level below Elon Musk, a truly flat organization. I found it that a couple of FAANGs I have worked are very hierarchical.
Yes I would expect few thousand quitting in the next 6 months. The traffic on I5 will get insane very soon with all those covid era employees returning to the office.
I always felt the PMs were not needed. If the engineer is to too technically minded to gather requirements, let the manager do it. Let the manager do something other than keeping shop or finding who to PIP. No need to have PM, TPM, and a manager on a project. Imagine getting a MBA just to work as a PM.
That's why Amazon is mandating return to office AFTER their latest waves of slow layoffs - to force out employees (who are already leaving), who can't (or don't want to) go to offices. And avoid making severance payments. Amazon is also threatening more layoffs as they play 'wait-and-see pivot' ("we'll continue to evaluate what we're seeing in our business and proceed adaptively.") versus following a solid growth strategy.
Yes, Amazon would absolutely LOVE for you to quit. That reduces their yearly operating expenses by $200K-$1M, increases their cash flow. If 10,000 employees quit, that's at least a $4B (average) boost. 10,000 layoffs (severance) would only produce $1-2B savings in the first year. Free Cash Flow is -16.89B for Dec. 31, 2022. So they'll need another 30,000 employees to quit, and then do some smaller layoffs later this year. A better way would be getting rid of their useless real estate (like offices - especially low occupancy ones) - about 25-35% (of $57.3B in 2022) - and break more leases. But they don't seem concerned at all about losing top talent - thinking they'll return one day or be replaced more cheaply.
They will load the donkey up until he kicks. Then they will grind him up. You must think about your employment as though you were a contractor. There is no security, you have to adapt to constant change.
Even if you stay, change occurs, new boss, new project, new processes, etc.
Unless you one of the scientific caste, your an underling and just have to take it.
The worst place ever to work! They treat us like dirt! Forcing us back to the office and not caring about our personal situations on whether we are mothers or caregivers, have a disability, live hours from an Amazon office. They spent $$ like drunken sailors on hiring and off sites and all of a sudden we need to cut back! Well, no sh-t sherlock!