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

But it funded the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Silver lining.

But it gave us Clippy!!

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.

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.

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.

What's the "turnaround effect"?

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.

Correct, I meant turnover. My mistake.

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