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A comment on Amazon staff laid off as tech giants cut costs, according to LinkedIn posts. Parent comment

Re:Amazon staff laid off as tech giants cut costs, according... by andsoitis on Wednesday November 16, 2022 @09:56AM (#33624034)
> This is counter to what I have heard about Amazon, which is that it is a ruthless environment where low performers are stack ranked out of the company. Does anyone have any insight?

If you have to fire the bottom x% of your team every year due to low performance, doesn't it mean that you have a constant low performing cadre? Otherwise, why would you get rid of them?

So I don't think it being "cut throat" and there are "many low performers/bloat" are at odds.

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Re:Amazon staff laid off as tech giants cut costs, according... by socialismisok on Wednesday November 16, 2022 @10:11AM (#33624326)
Managers at Amazon are expected to put 5 to 10% on a PIP or manage them out every review cycle.

No matter if your team is amazing or not, 5% getting cut.

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Re:Amazon staff laid off as tech giants cut costs, according... by hef19898 on Wednesday November 16, 2022 @10:50AM (#33625082)
Which, unfortunately, is only so much related performance. Feedback circles and cabals are a thing. Pkus some people are better at operating those cycles than others.
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Re:Amazon staff laid off as tech giants cut costs, according... by ctvo on Wednesday November 16, 2022 @10:53AM (#33625148)
> Managers at Amazon are expected to put 5 to 10% on a PIP or manage them out every review cycle.

A slight correction: An organizational unit larger than a 2 pizza team -- think 50 engineers, is expected to cut 5-10%. A team within that unit may lose 0 engineers, which is how high performing teams that meet all their goals stay intact.

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Re:Amazon staff laid off as tech giants cut costs, according... by socialismisok on Wednesday November 16, 2022 @10:58AM (#33625266)
Fair. But every manager must be prepared to put one of their people forward, even if they ultimately don't have to in the session. The pressure is still there.
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Re:Amazon staff laid off as tech giants cut costs, according... by dpkirchner on Wednesday November 16, 2022 @12:38PM (#33627108)
Fair: 1/25th of a pizza is gonna leave a lot of people hungry!
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Re:Amazon staff laid off as tech giants cut costs, according... by discopicante on Wednesday November 16, 2022 @10:10AM (#33624312)
Amazon is notorious for practicing _forced_ attrition e.g. forcing the relative low performers out of the org (who still might be performing at expectations, onboarding, etc.).
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