Re:I worked in Amazon HR and was disgusted at what I was see...
by Aurornis on Thursday November 30, 2023 @03:15PM
(#38478481)
> If you work for a company that lays off 6% of the "fat" every year and then still continues to have 6+% of the company considered "fat"
Most tech companies I've worked for in the past years have had about 30-40% new people every year through a combination of natural turnover and growth.
You're right that if a company never grows and nobody ever leaves yet they still try to isolate 6% to fire every year, that's a bad practice.
However, nobody gets hiring perfectly right. When you're hiring hundreds of people every year into a department, you're going to get a couple people who don't work out.
I think people on HN get nervous around these discussions because they imagine companies as static collections of individuals, but at a high growth company you actually have a lot of new people coming through all the time.
It's also bad when companies never fire anyone. If you just let everyone stay until they quit, you accumulate a lot of people who aren't working out while their high performing coworkers get frustrated and leave. I've seen this situation too and it's not good.
Most tech companies I've worked for in the past years have had about 30-40% new people every year through a combination of natural turnover and growth.
You're right that if a company never grows and nobody ever leaves yet they still try to isolate 6% to fire every year, that's a bad practice.
However, nobody gets hiring perfectly right. When you're hiring hundreds of people every year into a department, you're going to get a couple people who don't work out.
I think people on HN get nervous around these discussions because they imagine companies as static collections of individuals, but at a high growth company you actually have a lot of new people coming through all the time.
It's also bad when companies never fire anyone. If you just let everyone stay until they quit, you accumulate a lot of people who aren't working out while their high performing coworkers get frustrated and leave. I've seen this situation too and it's not good.