Jon Janego’s Post

Does Amazon want employees to commute or quit? In the wake of Amazon's controversial RTO mandate, hundreds of AWS employees have signed an open letter against the policy, and speculation has come about that its a strategy to reduce costs by way of voluntary layoff. According to our workforce data, about 40% of their software engineers would have to relocate to be in proximity to an office. For nearly 25%, this is an out-of-state move. A smaller team would have near-term cost-savings, but recruiting software engineers from the Seattle market presents higher costs long term. Read the full analysis at the link below  ⤵

What if Amazon's RTO Policy Required 40% of Customers to Relocate? Here's a post from Revelio Labs, that I found interesting. It analyzes a workforce decision, in a way that is similar to how marketing might evaluate how a decision might affect potential customers. The results suggest that 40% of Amazon Web Services (AWS) engineers may need to relocate, to comply with the mandate that all employees work in the office for five days a week. In an earlier post, I suggested a thought-experiment: Imagine if a similar policy was applied to Amazon's customers, and then imagine how much greater the required level of analysis, risk-assessment and strategic planning might be, if the policy was applied to customers, compared to employees. https://lnkd.in/g-fKwiUm This Revelio Labs analysis nicely illustrates the analogy. Thanks, as always, to Revelio Labs for this analysis, and for those of you who were kind enough to comment, reshare and react to my previous post.

The post-pandemic workplace continues to evolve, with companies using return-to-office mandates as a strategic tool for cost reduction. Notably, 9% of organizations are leveraging a return-to-office initiative as part of their cost-cutting measures. This marks a shift from more traditional methods like layoffs or reducing business travel, which are still prevalent. Read more in our HR Trends & Issues Survey 2024: https://lnkd.in/dSuyNi_C

I built one of Amazon’s recruiting programs  And reduced their hiring time by 60%  Here’s how (and why) I did it… When I joined AWS in 2019, I was struck by just how massive their recruiting operation was Every day, there were over 1000 new job openings It was literally non-stop. And Even with hundreds of thousands of employees We STILL needed more hands on deck. The problem was, it took about 3 to 6 months to fill a position Which just couldn’t keep up with the company's rapid growth One day, I decided to bring this up with the leadership team. I showed them the data and explained the bottlenecks They agreed and invited me to build a solution. It wasn’t easy… Amazon is a VERY demanding environment And building something at that scale was challenging. But we did it… The Talent Acquisition Champ Program was born! It was a 6-week training plan that: - Improved communication with teams cross-functionally - Created a structured process to guide new recruits And we managed to decrease ramp time by 60%. From 3-6 months down to 60-80 days. And the program is still in place today 🙂 I’m really thankful I got to work at a place that’s open to new ideas and change. To all the leaders out there: if your team members spot a problem, encourage them to find a solution. It could be the next big thing that transforms your business.

When I moved back to Australia, I had explored 3 options regarding my career: 1. Look for roles within Amazon. 2. Look for roles outside of Amazon. 3. Use that energy doing either 1. or 2. to start my own company. I chose option 3. I'm not gonna lie, I stepped into pretty quiet tech market compared to the one I left in 2020 (when I transitioned from AWS to Ops) and there were many moments where I went "what have I done!?!" but 7 months later, I have zero regrets. My sole focus has been to bring customer-centricity to every interaction whether they be my candidates or my clients and to build a business doing recruitment how I like to do it: ☑ Prioritising customer-experience ☑ Building trust ☑ Investing in customer relationships for the long term ☑ Removing friction It's been an amazing ride and I'm so grateful to absolutely everyone who has gone on this journey with me. #recruitment #talentacquisition #ucentric

What does a 500k salary at Amazon really mean for your career satisfaction? I came across an honest account from a senior TPM at Amazon, who shared his 1.5 years in the role with little to show for it. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆 ➜ After being laid off from Google, he joined Amazon, hoping to take it easy and just "do nothing." (dream of many ?) ➜ A manager at Amazon recently admitted that in 1.5 years, he hasn’t completed a single significant task, yet he earned about $555,000 during that time. ➜ Previously a programmer at Google, he found himself laid off and then joined Amazon, hoping to minimize his workload while still collecting a hefty paycheck. 𝗛𝗶𝘀 𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 in 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁𝘀 𝟭𝟴 𝗺𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗵𝘀 ➜ Spending around 8 hours a week in meetings. ➜ Resolving just 7 tasks. ➜ Creating a single automated dashboard using ChatGPT in 3 days—though he told management it took him 3 months. ➜ His main role now seems to involve declining collaboration requests from other teams and offloading nearly all the work onto colleagues and subordinates. Do you see similar activities happening aroound you? Follow Sergey Masyagin for more. ♻️ if you like this one.

Amazon's average tenure for employees is 1.8 years! That's low compared to the industry average of about 3 years in tech (and 3.7 for F500 companies). The main reason that most people say is they don't feel like they're making any real impact and they don't feel fulfilled. Amazon is so big that there are very few people working on anything really meaningful. Developers will work for a year on a 3rd menu settings page that no one will ever see. Analysts will work on a deeply internal team where their analysis will never actually be used or see the light of day. And then they get burnt out because they're working incredibly hard... but for what? Having a big company on your resume can be great, but if you want to find your place to plant some roots you'll want to find somewhere you're valued and your work makes a difference!

I am going to share my opinion (and it is JUST that) regarding Amazon's RTO policy announcement. I live in the Seattle area; I have LOTS of friends that do/have worked for "The World's Largest Bookstore", I worked there (not in recruiting) MANY years ago, so my opinion has some personal basis. Amazon is the undisputed EMPEROR of data. They have had 4 years to capture data from the results of remote, hybrid, and prior in-office work. You can bet your button these decisions are based on DATA, not Jassy's whim. If employees have issues with the environment, as always there is the option to find/create other options (lots of Amazonians move on to become entrepreneurs.) I personally would caution employees from publicly complaining too much; express your disappointment, sure. Rage against the machine? 18K layoffs last year is repeatable. And yes, I believe that part of this may be an effort to see disgruntled employees self-select themselves elsewhere; severance packages are EXPENSIVE and it is a lot easier NOT to backfill and have that flexibility instead of facing legal requirements about time restrictions on refilling a job. Finally, I guarantee you there are PLENTY of people that are happy to go into an office 5 days/week for whatever reason.

Amazon has free coffee. Most people thought it was just a perk to motivate employees to return to office. And they may have been right. But what I didn't expect was how much it helped me connect with others from workplace. - I remember standing in huge queues to get my favorite latte, and that's where I happened to meet a lot of our team members for the first time. - I remember connecting with my sister team, whose members helped me ramp up quickly. The onboarding and any other dumb questions I had about processes and internal tools became less daunting after that. - I remember playing chess online during my free coffee time, and a person decided to challenge me to a quick match. I took it sportingly and turns out he was the VP of one Amazon Web Services (AWS) Security team. I realized that it was one of the best and easiest ways to network within the organization. I ended up making lots of great connections, and mentors who helped me navigate through the tough times in my careers. After this, I never looked at free coffee at company as "just a perk." #productmanagement #networking #mentorship

Amazon’s new RTO policy is a strategic masterstroke 🟠 Forget layoffs and hefty severance packages. By forcing employees back to the office five days a week, Amazon is conducting a “backdoor layoff”—thin the herd without the drama! 🟠 According to Stanford economist Nicholas Bloom, this brilliant maneuver is a cost-cutting dream but a nightmare for innovation. Imagine chasing away top talent in AI, while competitors like Google and Microsoft laugh all the way to their hybrid work environments! 🟠 Amazon employees are revolting. Many are planning to “coffee badge”—check in and ghost. Others are actively job hunting. Poor Andy Jassy, the CEO, thinks he can flatten departments and operate like a startup. Good luck with that. 🟠 While tech giants embrace hybrid work, Amazon clings to old-school tactics. Is it genius or madness? What’s your take on Amazon’s move - savvy business strategy or a disastrous gamble? 🤔 #Amazon #RemoteWork #TechTrends #AI #BusinessStrategy