Amazon employees plan to walk off the job as tech worker tension rises(washingtonpost.com)
washingtonpost.com
Amazon employees plan to walk off the job as tech worker tension rises
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/05/22/tech-layoffs-amazon-walk-out-meta/
33 comments
Anyone else in tech experiencing the lowest morale in a decade?
Yes, I am also embarrassed to say I work in “tech” lately.
It’s just not what it used to be, the new wave of job taking threats and AI harm news, social media privacy and targeting, misinformation is really killing it for me personally.
It’s not that I’m not optimistic about the future, but everything just seems to greed fuelled I hate it.
I saw Google was training a LLM to be able to match and potentially replace Wendy’s assistants…why do that?
It’s just not what it used to be, the new wave of job taking threats and AI harm news, social media privacy and targeting, misinformation is really killing it for me personally.
It’s not that I’m not optimistic about the future, but everything just seems to greed fuelled I hate it.
I saw Google was training a LLM to be able to match and potentially replace Wendy’s assistants…why do that?
> It’s just not what it used to be, the new wave of job taking threats and AI harm news
That’s what happens when crypto bros turn ai experts over night. Their marketing strategy revolves around fud. Sam Altman at some point that tech has created huge income disparity and that needs to change. What he meant to say is that tech workers should earn less, not that others should earn more. And this philosophy reflects in openai’s toxic campaign.
Now, ai is excellent tech and will stick around but there’s no reason openai should. That company should be replaced, or freed, by open source competing products asap.
That’s what happens when crypto bros turn ai experts over night. Their marketing strategy revolves around fud. Sam Altman at some point that tech has created huge income disparity and that needs to change. What he meant to say is that tech workers should earn less, not that others should earn more. And this philosophy reflects in openai’s toxic campaign.
Now, ai is excellent tech and will stick around but there’s no reason openai should. That company should be replaced, or freed, by open source competing products asap.
Tech has undergone a seismic shift over just the past few years while we creaked under covid, accelerating at a quicker pace everyday. Yet our political systems are legacy, defunct and dysfunctional and chronically underprepared to handle the change that is occurring.
I look at my own country (UK), and we still have an antiquated political system, full of grandiose pompous ceremony and old boys clubs, like its still 1806. We elect people like Jacob Rees Mogg to lead us, someone stuck in the 18th century about as out of touch with modern life you can get.
There are no grand minds in the one area where we badly need them most.
I look at my own country (UK), and we still have an antiquated political system, full of grandiose pompous ceremony and old boys clubs, like its still 1806. We elect people like Jacob Rees Mogg to lead us, someone stuck in the 18th century about as out of touch with modern life you can get.
There are no grand minds in the one area where we badly need them most.
Ah the UK...
A country whose capital is loaded with firms figuring out how to make money trading inside a 100ns window, while everyday people struggle for months to transfer ISA assets from one account to another because the banks involved still use snail mail and cheques behind the scenes.
A country whose capital is loaded with firms figuring out how to make money trading inside a 100ns window, while everyday people struggle for months to transfer ISA assets from one account to another because the banks involved still use snail mail and cheques behind the scenes.
Coincidentally, lowest pay in a decade, on an experience-adjusted basis.
I find that hard to believe, tech workers just got their biggest pay bump in the last 2-3 years across all levels. If you can make the case for this bump being eliminated by inflation, maybe I'd believe you - you must show evidence of this. Otherwise, no, you're wrong. Definitively, you are absolutely wrong by the qualifier of experience based compensation.
Not at my firm of 1000+ engineers. Base salaries were frozen in 2023 despite huge profits.
why just 2-3 years, let's evaluate decades, obviously COVID skewed the past 2-3 years
as well, you should be working with inflation adjusted dollars already to make your point
as well, you should be working with inflation adjusted dollars already to make your point
Surely not around most European countries.
Not that I would exchange all the remaining benefits for money though.
Not that I would exchange all the remaining benefits for money though.
Not at Amazon. Your cash pay was (is) capped at 160K in Seattle and you earned all the remaining in stock. Given that there has been little to no hiring the last 9 months and most people got their initial grant when the stock was at ATH, they are all looking at substantial pay cuts of 30% - 50%.
How low is it? 60-70k is normalish where I live. It's a hughly developed country with a relatively low Gini, so that might be the reason.
the last 10 years were funded by cheap money and some people in SV and other cities made a lot of money.
Can’t wait to never have to interact with one of these tech fucks again.
I'm really struggling. All of the industry is now driven by greed. The transition to agile micromanagement happened when we became a means to an end - making money. Whatever happened to building cool things and making enough money while doing it to stay in business?
> Whatever happened to building cool things and making enough money while doing it to stay in business?
if you're the founder, you can continue this. Unfortunately, it's highly likely that you'd be outcompeted if your domain is not moated with a tech that others cannot replicate by throwing cash. One type of domain that _is_ moated, is game development - because you can't throw cash in and get creativity out.
unfortunately, game industry is one where you make no money (unless you hit a lottery winner).
if you're the founder, you can continue this. Unfortunately, it's highly likely that you'd be outcompeted if your domain is not moated with a tech that others cannot replicate by throwing cash. One type of domain that _is_ moated, is game development - because you can't throw cash in and get creativity out.
unfortunately, game industry is one where you make no money (unless you hit a lottery winner).
Always curious about average tenure of employees involved in organizing such action.
"The action — which will only go forward if at least 1,000 Seattle-based employees sign up to participate — is the combined effort of two parties: one is an informal group that sprang up in response to the return-to-office mandate, and the other is Amazon Employees for Climate Justice."
I'm not sure how many tech workers are in Seattle, but 1,000 seems like a tall bar to clear.
I'm not sure how many tech workers are in Seattle, but 1,000 seems like a tall bar to clear.
> an informal group that sprang up in response to the return-to-office mandate, and the other is Amazon Employees for Climate Justice
Ha, they'll never be able to agree on anything. An easy win for Amazon corporate. It's only a matter of time until the climate hardliners will alienate all the work-from-homers and their alliance self destructs. Who needs Pinkerton anymore?
Ha, they'll never be able to agree on anything. An easy win for Amazon corporate. It's only a matter of time until the climate hardliners will alienate all the work-from-homers and their alliance self destructs. Who needs Pinkerton anymore?
Amazon has (in Seattle) >75k corporate workers. With the (now ending) WFH it’s undetermined how many are actually in the city today, but likely the vast majority still.
Please remember to turn the servers off when you go on strike.
Group of Amazon workers, not satisfied with the pace of offshoring, takes measures to speed the transition.
Therefore, they should absolutely do nothing and wait for the tide, right?
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heybecker(1)
It's been this way since beginning 2022. Tech employees were told to "be grateful to even have a job" during an Amazon-wide All-Hands.
Needless to say, with no real innovative direction, incompetent managers (when there are managers; it's hard to fill positions at Amazon these days), and company culture wreaking havoc (including the ominous "we're monitoring everything you do, across all devices"), Amazon is not a place people desire to work.
Lie, cheat, steal, and swindle your way to the top has finally lost its steam. Even the most despicable in leadership positions are taxed.
How can employees feel good about breaking federal laws, schlepping counterfeit goods, spying on Alexa, Ring, and Blink customers, and bombarding every foreseeable avenue with tasteless, low quality Ads?
At this point it is embarrassing to be associated with Amazon. "Out damned spot! out I say!" Yet the mark remains, poisoning the companies Amazon executives and managers end up, reminding individual contributors of the intense psychological trauma undergone for no good reason.