Internal Amazon documents shed light on how company pressures out office workers
As a former Amazon manager, I don’t like how this characterizes management as a mustache twirling Machiavellian. I don’t know what they saw, but I totally believe they predict a third of people on pips to fail. I’m actually surprised it’s that low of a percentage. It’s been my experience from more than Amazon that pip failure is higher than that. I was never encouraged to do anything that would contribute to something that looked like stack ranking. However, maybe this practice was not in place with engineers. I don’t really know, but it wasn’t my experience.<p>However, I absolutely believe Amazon comp structure is designed to encourage people to leave. Most of your comp is wrapped up in stock. If management wants you gone, they simply stop giving you more stock. You’re guaranteed to be out within four years. I remember being told that’s why the comp was structured with such low salaries. The person who told me was quite proud of that fact at the time.