An old timer Amazonian's view

I am an old timer Amazonian and can't agree enough with all of the sad stories on this site and elsewhere on the internet.

Of course, things vary depending on where you are in the company, but in recent years, I've seen very few new hires make it past the two year mark. All have been unwillingly forced out. Except for one clear exception, all of them were excellent and hard working engineers. I've been particularly troubled by the older hires who naively relocate families here to take a job at Amazon when I know they will be tossed out by year three. Other than the political benefit to the many bad managers, there's no benefit to the company from continually chucking them out and replacing them with another fresh new hire since the cost is always going to be more to hire and train the new employees. The gaming of the system is the only thing that seems to be winning the day across the board in recent years.

It's usually hard to tell what's going on across Amazon, but I have noticed a notable uptick in other old timers I know bailing from Amazon. This is because of their feeling that their PIP time could come at any moment from the spin of the roulette wheel which is rigged to favor a very small number of managers and their friends. It's also because the company culture has changed in that they can't do the right thing for their customer since they are always having to cover their ass for their annual review.

I'm super sad about it. There used to be a lot to like about working for Amazon, but I have a hard time seeing how any of this poisoned culture will be fixed any time soon.

It seems that the entire tech industry will eventually be oversaturated with ex-Amazonians, right?