managers control everything at Amazon

Manager rotation and resignation is high at Amazon. In 2011, I had four managers. During my last four months with the company, I had no manager because no one would accept the job offer. I was part of the interview process and know we made offers, but candidates kept turning them down.

Having a qualified and strong manager is key to getting a good review at Amazon. A coworker of mine went into his OLR without having a manager for six months. He received a poor performance review because no one was collecting data on him for those six months. It didn't matter what people said in his 360 feedback. Because he didn't have a manager who observed his work for six months, he was penalized.

Also, if you are reassigned managers mid-year, make sure they submit performance feedback to HR before they leave. Otherwise your new manager will have less than a full year of data on you and you'll get skewered in the end of year review rating.