Mass firings

The attrition problem at amazon is real. It's not exaggerated. After the last peak (Christmas shopping season), our building had hundreds of seasonal employees who had worked there through peak. They had been hired with the hope of becoming a Blue Badge (permanent employee), and had been assured that if they worked hard and made rate, they would be.

But then as peak was dying down right after Christmas, there were suddenly a lot of new employees being hired directly in as Blue Badges. That was shocking to us seasonal workers, but not to the long-time Amazonians who didn't warn us. The process had been clearly explained as proving yourself as a seasonal in order to get hired on permanently. This was a lie.

This resulted in a lot of problems. You suddenly had proven hard workers at risk of losing their jobs and making less money than people who just showed up off the street. They were constantly worrying that they were jst going to be replaced (and they were right).

As is custom at Amazon warehouses, there was suddenly an All Hands meeting. It's basically an Amazon pep rally with a tiny bit of useful information and a Q&A at the end with the general manager of the building. Naturally, the question of job security came up and the general manager assured everyone that their jobs were safe. "These new people aren't replacements and the seasonal workers who had made peak happen will keep their jobs. We just need to keep growing and hiring people to increase our volume."

Three days later, they started the mass firings without announcing anything. All those seasonal workers were quickly gone. That is Amazon's true nature - probably as close to an uncaring 1984 Big Brother as you can get can in real life.