Thanks for this well written article. I'm a CS Group Manager in Germany and didn't even hear it yet. This is just horrible and fits in to other decisions for the past 2-3 years. Amazon leadership completely forgot (or never knew, because of lack of experience) how and why Amazon became successful as it is today. The ONE thing Amazon did differently/better than others, was the customer centric approach.
I don't know how it will turn out for me yet, but they can't just fire me because... Germany. We have laws and regulations that block Corp from ruining peoples lies that easily, brutal and quick. But something will happen I guess.
Im with Amazon CS for 10+ years, and worked my way up . It just makes me sad to see what "we" have become. There is no "we" anymore, there's the finance dptm. and a lot of afraid and/or clueless people. It's heartbreaking.
What I perceive is Amazon turning away from the thing that made it great in the first place. The founding vision departed with the founder, and it's just a profit foundry now. It will get worse before it gets better.
I wish you the best in your own circumstances. It's good you have the protections Germany affords its workers.
Outstanding writing skills! I have never been so impressed with an article or reporting before! All observations are, painfully, accurate. And, unfortunately, this is not isolated behavior. We can see a tendency of all these large and powerful corporations to adopting these tactics at a global scale.
Thank you for reading Ada. Unfortunately, I agree with you that corporations are on the wrong track in their treatment of the people who create their value.
I worked with heart and soul, never hesitating to take on any task, regardless of whether it was within my official scope. I embraced Amazon’s Leadership Principles, imagining myself as an integral part of a big family. However, in the end, I realized I was just a number.
More than seven years of this journey have passed, and I looked up to executive leadership, concerned that the focus on numbers might cancel the term "Amazonian." I am unsure what remains, but it is not heart or soul. "This is business," they say, yet they expect your heart and soul. Well, I now say, "This is business," and no longer share my heart and soul. I do what I am paid for because "this is business."
Earning trust is not easy; it goes both ways, up and down, high to low, and low to high. Bosch once said, "I would rather lose money than lose trust." Admirable. Amazon, however, went in a different direction. Laying off personnel critical to the network is like shooting yourself in the foot. Expecting Operations Managers to take on responsibilities beyond their scope and job description is another point of concern. This particular structural change will not bring customers and management closer but will instead tear apart the relationship between operations and the front line.
This is a new chapter in Amazon customer service, marked by destroying dedication, losing trust, unprofessional behavior, and shooting a silver bullet at those who worked endlessly and dedicatedly. Respect is what we admire in all areas, so where is it now? Didn’t those who worked with heart and soul deserve respect and dignity even if they are let go? Heart and soul, "Amazonian" we were called, but it turns out we are just numbers, downgraded in a mindset that does not understand the frontline experience.
Well, I did what I was paid for; nonetheless, from now on, that will be all. Just all. Do what you are paid for. Being an Amazonian doesn’t matter—just a number among thousands, doing the job. Thanks for showing the direction, and I am sorry for what is to come. I know this was a wake-up call for thousands of so-called “Amazonians,” and I don’t know what they will become.
One last thing about CS Group Managers: a Group Manager was the bridge between Operations Managers and Team Managers, who are responsible for the frontline heroes—customer service associates. They provided a lot of critical work, ensuring Team Managers were capable of doing their job. They conducted skip-level 1-to-1s to ensure the Team Managers were following the right path. Among all marketplaces and responsibilities, they were the ones who ensured the Ops Managers understood what the Team Managers and associates were going through. Imagine handling multiple marketplaces with multiple Team Managers and hundreds of associates. There must be a break point that enables Ops Managers to see what the frontline associates are going through. This was a logical structure, enabling Ops Managers to work efficiently and allowing frontline heroes to reach out to leadership. This was it, and it was the perfect way.
From today onward, a new era is starting. Call it making shareholders happy with cost reduction over critical personnel, or call it bringing customers closer to Ops Managers (funny). Trust is gone, being an Amazonian has been eliminated, heart and soul have been removed, and the security of performance has been eliminated. In the end, it has been downgraded to the term “this is business.”
I expect that someday when business schools are trying to understand why and how Amazon failed, we will return to this moment and notice that customer obsession, once Amazon's core identity, became just another cost and revenue target at this point in time.
Pure speculation, but I’m assuming the increased threshold of overtime for salaried workers that takes effect in July had something to do with this decision.
I think it's probably a case of both yes and no. When it comes to these salaried cuts in particular, I think they've probably been in the works for months, and probably before the rule change. Getting anything approved in Amazon's c-suite takes time these days. However ... I'm sure the company is annoyed by the rule change, in particular for some of its L4/L5 population which fall just below the earnings threshold. This will be an unexpected cost which eats into some of the other savings executives have found by squeezing the workforce.
In my prior career, a boss warned me once that when structuring an organization, to be very careful about the size and authority of its financial analysis function. Once this function gets powerful and recognizes an incentive to seek out improvements from the cost and revenue status quo, it's a matter of time before an organization defiles its values while believing it is doing the right thing.
Pay is ground zero for Amazon's reversal of culture. Instead of paying people what they deserve, there are constant efforts to minimize what they are paid by playing games with salaries, shifts, rules, and talent assessments. I got really fed up with this when I was in the company. In fact, not wanting to tell my people they were getting a good deal when I no longer believed it was the first real crisis of conscience for me.
Amazon should hire enough people that no one is working unplanned overtime. But if it refuses to do that, it should self-impose the tax of overworking staff by paying for it.
But it won't. I suspect there will be no going back to the good old days. This is a profit foundry now, and it will be squeezed until no more profit can be extracted.
Leadership Principle #1 - Customer Obsession (as I said last time, its ALL doublespeak.
During the fairly recent BHX1 pay disputes I commented on our VOA Board following the Voluntary Redundancies across France for I think?? Tier 5 and above suggesting that after Tier 1-3 had been shafted they were next..... Pretty confident it was laughed off by some, but I stand by it.
Thankfully those in charge by that point were a pretty decent bunch all told.
Thanks for this well written article. I'm a CS Group Manager in Germany and didn't even hear it yet. This is just horrible and fits in to other decisions for the past 2-3 years. Amazon leadership completely forgot (or never knew, because of lack of experience) how and why Amazon became successful as it is today. The ONE thing Amazon did differently/better than others, was the customer centric approach.
I don't know how it will turn out for me yet, but they can't just fire me because... Germany. We have laws and regulations that block Corp from ruining peoples lies that easily, brutal and quick. But something will happen I guess.
Im with Amazon CS for 10+ years, and worked my way up . It just makes me sad to see what "we" have become. There is no "we" anymore, there's the finance dptm. and a lot of afraid and/or clueless people. It's heartbreaking.
What I perceive is Amazon turning away from the thing that made it great in the first place. The founding vision departed with the founder, and it's just a profit foundry now. It will get worse before it gets better.
I wish you the best in your own circumstances. It's good you have the protections Germany affords its workers.
Outstanding writing skills! I have never been so impressed with an article or reporting before! All observations are, painfully, accurate. And, unfortunately, this is not isolated behavior. We can see a tendency of all these large and powerful corporations to adopting these tactics at a global scale.
Thank you for reading Ada. Unfortunately, I agree with you that corporations are on the wrong track in their treatment of the people who create their value.
"I am a team manager and a number"
I worked with heart and soul, never hesitating to take on any task, regardless of whether it was within my official scope. I embraced Amazon’s Leadership Principles, imagining myself as an integral part of a big family. However, in the end, I realized I was just a number.
More than seven years of this journey have passed, and I looked up to executive leadership, concerned that the focus on numbers might cancel the term "Amazonian." I am unsure what remains, but it is not heart or soul. "This is business," they say, yet they expect your heart and soul. Well, I now say, "This is business," and no longer share my heart and soul. I do what I am paid for because "this is business."
Earning trust is not easy; it goes both ways, up and down, high to low, and low to high. Bosch once said, "I would rather lose money than lose trust." Admirable. Amazon, however, went in a different direction. Laying off personnel critical to the network is like shooting yourself in the foot. Expecting Operations Managers to take on responsibilities beyond their scope and job description is another point of concern. This particular structural change will not bring customers and management closer but will instead tear apart the relationship between operations and the front line.
This is a new chapter in Amazon customer service, marked by destroying dedication, losing trust, unprofessional behavior, and shooting a silver bullet at those who worked endlessly and dedicatedly. Respect is what we admire in all areas, so where is it now? Didn’t those who worked with heart and soul deserve respect and dignity even if they are let go? Heart and soul, "Amazonian" we were called, but it turns out we are just numbers, downgraded in a mindset that does not understand the frontline experience.
Well, I did what I was paid for; nonetheless, from now on, that will be all. Just all. Do what you are paid for. Being an Amazonian doesn’t matter—just a number among thousands, doing the job. Thanks for showing the direction, and I am sorry for what is to come. I know this was a wake-up call for thousands of so-called “Amazonians,” and I don’t know what they will become.
One last thing about CS Group Managers: a Group Manager was the bridge between Operations Managers and Team Managers, who are responsible for the frontline heroes—customer service associates. They provided a lot of critical work, ensuring Team Managers were capable of doing their job. They conducted skip-level 1-to-1s to ensure the Team Managers were following the right path. Among all marketplaces and responsibilities, they were the ones who ensured the Ops Managers understood what the Team Managers and associates were going through. Imagine handling multiple marketplaces with multiple Team Managers and hundreds of associates. There must be a break point that enables Ops Managers to see what the frontline associates are going through. This was a logical structure, enabling Ops Managers to work efficiently and allowing frontline heroes to reach out to leadership. This was it, and it was the perfect way.
From today onward, a new era is starting. Call it making shareholders happy with cost reduction over critical personnel, or call it bringing customers closer to Ops Managers (funny). Trust is gone, being an Amazonian has been eliminated, heart and soul have been removed, and the security of performance has been eliminated. In the end, it has been downgraded to the term “this is business.”
I expect that someday when business schools are trying to understand why and how Amazon failed, we will return to this moment and notice that customer obsession, once Amazon's core identity, became just another cost and revenue target at this point in time.
Pure speculation, but I’m assuming the increased threshold of overtime for salaried workers that takes effect in July had something to do with this decision.
https://www.dol.gov/newsroom/releases/whd/whd20240423-0
I think it's probably a case of both yes and no. When it comes to these salaried cuts in particular, I think they've probably been in the works for months, and probably before the rule change. Getting anything approved in Amazon's c-suite takes time these days. However ... I'm sure the company is annoyed by the rule change, in particular for some of its L4/L5 population which fall just below the earnings threshold. This will be an unexpected cost which eats into some of the other savings executives have found by squeezing the workforce.
Overtime? What overtime? Here in EU salaried workers are not eligible to be paid overtime, though we certainly work it.
In my prior career, a boss warned me once that when structuring an organization, to be very careful about the size and authority of its financial analysis function. Once this function gets powerful and recognizes an incentive to seek out improvements from the cost and revenue status quo, it's a matter of time before an organization defiles its values while believing it is doing the right thing.
Pay is ground zero for Amazon's reversal of culture. Instead of paying people what they deserve, there are constant efforts to minimize what they are paid by playing games with salaries, shifts, rules, and talent assessments. I got really fed up with this when I was in the company. In fact, not wanting to tell my people they were getting a good deal when I no longer believed it was the first real crisis of conscience for me.
Amazon should hire enough people that no one is working unplanned overtime. But if it refuses to do that, it should self-impose the tax of overworking staff by paying for it.
But it won't. I suspect there will be no going back to the good old days. This is a profit foundry now, and it will be squeezed until no more profit can be extracted.
Its a MAFIA
Leadership Principle #1 - Customer Obsession (as I said last time, its ALL doublespeak.
During the fairly recent BHX1 pay disputes I commented on our VOA Board following the Voluntary Redundancies across France for I think?? Tier 5 and above suggesting that after Tier 1-3 had been shafted they were next..... Pretty confident it was laughed off by some, but I stand by it.
Thankfully those in charge by that point were a pretty decent bunch all told.
Awful company.