It’s “Summit” season. My employer is a sprawling concern, with people working in sites all across the world. The home office is in Seattle (the one true timezone–Pacific Time), but we also encamp in Silicon Valley (multiple sites), Austin, Denver, Nashville, Greater D.C., NYC, and Greater Boston. And that’s just the “big” sites–other smaller enclaves dot the country, and that doesn’t scratch the surface of our worldwide presence in Corporate. ...
Yesterday was about shock. Trying to gather information. Trying to simply comprehend. Today is the next phase: Anger. I know what happened. I can’t fathom why and the company I hired on to 10 years ago seems gone. Stretching back to Lexmark days, every layoff has been either about (1) culling low performers or (2) axing large swathes of people from a failed strategy. Those make sense, and one can even predict them. For about 5 years there, Lexmark didn’t even manage low-performers at all, so layoffs were the only way Bob down the hall who couldn’t code his way out of a Perl script was going to go away. ...
So this happened. Yep. Sixteen thousand Amazonians lost their jobs today. This follows 14k layoffs last October, for a nice, round 30k in 4 months. Here’s a play-by-play Tuesday 10:00pm - Notice you're a little anxious 11:00pm - Attempt to go to bed, surf Blind incessantly because there was already a leak of an email "Following-up on Beth's email" Wednsday 12:00am - Finally fall asleep 05:00am - Wake up stark awake, check phone, notice that 0 emails have shown-up. No text messages either 06:00am - Alarm goes off. Stumble through morning routine, notice an email from HR. Understand I'm not actually fired but 16,000 people are. 08:00am - head to work. 09:00am - Arrive to work, get coffee with PM. Looks like at least some of the PM group is laid-off. Send slack message to group saying we're all safe. From there, it’s slowly understanding that this one hasn’t passed us by. At all. Hallway conversations ensue–a favorite QA person is gone. Several Product Managers. Some tech teams have lost SDEs, then the bombshells start. ...
Amazon apparently has a mole. There’s a poster on TeamBlind who goes by the handle “QuickSuite” who’s been giving play-by-play since October on what’s going on with layoffs. The date’s moved from 1/26 -> 1/28 (per rumor) and numbers are up in the air. Feels like everyone below VP level is nervous. In any case, quarterly earnings come out 2/5, so it’ll certainly be this week. I was speaking with a colleague last week who’s barely a year into Amazon, and he said, “I mean…would it be so bad to get laid off?” That seems to be a common sentiment. I understand where he’s coming from…the place can be a pressure cooker, especially for affirmation-seaking Type-A personalities. The joke within is: “This is the place where smart people come to feel bad about themselves.” ...
They used to say that war was “Months of boredom interpspersed with moments of sheer terror” That’s been work since I got back from Universal. It’s been so…eerily normal. Daily standups. Sprint planning. Bug fixes. Small, slight Operations changes. Honestly, it’s like we looked at December when everyone was on leave and said, “Umm….yeah, just do that for a few weeks. We’ll get back to you.” Product Managers have been kibbutzing away from the rest of us. Plans within plans within obscure plans. ...
What happened in 2025? Family My Dad is still alive and doing well. My mother died December 8, 2024. The next 30 days were a complete blur, so one could consider all of 2025 the hangover. Dad has a girlfriend, is working every day, and continues his building projects on the 92-acre farm where I grew up. Yes, even at 73. Personally, I hear half the things he does and at 47, I need a nap. ...
So, by end of week Amazon May Be Smaller. No idea if I’m affected, but it helps me to write about it, so here we are. I spent seventeen years at a place with only one strategic move: Downsize. In that 17 years, there were constant rumors about “rightsizing”, “downsizing”, “aligning headcount”. The constancy made it gallows humor. It also made me erratic and flinty at home. As sole breadwinner–by choice–I knew that my growing family required me to have a job. There was no plan B. ...
I don’t know where to start. Politics So the US Government shut down at the end of the fiscal year, midnight on October 1st. Auspicious beginning, that. Both sides blame one another, and I’d give a slight edge to the R’s blaming the D’s for refusing to pass a continuing resolution. Neither side has its stuff together, particularly, but at least one side was going to keep public employees…well…employed. Our infant-in-chief has done other things since then but it’s more “flood the zone” crap. Demolishing part of the White House to build a gaudy ballroom named for himself on donated funds from those who bent-the-knee. Canceling negotiations with Canada (Canada?) because they ran an ad he didn’t like. Blowing Venezuelan boats out of international waters because we feel like it. Shelling California from the sea during the 250th Marine Corp Birthday, causing traffic on I-5 to back-up. Threatening to “cancel NASA”. ...
“You know, you could take some time off” “Yeah, but I know myself well enough to know I won’t.” I awoke this morning knowing I had to make it to work for a 9:30 meeting…in a former life that’d be laughably late, but now it’s early. Maybe I’ve finally become institutionalized to Austin’s “10am at the earliest” culture, or maybe it’s the 45 to 60-minute drive, or just simple burnout. Since we returned to office 5 days per week this year, it’s just been a grind. Having the flexibility to work-from-home even 1 day a week helped. Now: This is life. ...
“You’re choosing to watch the news. You can choose not to.” Yesterday, made an excursion to Randall’s to get some supplies after I got my daughter’s medication in Cedar Park. The store had more than I expected, but the necessities had evaporated. Bottled water, paper goods, bread, milk. I saw a yuppie buying all the individual cereal containers, bragging about how he had “Fifteen Gallons of Milk” at home. For himself. ...
What happened in 2019? I like to do year-in-review posts every year or after specific milestones, like changing jobs or having big projects finish. So, if 2018 was a triumph, 2019 was its hangover. Family Both my parents are still alive, and are ornery as ever. Throughout most of 2019, our relationship with our son was estranged, most acutely when we flew up to Kentucky in May to see him graduate Franklin County High School when he refused to see us before, during, or after graduation. ...
In the beginning, man created paper, and it was good. It was permanent, stateful, and could be used for warmth if the auditor got too close. Man could transfer the paper to another man, certain his message would get across. Man could doodle and mark-up the paper. For a backup solution, there was carbon paper. And, there was much rejoicing. And, lo, God saw Man enjoying paper, and said, ““If as one people they use the paper, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.” And so, God invented e-mail and the Blackberry. And suddenly, man’s communication was much faster, yet intent and meaning was lost. Yet, there was much rejoicing. (?) ...
Could this be extended for security frameworks too… Shubhashish - Nov 0, 2009 Could this be extended for security frameworks too.
You know, growing-up I had three examples of “real life” to go by: My mom, my Dad, and my Aunt Norie. Each led vastly different lives: Mom was a schoolteacher; Dad was a travelling salesman; and Norie did payroll for the local office of the D.O.T. Like most schoolteachers, Mom’s life existed on two levels–the “regular” hours that looked so attractive, and the reality. On paper, it was a sweet enough deal: Work 7 to 2, 5 days a week, get Summer Vacation and lots of “snow days”. Reality wasn’t so rosy, with Mom doing lesson plans in her off time, grading papers ’til the wee hours of the morning, and running extracurriculars all the time. ...
I totally understand it all. Susan - Jan 5, 2009 I totally understand it all. I totally understand that blog.
So, here I sit, amid a meeting with 14 people, trying to achieve a consensus on a topic with two sides… …and no one here can make this decision. And no one will. What remains is for Daddy to berate the misbehaving children back into line. Atop all that, there’s 14 people talking OVER one another, emotionally. ::sigh::
10:45 am: Remark that things look like vaporware, and that functionality and scope has been cut enough that HALF THE ROOM questions the usefulness of the thing we’re discussing. But hey, so long as we’re on time and under budget, right? Thank Heaven I only have 1 of these turdly meetings today.
…so, in 2001, I started working on our top-notch java app, avoiding working on Drivers & Printing, and a surefire job in Inkjet Firmware. Fast forward: 2007: Working on the Printing stuff. 2008: Working embedded with the Inkjet Firmware. Still waiting for the guys in this meeting tomorrow to go, “Say, aren’t you that fat kid with glasses and the bad haircut?” :D
Well, at least you’ve still got the bad haircut…… Whitney - May 3, 2008 Well, at least you’ve still got the bad haircut…. Still haven’t gotten my tip from last month’s “Stylist Appreciation Day”…. :-)