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Comment by amznthroway | Hacker News Reader

The hiring freeze has already been horrendous. We're told to keep hitting all our goals even if we lose people and can't hire to backfill. Now we're just straight up losing people to layoffs? Keeping the lights on alone is barely possible with the resources we have.

It would be one thing if we were in dire straights as a company. Imho, this is just short-sighted nonsense so some senior leader can hit an arbitrary goal and get a bonus.

I wonder if Alexa or AWS are hiring.

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> I wonder if Alexa or AWS are hiring.

... The very first sentence of the article:

> as the company shifts resources into fast-growing areas like its work on voice assistant Alexa

As someone working in Amazon retail, I have to say I'm now worried. Though it does feel like we don't have enough people to do the work we are planning to do for the year.

That's funny if they've had a hiring freeze since last week I got contacted by an Amazon recruiter wanting me to move to Seattle

Got one today too. Put on a Gore tex coat and stood under the shower, on cold, for a half an hour, and decided that Seattle is probably not to my liking outside of, say, late July.

I’ve only ever visited Seattle in the second half of July and found it to be stellar.

The PNW west of the Cascades is glorious in summer. Blue skies, clean air, no humidity, warm temperatures but not too warm. But the long, drizzly, gray winters are hell for those of us who like sunlight.

If you want to move to the area, visit in November or March or something to get an idea of what it's really like.

January and February. That's where I always start to break down in misery. It's been cloudy for ages. The days are starting to get longer but they're still short. And I start wondering if moving back home to New Orleans would be all that bad. Surely that wouldn't coincide with a hurricane trashing the place twice in my lifetime, would it?

It was sunny today, and yesterday. It's been really weird, because I guess I had forgotten what sun was like...

Can't you drive east for a couple of hours and get lots of sun? This was my understanding of Washington.

The weather is much better east of the Cascades. But a 2 hour drive (in good weather!) means it's not something you're likely to do all that often.

I am an urbanite who has never learnt to drive in her forty years of life. So no, I can’t.

Im in Beaverton and you nailed it. Although last summer was pretty hot its still not bad. PNW is just amazing. Guess it takes a certain someone who can deal with the rain and bad drivers that go along with it for the rest of the year.

I know you're joking but it's actually not even raining today in Seattle. In fact, it's irritatingly bright (it's sunny).

I prefer the overcast & rainy unless it's summer/spring.

Funny it was 21 on the other side of the hill today. Was warm last week.

Eight months of the year it's drizzle every day. But the other four months, well they almost make up for it. I spent a couple of really great summers in Seattle.

Plus, no snow unless you want it- then you drive to the mountains.

I found myself just living for summers and then trying to grasp them like a fist full of sand as they slipped away all too quickly, leaving me to contemplate all the things I wished I'd been able to do, while staring out at the relentless gray sameness outside as another long winter arrived.

The first time I visited Seattle was the middle of July. The weather was warm and sunny. I recall going swimming in Lake Washington. Everyone was really, really happy and joyful, to the extent that I wondered if I had been lied to all my life about Seattle.

I guess SAD is a thing. Is there an anti-SAD?

People living in places that have long, dark, cold, wet winters certainly appreciate the shit out of summer while it lasts.

Light therapy:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seasonal_affective_disorder#Ma...

Even in Norcal, Seasonal Affective Disorder is a thing.

I think your body just notices the (smaller) temperature and sunlight fluctuations.

An ex-manager (who was from Microsoft) told me that's how they cheated interns. 4 months of great views and weather, the intern is hooked, and when they join full-time they discover the other 8 months.

I love Amazon recruiters. They contact me a few times a year.

Recruiter: we think you would be a good match for this position

Me: you realize that I live in Los Angeles, right?

Well some people are willing to move. Maybe not you, but it's not like they know what you think.

The true seasons we experience in Seattle provide me [and I hear this from pals in tech.] with refreshment, mental health benefits. Or, what some consider the negative aspects of cold rain becomes fresh snow an hour outside of Seattle.

Also prefer to build products in Seattle winters; celebrate releases in the spring and summer.

>short-sighted nonsense so some senior leader can hit an arbitrary goal and get a bonus

This is in fact how most business decisions are made.

Yes, Amazon is known for its short-sightedness...

> Keeping the lights on alone is barely possible with the resources we have.

Surely with half a million employees you have at least one person on lightbulbs.

> Surely with half a million employees you have at least one person on lightbulbs.

Or you can just ask Alexa to turn the lights.

> Imho, this is just short-sighted nonsense so some senior leader can hit an arbitrary goal and get a bonus.

Welcome to centralized economic planning, mega-corp edition. Pick a number.

I've been contacted be 2 or 3 AWS recruiters in the last month, so presumably they are hiring.

>It would be one thing if we were in dire straights as a company.

Oh, so as long as the company is profitable, it should just throw money at employees that are no longer adding net value?

>Imho, this is just short-sighted nonsense so some senior leader can hit an arbitrary goal and get a bonus.

Based on what? Reading an article with no internal insight and absolutely no knowledge of the business itself? Sounds more like you have an ax to grind.

>I wonder if Alexa or AWS are hiring.

I mean, you didn't even read the article.

>I mean, you didn't even read the article.

They work at Amazon, probably doesn't have the time to read full articles

My wife works at amazon, and has time to read such stuff as well has have a lot of fun, intellectually and otherwise, at work.

I posted this while working at Amazon.

Guys like Bezos and Wilke don't really worry about their bonuses. It's not about bonuses, it's about becoming the first trillion-dollar company.

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