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Comment by riscy | Hacker News Reader

> In July, leaked messages seen by Insider suggested that Amazon would force a “voluntary resignation” on employees [...]

Is Amazon trying to avoid firing people to screw them out of unemployment benefits? No way a forced resignation is not the same as firing.

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Reads exactly like that. Tighten the screws on the original benefits of working for them (either remote first or having transitioned to remote) and if the employee doesn’t leave you win because they’re in office. If they do, well, it doesn’t look as bad as another notch in the layoff tally because they jumped first.

At that point, why not just refuse to leave and continue from home until they are forced to fire you?

Nobody wants to say they got fired from Amazon. If the writing is on the wall, a silent majority will jump ship.

Of all the major tech companies, telling someone I was fired from Amazon would be the least embarrassing/most understandable company to say I was fired from.

Especially if the story was "I lived 125 miles away from the Amazon office where my team was and they implemented a return-to-office mandate."

As a hiring manager I'd be curious what was wrong with you to work there in the first place

Getting fired from Meta might be a badge of courage at this point...

Given how Amazon treats people and is well known for grinding people into the ground, is there really a big stigma from getting fired from Amazon?

Heck, the whole hire to fire thing gives a person excellent cover beyond that provided by return to the office.

Before the 2008 crash I already knew 2 different individuals who lasted 2 weeks at Amazon. The 3 month contract I did there was the longest 3 months of my adult life, and I now understand why Amazon employees have a bad reputation in Seattle for walking 3-4 abreast on the sidewalk and not noticing people coming the other way.

It's not arrogance, it's PTSD.

Why would you tell anyone you got fired? Even if it happens you don’t have to. That’s between you, your ex employer, and the unemployment office.

No one has to say they got fired when they get fired. Many locales in fact prohibit employers from disclosing how you were terminated.

nah. Amazon's brutal reputation, both in the white collar as well as blue collar worlds, is well known.

and RTO is a discussion topic everywhere now. getting the axe from a known bad-actor for changing their RTO rules wouldn't be a discussion topic.

And go where in this market? Software development is saturated.

I disagree. Software dev is saturated at FAANG salaries, but dial your salary expectations back and there are tons of dev shops still hiring.

Better find a job in a different industry where you can spend time with your family and keep your sanity then. Wage depression in tech makes it an unsustainable career choice.

huh?

People at amazon are looking for FAANG salaries to match their current job though

So? What’s your point? They have a choice - either rto or find another faang job (and likely rto as well). Or adjust their salary expectations. It’s not like it’s given that faang people are entitled to the similar level of compensation because they’re faang people, no?

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