Hire to Fire is the most feared term among freshers and people looking for a job change. But the harsh reality is that this policy is used by organizations far more frequently than you think. Even behemoths like Amazon are assumed to be involved in this unethical practice.
What is Hire to Fire Policy?
Hire to fire is that you should only hire people who you know you will fire in the future. Companies use this policy far more frequently than you might think. What are the advantages of doing so, you may wonder? There are numerous advantages. For starters, a newly hired employee is inexpensive. You are required to provide raises to your employees after a certain period. But when you hire a new employee, you can hire them on the initial salary for that position.
Second, there’s the blame game. Senior management will sometimes use junior employees as a shield for their mess.
You might be surprised to learn that Amazon has been blamed for enforcing this policy. We are not, however, here to pass judgment. We are only here to inform you about everything we discovered while conducting our research. Everything stated in this blog is merely statements and observations. We neither acknowledge nor deny anything, nor do we make any claims. All of them are statements.
Okay, I believe I’ve provided a sufficient disclaimer. Now, please allow me to inform you about Amazon Hire to Fire Policy.
Amazon’s Hire to Fire Policy
Amazon has been accused of hiring employees only to fire them after a short period. According to a recent report, several directors at the e-commerce behemoth have stated that they must do so to meet internal turnover. Internally, the contentious practice is known as “hire-to-fire”. Three Amazon directors reportedly stated that they were under such intense pressure to meet annual turnovers, known as unregretted attrition (URA). They hired workers to fire them to save the rest of the department.
According to a Business Insider report, the reality of the practice in some units of the company has the potential to fuel controversial morals and practices. Indeed, most elderly Amazon directors, including incoming CEO Andy Jassy, keep meticulous records of their URA ambitions. According to a company memo assessed, the publication cited the example of the Amazon Web Services brigades that fell suddenly of URA ambitions in 2020. It were required to make up the difference in 2021. Nonetheless, in a statement to the publication, an Amazon spokesperson denied that the company hires workers intending to fire them. The speaker also stated that Amazon does not use the phrase “hire-to-fire.”
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Since the report was published, Amazon employees have begun discussing the practice on online forums. On Y Combinator’s Hacker News forum, a user going by the handle “throwawaySlu,” who claimed to be a star software development mastermind at Amazon, stated that the company’s weakest link was its directors. Competent software development directors (SDMs) are “far and few,” the person added, detailing how numerous SDMs demanded specialized depth and how capable masterminds “are thrown under the machine” as a result of inept directors.
Indeed, there was a discussion on Reddit about the content. “Some Amazon directors say they’ll hire and fire people just to meet the internal development thing every time.”
According to a user named Kabdib, an analogous thing happened at “Microsoft during the Ballmer (former CEO) reign as well where a team would employ ten percenters and also fire them to cover the ‘real’ team.”
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According to another user, luv2fit, this culture stems from the belief that “you should constantly trim the bottom 10% of your force every time and bring in a new gift”. The user went on to say that while this works for a few times, “after that, you start cutting precious subject matter experts.”
Vanusa, another stoner, thanked the person who spoke about the problems at Amazon. He saying, “Thank you, seriously, for sharing.” I just hope you don’t get, uh,’ weeded out by the wrong SDM.”
“I am an SDM, and I do agree that there is a lot of compass for intruding up people’s careers at this position, whether through incapacity or malignancy,” said a third user, Tamzn.”
A fourth user, Etempleton, stated that these types of issues lead to “hostile and manipulative work environments,” adding that “it may get short-term results, but it creates a horrible work environment in the long run.”
AwareParking described a director at a tech company who taught him “the ropes of putting a platoon together,” saying, “My director casually told me the last spot was for the person we were going to hire and fire.”
Conclusion
If you ask my opinion, I’ll say whatever we’ve heard about Amazon; if it’s true, it appears unethical, but if all the fuss is for nothing, my respect for Amazon will remain intact as Amazon is the tech giant in the Global business industry. I freely admit that my people operations experience is limited to much lower brigades than Amazon’s 1.3 million employees. But something doesn’t seem right about hiring someone just to fire them later. It just doesn’t seem right.
