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Amazon: “We do not, nor have we ever, stack ranked our employees.”

10 points by marcod ↗ HN
April 14, 2021: A spokesperson from Amazon reached out to tell Ladders, "We do not, nor have we ever, stack ranked our employees. This is not a practice that Amazon uses." https://www.theladders.com/career-advice/leaked-amazon-docs-reveal-companies-that-encourage-managers-to-put-employees-down

November 14, 2016: Amazon will drop or significantly alter its existing employee ratings program as part of the changes in the broader review process. Amazon currently uses employee ratings as the basis for a forced curve or “stack-rank” system — also known as “rank-and-yank” — a controversial management technique used by companies to get rid of the lowest-performing employees and identify those with the most growth potential. https://www.geekwire.com/2016/amazon-radically-simplify-employee-reviews-changing-controversial-program-amid-huge-growth/

4 comments

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aparsons
I don’t think Amazon stack ranks per se. at least for engineers, I found their perf process well-thought-out. For example, “meets expectations” is usually good enough for a promotion or pay raise, unlike the practice at similar companies where the expectation is to exceed expectations.
marcod
I'm ex-Amazon. I was forced to stack rank my team, even if it made no sense on a small team and against my severe pushback. I also know plenty of current employees who can corroborate this was happening.
aparsons
Thanks for your input. I don’t know the insider story like you do, but went off descriptions of the review process from good friends who worked at Amazon.
amznthrowaway5
total lie, they have both stack ranking and forced firing, and it's often passed down to specific managers on small teams. The reviews tend to be mostly political, it's completely corrupt.