Amazon HR staffers turn from hiring to seeking jobs themselves
With job cuts mounting across tech, finance and other industries, why wait to get fired when you can skip directly to being hired?
The move, called “career cushioning,” involves lining up a plan B while still fully employed, especially when job cuts are imminent. This is usually done discreetly — perhaps a networking call taken during lunch, or taking the time to connect with old colleagues.
Some Amazon.com Inc. employees are taking it one step further, publicly posting that they are #OpenToWork on LinkedIn while still employed by the company. It's all out there for everyone, including their bosses and bosses' bosses, to see.
One such Amazonian is Kayla Look, a recruiting coordinator. In an interview, Look said her anxiety was running high when layoffs were announced in November: The holidays were coming up, she had just graduated from college the year before and was in the middle of planning a wedding. The expenses and uncertainty were mounting.
The unease began when the Seattle-based company froze hiring a couple weeks earlier. She thought she could relax when she survived the initial round of job cuts, but when the company reported it would be slashing 18,000 jobs — rather than the initial 10,000 — the feeling of relief evaporated.
She knew it was time to be proactive. “It's been two and a half months since the worry of being laid off first started,” she said. “I'm tired of being anxious.” Her managers don't know any more than she does, so there's no one to answer her questions, she said.
Amazon says it was a “difficult decision” to eliminate jobs.
“We don't take these decisions lightly or underestimate how much they might affect the lives of those who are impacted,” Amazon Chief Executive Officer Andy Jassy
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