In turns out that Amazon was engaged in excessive hiring
18,000 were laid off earlier this year, because the HR department ignored the hiring quota
Amazon recently had a news leak revealing that in 2022, the company advertised 24,998 positions for their utility computing team, while the HR department was only authorised to hire 7,789 people. Although this clarifies some of the reasons behind the mass layoffs, it doesn’t make the situation any more pleasant for the affected staff, who received the unfortunate surprise.
In January, Amazon announced its plans to fire around 18,000 people, which is roughly the size of the HR mistake made in 2022. Most of the affected employees worked in Amazon Stores, People Experience, and Technology Solutions divisions.
The numbers were posted in a document that highlights Amazon’s over-hiring spree, which was caused by span of control and level ratio defects. In this context, ‘span of control’ refers to the extent of managerial oversight over subordinates and the ability to enforce decisions.
Although Amazon wanted to significantly expand its employee base due to their faith in economic growth, the lack of oversight caused people across the board to try to add new hires wherever possible to alleviate their workload.
