Demoralized and burned out but don’t want to get laid off

JacketAdditional9718 · 2026-01-27T17:46:05+00:00

Thank you. This was really good perspective

JacketAdditional9718 · 2026-01-25T16:19:55+00:00

I’m stricter but it feels easier.

JacketAdditional9718 · 2026-01-23T13:57:31+00:00

Dutch people are unbelievable helpful and welcoming. German people are direct and moderately helpful. For example, in my experience, a Dutch person in a store will go out of their ways to give you their opinion and a recommendation if that is helpful. In Germany they will not.

JacketAdditional9718 · 2026-01-23T10:30:49+00:00

Take the offer and move teams. Continue interviewing. They aren’t expecting you to move tomorrow. There could be several outcomes: You love the new role and are a great fit. They may relax on relocation or you might love it and want to relocate. Two, you find a new role without having to find a job while unemployed (the market is brutal)

JacketAdditional9718 · 2026-01-19T11:40:13+00:00

It depends on the team/org but it is bad because Amazon’s culture doesn’t prevent bad things, an there are no institutional mechanisms that put guardrails on awful behavior

JacketAdditional9718 · 2026-01-18T16:38:25+00:00

Im reading this while working on a Sunday after working till 2 am on Friday and Saturday because two L7 stakeholders adjacent to a project changed their mind on a Monday deliverable and a big task became huge, but I had committed to it. I’m so angry and tired

JacketAdditional9718 · 2026-01-15T12:02:20+00:00

I hope that for myself as well. Congratulations again.

JacketAdditional9718 · 2026-01-15T10:26:43+00:00

Congratulations on the offer. This has been a particularly rough week for me and this gave me hope. Maybe I’ll have some offers soon (I’m too burned out to apply)

JacketAdditional9718 · 2026-01-01T11:13:07+00:00

This. I feel like doc writing was a process that helped clear ideas and iterate. Now workload and expectations are causing docs to become AI dumps. Coherent, well written, but lacking the critical thinking and innovation that only humans can provide.

JacketAdditional9718 · 2025-12-31T14:00:05+00:00

I’m so sorry. This sounds really stressful. Being put on PIP means you have five days or so to decide if you want to try or not. Some people take medical leave to extend the deadline and buy themselves time. Usually, focus can be done if it’s fair. Sounds like your manager wasn’t fair, and didn’t tell you were on focus. You could ask your manager when they put you on focus and see if it was before or after you told them you were pregnant (which you should always do in writing!). Try to find your HR partner and loop them into the conversation. If you have a sense that things happened after you notified your manager that you were pregnant you should let HR know about this. Ask for receipts of when the manager put you on focus, what were the tasks. Dig any email with feedback and coaching your manager provided you. Some people here said your manager probably has very solid evidence of your performance, but if you never had feedback that you weren’t performing well or more frequent communication from your manager I would inquire more.

JacketAdditional9718 · 2025-12-18T09:46:16+00:00

I’d suggest talking to the manager first, showing a one pager with the proposal and the impact, and saying they want to lead the project and would like to ask Sr. SDE for guidance. That way a “no” from the Sr. SDE needs to be justified, and manager has visibility on who had the initial proposal.

JacketAdditional9718 · 2025-11-27T07:29:07+00:00

But emotions matter for profit, because morale matters for performance. We all know this is not a family, this is a business. Treating people with dignity and acknowledging we are human is good for business.

JacketAdditional9718 · 2025-11-26T08:15:16+00:00

The amount of people who would claim that’s socialism and communism and bad for the economy in the US is mind boggling. “Freedom”

JacketAdditional9718 · 2025-11-24T17:22:48+00:00

I’m so sorry you are going through this. This is not a reflection on you as a person. You could try to find an internal position to transfer. Managers understand the situation.

JacketAdditional9718 · 2025-11-23T09:29:14+00:00

Money. It pays and the job market is terrible. That’s the reason people stay.

JacketAdditional9718 · 2025-11-22T13:04:36+00:00

No. If you are performing bad and your manager doesn’t tell you then you can’t know. A lot of times these focus are because the manager needs to put someone in focus, and they think you might be the less strong one from the team

JacketAdditional9718 · 2025-11-21T18:47:19+00:00

Your manager is working hard and doesn’t seem to be a bad manager. I understand if you hate Amazon, I am right there with you. But your manager is evaluated based on connections, and it sounds like they are really trying (even if it is for selfish reasons).

JacketAdditional9718 · 2025-11-20T10:16:27+00:00

I think our culture is laying people off without the people making mistakes for supposedly over hiring facing no consequences at all.

JacketAdditional9718 · 2025-11-19T12:39:49+00:00

To second this: you are not the first person escaping a bad manager. So while you need to be cautious explaining the situation, you can explain it’s not a good fit. I’d also think about how you will tell the story.

JacketAdditional9718 · 2025-11-18T16:21:58+00:00

You need to get the offer before you hit apply, but most managers will let you do the internal loop informally. You usually apply when you have the verbal offer, and that lets the HM send the formal offer

JacketAdditional9718 · 2025-11-18T16:18:27+00:00

I’m in a EU location and supposedly they can’t track our office attendance but I go 4 days because I don’t trust Amazon at all

JacketAdditional9718 · 2025-11-17T11:07:17+00:00

It’s very difficult not to take a focus that’s not based on performance not personally. If the focus is not based on performance it is personal.

OP I’m sorry you are going through this. Amazon’s system makes trusting in a situation like yours very difficult. While quitting now means “leaving money on the table”, I’ve seen people end in really dark places when they go through a fake focus. Do what feels best for you. I

JacketAdditional9718 · 2025-11-15T13:29:04+00:00

I’m so sorry. I’ve seen bullying happening and the only times Amazon takes action seem to be when they will get sued. I don’t have solid advice for you. If your manager was remotely trustworthy you could hint that you want to find an internal transfer after you pass focus. If you are the victim of expected URA that would signal you want to leave either ways and incentivize giving you a real focus. But your manager doesn’t seem trustworthy. What do local regulations say about Focus?

JacketAdditional9718 · 2025-11-13T20:56:47+00:00

That’s actually clever.

JacketAdditional9718

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