the PETERMAN POD "I could get rid of any employee I wanted"

@ryanlpeterman

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The Peterman Pod

Technology Podcast · Updated Weekly · Sharing the transparent career stories of technical people. Hosted by an ex-Staff engineer at Instagram

Why it worked

The video leverages a provocative statement from a high-ranking executive at a well-known company, creating immediate intrigue and a desire to understand the context and implications of such a powerful managerial stance.

Summary

An Amazon VP explains that while he can fire individual employees, creating a pattern of dismissals will eventually be noticed and penalized. He suggests that managers often preemptively label employees as bad, leading to unfair perceptions when genuine issues arise.

Structure

1Manager's power to dismiss employees
2The risk of creating a pattern of dismissals
3HR's tracking of manager turnover rates
4The manager's strategy of pre-labeling employees

Original caption

Amazon managers can get rid of any employee This is a clip from my first conversation with Ethan Evans (Amazon VP) where I asked him all about these kinds of things You can find the full conversation on my podcast (Spotify, YouTube, Apple Podcasts)

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Product placement

Amazon (company): acts - the company where the speaker, an Amazon VP, works and discusses management practices. Removing it would change the context of the discussion about his role and company policies. The Peterman Pod (podcast/show): appears - the name of the podcast shown on screen. Removing it would not change what happens in the video.

Call to action

Find the full conversation on my podcast (Spotify, YouTube, Apple Podcasts)

On-screen text

the PETERMAN POD "I could get rid of any employee I wanted" Amazon VP

Transcript

As a manager, I could get rid of any employee I wanted. But I can't get rid of every employee. And so, if I create a pattern where I'm driving one employee after another out, I will eventually get caught and burned for that. Because we do look at what is a manager's turnover rate. My point was for any single employee, I can absolutely, if I choose to end that person's career at my company and at Amazon. It's as simple as put them on this list. It's partly who strikes first. So by the time you go to HR, I've already put you on this list and told my story of why I think you're bad. And now you're going, no, no, it's unfair. He hates me. Well, the problem is the people, all the people they've heard from who are legitimately bad or saying the same. They're, they're saying, no, I'm actually good. It's my boss hates me and doesn't understand me. So they hear that story every day. So when you legitimately tell it, and it's actually true, and it's just I hate you, you just, you end up sounding like everyone else. And so that's why it's stacked in my favor.