During Amazon’s annual performance review season, which is currently underway, hundreds of employees will have their roles reviewed.
The company is not punishing low-performing employees. Instead, in a test, it is dropping the traditional titles of administrative staff in charge of products at its Ring and Blink home security units. From next month, they will be known simply as ‘builders’, and their bosses as ‘builder leaders’.
The man overseeing the change, currently titled chief product officer, laid out the rationale in an internal memo this month, seen by Reuters. “We’re committed to making this an organization of the future, and that means being transparent and open to change,” Jason Mitura wrote in the email, confirmed by Amazon.
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“We are moving to a single job family: Builder,” he wrote. ‘As builders, we define and reward success by asking one question: what is the scope and magnitude of the customer value you create?’ Ring and Blink make internet-connected cameras and doorbells for home monitoring.
VALE DO BUILDER
‘Builder’ has become an umbrella term in Silicon Valley for workers who can solve challenges themselves, often using AI, on projects that previously required teams of engineers and project managers.
Meta is testing its own version, granting the title ‘AI builder’ to certain job roles, Reuters reported this month. Payments company Block has started calling some managers ‘player-coach’, something equivalent to ‘player coach’.
Amazon Chief Executive Andy Jassy has embarked on a broader project to reduce corporate bureaucracy, including an internal hotline to report excessive bureaucracy.
Mitura explained that the title change means that ‘anyone can propose a change to our structure’ and that processes that don’t work will be reversed.
However, with the elimination of hard-earned titles such as ‘senior’ and ‘leader’, employees at the unit told Reuters they are concerned this could hamper the path to promotions and pay rises. Amazon has strict salary ranges and stock grants based on employee performance and level.
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Others, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said they fear similar title changes could be implemented across the company.
An Amazon spokeswoman said workers’ fears were unfounded. “Paths to pay, growth and promotion remain unchanged,” she said. The title change “will help foster a culture of experimentation and deliver to customers more efficiently.”
Online shoe retailer Zappos, which Amazon bought for nearly $1 billion in 2009, has tried for several years to eliminate its own hierarchical structure as part of a system it calls ‘holacracy.’ The effort was abandoned several years ago.
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Mitura himself will also see his title change, perhaps to ‘builder lead’, the spokesperson said.
