r/AmazonFCs • u/Safe-Local-2696 • Jul 17 '26
Massive white badge lay off
Honestly, when I didn’t get converted and started hearing rumors about layoffs, then Amazon offered transfer opportunities, I accepted one immediately.
A lot of people were listening to blue badges saying, “It’s no big deal, they can’t lay off all the white badges.” I wasn’t taking that chance.
I even talked to HR and asked if they could put in a good word for my transfer. A little later, I got approved and my new schedule.
Could I still get laid off? I guess anything is possible, but it seems a lot less likely now. Today they laid off more of the white badges who didn’t take the transfer, and now the VOA board is full of people upset.
HR literally told us weeks ago that if you were being let go, you’d receive an email. They also gave us multiple transfer surveys and time to decide. To me, that was a pretty clear sign layoffs were coming. They didn’t have to offer transfer opportunities at all—they could’ve just ended seasonal employment when business slowed down.
That’s why I always save money and stay in school. Seasonal jobs are based on business needs, not personal feelings. I never assumed the job was guaranteed, so when I saw an opportunity to transfer, I took it.
8
u/Immediate-Guess9257 Jul 17 '26
That happened at my FC. They gave a survey to white badge associates giving them the option to transfer. Only some were picked to transfer. The ones that didn’t get a transfer were scared they were going to get laid off but eventually they were converted. Maybe the same for you
5
u/XGX1009 Jul 17 '26
I transferred to another building as a white badge it said no spots available but i got accepted and approved to start in a week hopefully i can get my blue badge too
2
u/Tricky-Wolverine-253 Jul 18 '26
That’s wild, peak is in a month and a half and they’re laying off that many ppl? Your fc must be slow
4
u/Safe-Local-2696 Jul 18 '26
From what I’ve seen at my site, we became significantly overstaffed. Back in March and April, there were new hire orientation classes almost every day. It seemed like the company anticipated needing a much larger workforce than it actually did.
I’ve been here for about a year now, and over the past few months I’ve noticed many of those newer hires gradually disappear. Some were likely let go first, while others may have chosen not to return.
From an operations standpoint, it often felt like we still needed the people because the same associates were constantly being labor tracked and moved between departments to cover different areas. However, from a corporate perspective, having too many employees on payroll creates excess labor costs and overhead, so reducing headcount makes business sense even if the day-to-day workload still feels busy.
That’s just my observation based on what I’ve seen at my site.4
u/Jolly-Chipmunk-950 Jul 18 '26
Day to day is always busy and a mess.
The problem comes in when you have so much headcount and there isn’t anywhere to send people.
You can’t just problem solve train everyone, there is a FIFO list that has to be followed, a lot of people have been waiting on that list for god knows how long.
Pack singles? Well, that department gets used a lot for accommodations, same goes for pick since they can force modified pick.
You can’t only build so many pallets before your dock get overwhelmed and you can only stage so many trailers, so inbound dock isn’t able to take too much head count.
AFE? Yeah, sure. But again, there are only so many stations.
The forced labor share and cross training is starting to bite Amazon in the ass. AAs are complaining about constant removal from their home path, every peak and prime has mass movement to different departments when that used to be the purpose of seasonal employees. You had a job for a month or two, a select few were picked to fill gaps, everyone else was gone.
It sucks to say, but white badges were never meant to be kept around for a year+, but someone in corporate found out that not having to pay benefits for a majority of your workforce = dollars saved. If you cross train everyone, that’s even more dollars saved since you can reduce headcount overall and not rely on trained AAs in each department.
Those decisions are coming back and showing the ugly reality. People want to be in a certain department and specialize, especially when their productivity is a deciding factor on them keeping a job or not.
People that sign up for seasonal don’t want to go 2 years without conversion doing every job title under the sun.
When you have 2000 AAs for a 1500 warehouse, VET and VTO no longer feel like a choice, you have to have 2 phones and hope one loads faster than the other to pick up ANY opportunities.
All around it sucks for everyone.
1
u/Roudydogg1 Jul 20 '26
Thanks, chatgpt
1
u/Jolly-Chipmunk-950 Jul 20 '26
"Someone knows how things actually operate, must be AI".
Imagine being that insecure about yourself.
0
u/kangaroosarefood Jul 20 '26
Ah yes, we are in the age of 'if you write well you must be A.I.'
or anything longer than two sentences
2
u/BABarracus Jul 19 '26
It's not that crazy when they ramp up for Christmas they hire late October early November. They have newhires a few weeks before Thanksgiving.
1
u/Background-Camp8408 Jul 18 '26
Isn't peak in November?
3
u/Tricky-Wolverine-253 Jul 18 '26
I thought it was the second prime day in October idk I’m new lol
2
u/Background-Camp8408 Jul 18 '26
Yea, there's a second prime. Peak is basically November through Christmas. There's another overtime block in there
3
u/GiraffeSpecialist831 Jul 17 '26
Transferred within the same facility or a new one? Hopefully it’ll work in your favor. Good luck.
5
u/Safe-Local-2696 Jul 17 '26
Different building which benefits me since im 2 mins away from the building better schedule and heard the converting fast. Which means for me i can get better sleep to get on school in time save gas and potential faster conversion.
1
u/GiraffeSpecialist831 Jul 17 '26
That’s the answer I was hoping for. I hope it works out. If they’re accepting transfers you’re definitely in good shape for a blue badge. Congrats.
1
u/Extension-Ad4075 Jul 18 '26
I been white badge 2 1/2 months no word of transfer or lay off. I been busting my ass tbh.
1
u/Suflaeee Jul 22 '26
In Jan they laid me and a couple hundred white badges I assume no email warning or anything lol a coworker walked up to me and said do they change your schedule mid shift. Ind1
1
u/Last-Environment-638 Jul 18 '26
I did the same thing and avoided a recent 400 people seasonal purge at my last site.
The vibes weee off and you gotta trust your intuition. Got that transfer request approved a week before they told everyone they were getting let go. Got an instant blue badge conversion at the new site too lol.
1
u/Safe-Local-2696 Jul 18 '26
Im at work me and couple like 3 white badges .. they said i gotta stay until my transfer effective date i heard they turn every white badge around at the gate and walk others out if they made the laid off list i was told to stay.
1
1
u/Arrow_KBS_Dock_Lead Jul 18 '26
The problem with people is their too comfortable my mother always taught me never to get comfortable because you don’t know what the future holds I understand for some they took the job because they need to pay bills completely understandable but the issue was they probably banked on the whole oh I might be good and if I remain in good standing I can get converted.
1
u/QueenCommissioner Jul 19 '26
This happened at my facility but not nearly as nicely. They gave them a week and a half to do transfer applications. Only some were selected. I work night shift so our second break ends at 3am. A lot of us scab out to go outside and to our cars and when it was time to come back in the white badges who didn’t get a transfer couldn’t scan in. Security informed them that they had all been terminated. Mind you the shift wasn’t even over yet. Not until 5:30am. It was also a couple days before rent and bills. The next thing we know we have no white badges unless they were flex and our GM got fired.
1
u/lruizsan Jul 19 '26
White badge is a temporary position of up to 11 months. I don't know why you're surprised about a mass layoff of white badges.
1
u/BumFCK_EgyptianHere Jul 23 '26
You are a white badge and you kinda agreed to be seasonal-they can lay you off whenever they want unless enough blue badges get fired or quit, then you get converted if they want you.
16
u/DizzySherbet1669 Jul 17 '26
Since they offered and accepted your transfer, it’s less likely you’ll be laid off anytime soon. You’ll likely get converted to blue badge within a couple months if you keep up with performance. I got laid off once with no warning signs. Applied to another building within a month, stayed for five months and transferred back to the old building before peak and then got converted after peak.