Amazon CEO Vows Leaner Teams Amid Bloat, Ends Work From Home
There is a natural entropy with successful businesses as they get larger. They become more bureaucratic. Decision-making becomes encumbered.
Amazon is culling the herd.
‘The shakeup, announced in a memo to employees on Monday, echoed what some company veterans have been whispering for years: It’s become harder to get things done at Amazon. Stories of endless deliberation, unnecessary meetings and layers of approval have become commonplace at a company that fashions itself as a collection of teams charged with operating like startups.
‘Jassy called out some of those phenomena in his note, citing “pre-meetings for the pre-meetings for the decision meetings, a longer line of managers feeling like they need to review a topic before it moves forward, owners of initiatives feeling less like they should make recommendations because the decision will be made elsewhere.”
‘Each major organization within Amazon will be required to increase the ratio of individual contributors to managers by 15% by the end of March 2025, Jassy said. He also announced a bureaucracy tipline for employees to raise concerns about unnecessary processes.‘
Amazon to return to five days a week in-office; reducing bureaucracy
Getting employees to tip off senior management on unnecessary bureaucracy is genius.
‘"As we have grown our teams as quickly and substantially as we have the last many years, we have understandably added a lot of managers," Jassy said in the memo. "In that process, we have also added more layers than we had before. Having fewer managers will remove layers and flatten organizations more than they are today."
‘Jassy also said he has created a “bureaucracy mailbox” where employees can submit via email examples of where they see potential bureaucracy or unnecessary process that could be eliminated.
‘"I will read these emails and action them accordingly," said Jassy.’
Why the Pro-Housing ‘Yimby’ Movement Is Wading Into the Election
We’ve spoken about inter-governmental competition before. Here is an example of the central government sniping at local bureaucracy. Rules for me, but not for thee.
‘Their cause, long the boutique obsession of a scattering of wonky bloggers and local activists, has suddenly moved to the political mainstream this election season. Yimby-tinged ideas are a central plank in Vice President Kamala Harris’s platform to bring down prices and were prominently mentioned at last month’s Democratic convention. On the Yimbys for Harris call, Democratic governors, members of Congress, and local officials from San Francisco to Manhattan to Sheboygan, Wis., and Spokane, Wash., appeared to sing the praises of upzoning, ADUs (accessory dwelling units) and single-stair buildings, as commenters posted “Build, baby, build!” in the comments.’
Anti-Theft Initiative Aims to Restore Order in California. Gavin Newsom Tried to Kill It
The only thing we can say with certainty about criminals is that they commit crimes.
Suggesting that criminals tend to come from a particular ethnic group or that they are poor suggests its own form of racist and classist bias.
‘That is why Wardwell is backing Proposition 36, a new ballot initiative aimed a rolling back the worst parts of Prop 47. The ballot proposition would reinstitute the possibility of increased penalties for repeat drug and theft offenses, while also offering a pathway to treatment for offenders suffering from addiction and other mental-health struggles.
‘Governor Gavin Newsom and his far-left allies have gone to great lengths in their failed efforts to keep Prop 36 off the November ballot, claiming that the initiative is part of a racist war on the poor and a right-wing attempt to return the blue state to an era of mass incarceration. Wardwell disagrees with that assessment.’
As the new Supreme Court term nears, regulatory power faces a fresh test
The FDA doesn’t ban things. It just makes them clear an impossibly bar.
You don’t need to ban something for an agency to make it all but impossible for industry to supply it.
‘The court will hear the FDA's appeal of a lower court's ruling that the agency failed to follow proper legal procedures under federal law when it denied applications by e-cigarette liquid makers Triton Distribution and Vapetasia to bring their nicotine-containing products to market.
‘The companies had filed FDA applications in 2020 for products with flavors such as sour grape, pink lemonade and crème brulee, and names including "Jimmy The Juice Man Strawberry Astronaut" and "Suicide Bunny Bunny Season."
‘Although the FDA maintains that it has not categorically banned flavored e-cigarette products, companies seeking its approval must clear a high legal bar because, according to an agency court filing, such products pose a "known and substantial risk to youth." The FDA has approved only 27 e-cigarette products - all tobacco or menthol flavored - while denying more than a million other applications.’
Ric Grenell to Newsmax: Bureaucrats Permit Trump's Endangerment
Are the bureaucrats really slow-walking increased protection for a Presidential candidate?
‘During an appearance Sunday on "The Gorka Reality Check," Grenell attributed the lack of increased security since the last assassination attempt on Trump to "this whole bureaucratic problem in Washington."
‘"We see the bureaucratic problem in D.C. in a variety of issues," the former intelligence official continued. "This ... is just one of many. And that's what we have to do, is we have to use common sense.’
Trump’s second-term agenda: Breaking the bureaucracy
The Big Fear in DC is that Trump learned his lessons in his first term. They have lists of who they want to put on Schedule F. They know who they want to appoint into policy positions.
‘Experts say Trump and his former staffers have similarly honed their plans and tactics during their four years in the wilderness. While initiatives during the first Trump administration were often hamstrung by poor preparation, slow filling of jobs for political appointees, or were launched too late to be implemented, Trump and his advisers have indicated that if elected this fall, they will hit the ground running with an aggressive campaign to remake the federal government in his image.’
Nebraska, other attorneys general challenge California regulation on big trucks
California wants to force other states to switch from diesel trucks to electric trucks, imposing higher costs on people all over the country as fleets are forced to adapt.
The other states’ response? You’re not the boss of me.
‘Nebraska and 23 other Republican-led states asked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Monday to block a push by Democratic-led California to require more trucks used for transporting goods to reduce carbon emissions.
‘Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers, who led the effort, argued in a letter that California is overstepping its authority and risks harming commerce beyond its borders. He and the other attorneys general wrote that forcing a shift from diesel fuel to electric energy could lead to higher prices for food, fuel and more consumer goods.’
FEC Makes the Right Call on AI Regulation in Federal Elections
The FEC decides that they have sufficient means on the books to deal with bad behavior, AI-generated or not. Regulating the harmful activity is likely to be more effective than focusing on the way the content in question was made.
‘On Tuesday, Sept. 10, the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) announced that it does not intend to enact new regulations targeting the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to generate deceptive content in elections for federal office—a decision that concludes a yearlong debate over whether the FEC would take action. At first glance, this decision may appear to greenlight deepfakes and other forms of election deception. However, the FEC also confirmed their interpretation that existing federal laws prohibiting “fraudulent misrepresentation” would still apply to AI-generated content. Pending final adoption at the next open meeting on Sept. 19, this technology-neutral regulatory approach focuses on prohibited activities rather than the tools used to conduct them, providing a useful policy framework for lawmakers and regulators adapting to AI and other emerging technologies.’