There’s quite a disparity between what’s in the headline and what’s in the article. One really good point brought up was

Many technology leaders then struggle to keep track of what they have tasked project teams to accomplish or to hold them accountable for deliverables. In blame cultures or environments where difficult conversations are avoided, it’s often easier to let someone else go than admit to internal failings.

When you read more into what the “source” was for the article, it looks a whole lot more like an incompetent VP that’s trying to play a game to avoid accountability by lying to the people under him while his own leadership is asking what in the fucking hell is going on with their section of the company.

After reading through all that, it stinks a whole lot more of mismanagement and gross incompetence on the part of Amazon than any strategy especially if you apply Occam’s Razor. What’s more likely, that the company who misjudged and executed poorly with a string of other stupid decisions involved suddenly schemes up another “quiet firing” strategy, or that the underperforming leadership is trying to sweep something under the rug for their own accountability?

My bet would go toward the latter. I don’t see quiet firing, I see gross incompetence and fear.