Inside Amazon: Wrestling Big Ideas in a Bruising Workplace

Shonuff

Shonuff

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Log In - The New York Times

I thought this was a fascinating read, but Amazon takes it way too far, regarding getting the most of your employees. Amazon encourages backstabbing. There's an anonymous NARC-line, where you can criticize fellow employees, and then it shows up in their evals? Employees ban together to get each other fired by use of the NARC-line. Employees are encouraged to rip each other's ideas apart in meetings, and a meeting there is like going to Court.

Darwinism is key there, but it looks as if they forgot about teamwork. How can you be focused on beating the competition, when you are dodging friendly fire?
 
TJT

TJT

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This makes me damn glad I didn't take the Amazon offer when I was job hunting. Left the Army to avoid such... hostile work environments. They contacted me again here in Austin a few months ago to see if I wanted to interview again for their new web team here.
 
T

Tenks

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Keep in mind the only people they'll talk to are ex-employees willing to break NDA and openly shit talk the company. So it will naturally be biased.
 
TJT

TJT

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I was turned off pretty hard by the tone of the technical interviewer. He didn't ask too many hard questions... most were about Unix Administration shit I was extremely familiar with, then some other Java questions.

He just had this, soul-crushed tone the entire time. As well as the only answer to questions like, "Does Amazon have any benefits for furthering education?" Or. "What about expected work-life balance?" Answers were all No and you'll be working hard.

Didn't need none of that.
 
Shonuff

Shonuff

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TJT_sl said:
He just had this, soul-crushed tone the entire time. As well as the only answer to questions like, "Does Amazon have any benefits for furthering education?" Or. "What about expected work-life balance?" Answers were all No and you'll be working hard.
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Unfortunately, I've had interviews like that, and went to work for places like that. Your gut feeling is usually correct.
 
Vinen

Vinen

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This is the exact sense I got when I phone interviewed for Amazon. I get a call from a recruiter later in the day asking when I available for an in person interview. Was like.. pass.

Obtenor can let us know if they made him trade in his soul during his orientation.
 
Shonuff

Shonuff

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Vinen_sl said:
This is the exact sense I got when I phone interviewed for Amazon. I get a call from a recruiter later in the day asking when I available for an in person interview. Was like.. pass.

Obtenor can let us know if they made him trade in his soul during his orientation.
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I'm all for selling my soul to a company, as long as I'm not doing something illegal. My soul isn't cheap.
 
Noodleface

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Selling your soul is fine, working 80 hours a week and receiving calls from coworkers at midnight is not.
 
Vinen

Vinen

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Noodlemod_sl said:
Selling your soul is fine, working 80 hours a week and receiving calls from coworkers at midnight is not.
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It depends. The receiving calls is like due to the person being on-call.
If you broke AWS would you not expect a call in order to get it fixed? Hell, on my project you should consider yourself on-call until the next BAT has completed. I will call you if you force the branch to be locked due to careless check-in.

My problem is less with the on-call and more the encouraged douchbaggery.
 
Palum

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TJT_sl said:
I was turned off pretty hard by the tone of the technical interviewer. He didn't ask too many hard questions... most were about Unix Administration shit I was extremely familiar with, then some other Java questions.

He just had this, soul-crushed tone the entire time. As well as the only answer to questions like, "Does Amazon have any benefits for furthering education?" Or. "What about expected work-life balance?" Answers were all No and you'll be working hard.

Didn't need none of that.
Click to expand...
lol. That article is pretty enlightening though. In PHX there's huge warehouse, I've interviewed people who worked there (seasonally or otherwise) and it's like they escaped Rwanda or something when you ask them about it.

On the other hand, Prime same day...
 
Noodleface

Noodleface

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Vinen_sl said:
It depends. The receiving calls is like due to the person being on-call.
If you broke AWS would you not expect a call in order to get it fixed? Hell, on my project you should consider yourself on-call until the next BAT has completed. I will call you if you force the branch to be locked due to careless check-in.

My problem is less with the on-call and more the encouraged douchbaggery.
Click to expand...
Right, I'm available all night for emergencies - in this field it's inevitable. I've read stories from employees that this was the norm though.
 
Shonuff

Shonuff

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Noodlemod_sl said:
Selling your soul is fine, working 80 hours a week and receiving calls from coworkers at midnight is not.
Click to expand...
I had a boss who would leave a VME every hour on the hour until 4 AM about some inane request. Eventually, they moved his ass to being VP of Paperwork, and not having any direct reports. He was great at that, if one "t" wasn't crossed, or "i" wasn't dotted, he'd flip out. He couldn't lead people to do anything though (other than having pristine paperwork). You could be doing millions more than the next guy, and he'd pummel you in your performance appraisal over a piece of paper you didn't fill out correctly, and the guy whose paperwork was pristine got the good grade. The last time I checked, revenue moved the stock price.
 
Lendarios

Lendarios

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I wonder if I ask for a ridiculous amount like 150k. What will they say. For that amount I could,work them... And love it.
 
Cad

Cad

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Lots of workplaces can be tough, but this sounds downright adversarial. Not sure it's a good or productive environment in that sense.
 
Borzak

Borzak

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If you put up with it for a certain period does it pay off in your next job and later on in your career? Or is it just about the pay?
 
M

MaWalker_sl

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Tenks_sl said:
I think most people who are seasoned in the tech sector know Amazon is a horrible place to work. It seems like it is becoming more mainstream and well known these days, though.

There is also this which was written a few months back

Dear Amazon interns, some advice from an old man who has been at Amazon way too long. : Seattle
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Sounds like my current boss.. He'll call me into his office just as I'm undocking my laptop at 5:30 PM to review my service log notes for items I closed that day. The smallest of issues turn into late night emails or weekend phone calls because he doesn't have anything better to do than constantly monitor the most insignificant of details even after the issue has been resolved. The worst part is I'm a long term contractor, paid by the hour (overtime not approved) and no benefits. Why would my manager who's making a decent salary along with full benefits care if I had other plans? They'll drain as much work out of me each quarter and then throw out promises of full time employment opportunities to keep me motivated.
 
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