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Debate Over Amazon Working Conditions Goes Back Years
Nerval's Lobster writes: This weekend, The New York Times published a lengthy report about working conditions for white-collar workers at Amazon. Describing the e-commerce giant as a "bruising workplace," the report paints a picture of a Darwinian environment. But criticism of Amazon's working conditions actually goes back years. In The Everything Store, a book-length account of Amazon by Bloomberg BusinessWeek reporter Brad Stone, the Amazon of yesteryear is indeed described as an aggressive place in which Bezos pushed employees relentlessly. So is Amazon a terrible place to work? On Quora and Glassdoor, current employees suggest that the company presents its workers with interesting challenges, and that the culture is fast-paced. While there are complaints about the hours and workload, many don't seem Amazon-specific: The world is filled with tech pros struggling to achieve work-life balance in the face of incredible goals on tight deadlines. Many cite issues with the company's frugality—its lack of perks vis-à-vis Google or Microsoft. After the report was published Jeff Bezos wrote a memo to employees that reads in part: “The article doesn’t describe the Amazon I know or the caring Amazonians I work with every day. But if you know of any stories like those reported, I want you to escalate to HR. You can also email me directly at jeff@amazon.com. Even if it’s rare or isolated, our tolerance for any such lack of empathy needs to be zero.”
Prediction: Everyone currently working there will be too scared to give feedback, and Bezos will conclude or at least claim, there's no problem.
If you don't like the working conditions then form your own business and work for yourself. It's that simple.
It's nice how complex problems have such simple answers. "If you don't like how much you pay in rent, then buy a house". "If you don't like your low pay, then get a job making more money". "If you can't hold down a job because your car keeps breaking down, then buy a new car".
The answer is easy, implementation, not so much.
But if you know of any stories like those reported, I want you to escalate to HR. You can also email me directly at jeff@amazon.com. Even if it’s rare or isolated, our tolerance for any such lack of empathy needs to be zero.”
. . . but probably best to do so anonymously, or with someone else's email account. We all know how large companies love whistle blowers.
I can't tell if the OP is being sarcastic or not. Just like poor people just need to stop being so poor.
I don't think you need to be suspicious yet. I worked one of the large telco carriers for more than a decade. When I had a reasonable manager, the job was delightful, lots of toys, big budgets, new problems every quarter. When I worked for a Twonk it was long hours, 3 large PowerPoints a week and more meetings than work.... Which is why I don't work there. My job didn't change for the last 9 years, only my managers and directors did. Their trust, style, and abject ignorance were the decisive factors in the rewards of my worklife.
Both you and the NYT may have very accurate views of pieces of this company. The idea that one of your points of view is the norm, and the other is the outlier could only really be proven with a statistically valid sample set.
where do you live? is it easy for you to move? do you have children and school concerns? is your spouse or significant other ready to move on a whim? are you yourself ready to pack all your shit sever your ties and try to find a new place you like as much as your current one?
what job do you work in? is it "tens of thousands" of other companies who would employ you? i guess you must be a short order cook or truck driver, careers like programming for example are niche: if you program web front ends you don't jump to OS programmer for example
do you have enough money to cushion the transition period form one job to the next? can you afford ancillary costs associated with the move?
how is the new job? the boss's personality? your work team, your work environment? job perks? business outlook of the new business sector?
if you aren't moving, how far away is the new job if you aren't moving? is the commute different (train/ car)? traffic jams? length of time commuting?
this is off of the top of my head. there are dozens more top level categories and thousands of specific concerns to each person
it is is EXTREMELY complex
you are either trolling and faking ignorance of something this obvious, or you are a genuine moron
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
I can't tell if the OP is being sarcastic or not. Just like poor people just need to stop being so poor.
There's nothing wrong with being poor. Stop treating the poor like there's something wrong with them.
"A plan fiendishly clever in its intricacies"- Homer Simpson
Absolutely true. Although there are practical issues with being too poor. Like being homeless or unable to eat.
Having said that, being somewhat poor is not necessarily an unhappy situation. Once you get beyond survival and have some creature comforts, it only really starts becoming a happiness problem when you are forced to deal with a large disparity.
In other words, people become unhappy with less if they are constantly shown things that other people have that they don't. This is also why many relatively richer (but still not actually "rich") people look down on poor people. There is a disparity that they have come up on top of, and they feel superior for it.
However, anyone who has things can tell you that First World problems can make you just as unhappy as being poor which seems ridiculous on the surface, but has everything to do with a feeling of *relative* inadequacy or poverty. You might have a nice home, decent education, and a relatively promising future, but if you're bullied or isolated socially, or just depressed, you could end up suicidal or even homicidal.
There are rich people who would have lived longer and happier lives if they'd been born poor.
At Jeff's level I'm sure it's all daisies and unicorns. I imagine they just hang around all day dipping their balls in gold and getting hand jobs from their hand job robots. They'd probably be stunned to learn that down in the trenches there's not a hand job robot to be seen, and exposed balls are going to get kicked, not dipped in gold.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
Exactly what side would the company have?
Upper management probably never heard about this because it's the culture they've built. Employees have tools to basically feed comments on co-workers where there is a practical guarantee of anonymity without the ability to confront the accusation. Because they fire a certain percent every year regardless of quality there is this competition to see other people fail so you can succeed.
In such an environment is it surprising that the person who had a devastating personal event suddenly starts seeing negative performance reviews because other employees that may not even know them are sending in negative comments to try to secure their own position? And that managers under pressure to fire a certain percent every few months wouldn't take advantage of this because their own employees performance metric effects their performance metric?
It's not really that hard to believe IMO. It's a cultural thing. As long as everyone is 20 or in upper management it's probably a great place to work.
europe, land of free healthcare and cheap college and four weeks vacation, has much higher happiness and are richer societies
america, land of "get cancer and lose your house" and "become a slave under a crushing loan if you want an education" and "work 70 hours to barely tread water, vacation? lol" is less happy and poorer
because a true meritocracy, which conservatives apparently love, requires a level playing field, which means removing most of the problems of where you start in life: rich or poor (healthcare and education), as the determination of your fate
what conservatives policies really get us (whether they know it and not admit to it, the plutocrats, or simply don't know it, the propagandized morons) is classism: rich, you do fine. poor, die early and work your ass off and do *not* get ahead, as the fable promises
oh sure, you *should* work hard and get ahead. a proper society is a meritocracy. but since reagan the middle class is on a long term decline due to the plutocrat loving policies we get. the policies conservatives support means: if your daddy is rich, you'll get a cushy job due to connections and coast through life. impossible to fail no matter how hard you fuck up. and if your poor, work your ass off and lose everything due to one problem in life, the kind we all encounter
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
the most entitled people on this planet are conservatives: they are entitled to a society that be preserved according a mythological superior conservative past that never actually existed, and they are entitled to dictate to you how to run your private social life. "small government!" ... unless it has to do with who you marry or how you plan your births
meanwhile they get angry at entitlements like: healthcare, education, housing, clothing, food. because someone is poor. of course, if you are poor, it is 100% because of your own life failures, never what the society structures your possible life choices as: "put food on the table but be buried in a payday loan"... your poor life choices! pfffft
it's a pathological hateful creed, and it's quite pathetic so many losers can have their buttons pushed on these issues and vote for plutocrat agendas. they're just ignorant tools. just look at the hoopla over abortion and planned parenthood right now: "ignore the economy, war drums, police misconduct, social inequality, healthcare problems... some lady is going to remove a blob in her body that is just as alive as 20 year old!"
i am pro-life! they say. except if there is a war to fight or a convict to execute or they ran from a cop or they want housing, food, clothing, an education, then fuck them... but i'm pro-life, really!
perennial conservative wedge issue, used to deliver the morons to vote for the plutocrat agenda which keeps us all mired. dependable useful fools for a cause which keeps us all poor
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
It's childishly easy to dangle "expected" over someone's neck. Then let them go when their "priorities are clearly not in line with the company's mission".
Threats are perfectly good substitutes for policy, when execution is arbitrary.