31–40 of 78 posts
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/02/mac-mcclelland-f...
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7902887
It is helpful to be aware of how all different types of workers are treated when evaluating whether or not to work for a company.
"In Mr Bezos' memo, he encouraged Amazon employees to read the article, and email him directly if they recognised any of the "shockingly callous management practices" it described." Oh well, this seems to be a bit hypocritical. ("Hey Mr. Bezos, my boss, John Doe (cc'd!) wants me to do this task until tomorrow, but it's 8 pm. What do you think about this?")
It's easy for management to say how peachy things are when they are the people who very well might be (unknowingly) creating this culture.
The most amazing part about all of this is that not a single person who has come out saying this is false has said they will either look into it themselves or put their money where their mouths are and do something about it. It's easy to be the general when the guns aren't pointed at you.
> Amazon's boss Jeff Bezos wrote in a memo to staff that the "article doesn't describe the Amazon I know". I'm not surprised he feels this way, being solely unaccountable in the way that his employees are and primarily responsible for both denying and preserving the culture. > Mr Ciubotariu invoked the company's culture of fun in his LinkedIn post. "We have Nerf wars, almost daily, that often get a bit out of hand,"…
The Nerf thing made me cringe too. Sometimes I feel like I'm the only software developer out there that does not want to be treated like I am some sort of over-sized elementary school kid. Maybe I am just getting old... Work can be fun without resorting to gimmicks. What's next snack time and mandatory naps?
That's sort of like being the National Security Adviser and telling all NSA agents, "if you notice anything illicit, please email me personally [whereafter you will receive a personal drone visit]".
The fact that he has to defend their culture says a lot to me.
You never see posts about people at Google or Facebook saying they're abused and overworked. Even with Microsoft, you read about political infighting and stack-ranking being stupid, but not downright emotional abuse or on-call madness. With Amazon, it's quite a regular occurrence. Where there is smoke...
http://www.businessinsider.com/reasons-working-at-google-suc...
http://techcrunch.com/2009/01/18/why-google-employees-quit/
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/fea...
Facebook:
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-22-worst-things-about-wor...
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2410298/Forget-free-...
Microsoft:
http://www.businessinsider.com/why-microsoft-is-so-messed-up...
http://www.slate.com/articles/business/moneybox/2013/08/micr...
If your company has >1,000 employees, there will be disgruntled and dissatisfied employees. Full stop.
H1 would have to leave (the country) if they lose their job, so they are stuck working for a bad boss. Women can sense that, hey, this makes no sense faster than man who is somewhat expected to 'solider on'.
If there was less H1 (but more legal immigration other ways), than that would force a turn around and encourage more welcoming places. And less bad bosses.
I even look at product manager job postings and cringe: 'hold engineering team accountable for commitments'. The issue maybe that there is H1, that there are people willing to do it.
Amazon's success at being a grinding place but reaping major business results align with what I've seen of my previous employer (a transportation icon) that tightened the screws, re-engineered processes, encouraged thousands to leave. Revenue, profit, stock price, and bonuses soared. All of what we've been told about the war for talent, desire for caring work places, etc. seems to be exaggerated. Companies can litera…
For example, if you are making a management decision based on how much time employees are spending on X, you are assuming that you actually know how much time is being spent on X and what the value of that time is.
Simply measuring data is not sufficient. You have to measure the right data in the right way for your stated purpose. Companies operating like Amazon does (apparently), are wildly over-confident in their data collection and interpretation abilities, in my opinion.
> Amazon's boss Jeff Bezos wrote in a memo to staff that the "article doesn't describe the Amazon I know". I'm not surprised he feels this way, being solely unaccountable in the way that his employees are and primarily responsible for both denying and preserving the culture. > Mr Ciubotariu invoked the company's culture of fun in his LinkedIn post. "We have Nerf wars, almost daily, that often get a bit out of hand,"…
I grabbed that gun and started a war. People that were face deep in code picked up their guns and started smiling and shooting each other, running around, diving under desks. It was fun!
I made friends immediately and are some of my best friends to this day, 4 yeas later. People that are friends have fun. It wasn't forced. If you didn't want to play, you didn't have to play. The morale picked up 100% after the game.
We were NEVER treated like children. Ever. We never had "nap time" or "snack time", that's ridiculous. We were treated as professionals that like to take breaks and mess around while creating great products.
I did great work while I was there and so did the other people at that company. I met some amazingly talented people that are still at that company. They stay there because they enjoy the work and they enjoy the environment.
:facepalm: I hate this part of the popular culture where developers are seen as kids or weirdos with no social skills.
We have to make clear that we didn't like nerf wars neither overworking, if we didn't respect us nobody is gonna do it.