My Amazon Burnout Experience

I know Bezos had to come out and say "gee guys, nothing's wrong here, I've never seen any problems", both for the sake of positive P/R spin and for his shareholders who would rather not see a brain drain happen.

But to double down and claim nothing is wrong is just inviting a flood of anecdotes from current and ex-employees, like this one and like the one from an Amazon spouse yesterday.

http://qz.com/482080/dear-jeff-bezos-i-wish-you-had-asked-fo...

Re: My Amazon Burnout Experience

#5

Post by shrineOfLies » Wed, Aug 19, 2015, 7:04 PM UTC

therobot24 wrote: post #2

TLDR; expects "purist meritocracy", gets upset when there's corporate politics

Over generalized and inane comment. He/She clearly states that their progress was objective and benefitted the company.

Every knows that in any workplace, corporate politics is expected, but not to an extent where someone gets sick, or frustrated after contributing so much. There is a reason meritocracy is needed, and amazon is an extreme case where meritocracy is not present, and will lead to its own collapse if not checked, which is exactly what he states.

Re: My Amazon Burnout Experience

#6

Post by therobot24 » Wed, Aug 19, 2015, 7:12 PM UTC

shrineOfLies wrote: post #5

therobot24 wrote: post #2

TLDR; expects "purist meritocracy", gets upset when there's corporate politics

Over generalized and inane comment. He/She clearly states that their progress was objective and benefitted the company. Every knows that in any workplace, corporate politics is expected, but not to an extent where someone gets sick, or frustrated after contributing so much. There is a reason meritocracy is needed, and amazon is an extreme case where meritocracy is not present, and will lead to its own collapse if not…

>> "I accomplished my goals, but I didn't gain peer support...partly because in order to accomplish my yearly goals I had to alienate my peers. I had to tear down their pet projects that were inhibiting progress, I had to inform them of misinterpretations of data that they held dear, and I had to make specific types of failures as obvious and clear as possible, whether that was with a bug report or a published analysis. This does not bode well for a promotion process that ultimately relies on having people like me. In order to do my job, I had to destroy my own political capital."

The author clearly acknowledges that they're not only ignoring politics, but actively "alienating" themselves from their peers to achieve the best performance they can.

>> "So why was I not promoted? There are fair criticisms of my personality that I'm willing to accept as legitimate, but my performance was real and measurable."

Despite these characteristics the author still expects and insists that they deserve a promotion because of the 'merit'.

Hence the TLDR.

Re: My Amazon Burnout Experience

#7

Post by legitster » Wed, Aug 19, 2015, 7:14 PM UTC

I'm familiar with a high-level executive assistant at Amazon, and they are well aware of the "burnouts". It's very intentional. Amazon is acquiring young talent, extracting as much value from them, and making no efforts to retain them.

Among the local tech scene in Seattle, there's a quiet view that Amazon is kind of a boot camp where young workers get experience then move on.

Re: My Amazon Burnout Experience

#8

Post by x0x0 » Wed, Aug 19, 2015, 7:16 PM UTC

shrineOfLies wrote: post #5

therobot24 wrote: post #2

TLDR; expects "purist meritocracy", gets upset when there's corporate politics

Over generalized and inane comment. He/She clearly states that their progress was objective and benefitted the company. Every knows that in any workplace, corporate politics is expected, but not to an extent where someone gets sick, or frustrated after contributing so much. There is a reason meritocracy is needed, and amazon is an extreme case where meritocracy is not present, and will lead to its own collapse if not…

author also wrote

   I always prioritized my work based on a cost/benefit estimate. Amazon 
   culture always places higher priority on work that direct-line superiors 
   consider higher priority. If I had a billion dollar project in the backlog, 
   I could still have my time redirected towards a Senior Manager's pet project 
   or a Director's pet peeve.  [...]  I had to directly refuse to work on a VP
   escalation

So basically, (s)he was difficult to manage and assumed, at a relatively low level of visibility, to know better how to allocate his or her time than the relevant management chain. And stunningly, was not well rewarded for this behavior.

Re: My Amazon Burnout Experience

#9

Post by ubercore » Wed, Aug 19, 2015, 7:16 PM UTC

therobot24 wrote: post #6

shrineOfLies wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Over generalized and inane comment. He/She clearly states that their progress was objective and benefitted the company. Every knows that in any workplace, corporate politics is expected, but not to an extent where someone gets sick, or frustrated after contributing so much. There is a reason meritocracy is needed, and amazon is an extreme case where meritocracy is not present, and will lead to its own collapse if not…

>> "I accomplished my goals, but I didn't gain peer support...partly because in order to accomplish my yearly goals I had to alienate my peers. I had to tear down their pet projects that were inhibiting progress, I had to inform them of misinterpretations of data that they held dear, and I had to make specific types of failures as obvious and clear as possible, whether that was with a bug report or a published analys…

While reductive, I do agree with your TLDR here. The sub-text for me reading that, and I admit this may say more about me than OP, is that she sounds like she helped to make a culture that would have made _me_ develop kidney stones. I find OP's view of what the workplace "should" be a pretty insular an inflexible one.

Re: My Amazon Burnout Experience

#10

Post by smrtinsert » Wed, Aug 19, 2015, 7:20 PM UTC

legitster wrote: post #7

I'm familiar with a high-level executive assistant at Amazon, and they are well aware of the "burnouts". It's very intentional. Amazon is acquiring young talent, extracting as much value from them, and making no efforts to retain them. Among the local tech scene in Seattle, there's a quiet view that Amazon is kind of a boot camp where young workers get experience then move on.

Cheap labor and nothing more. In my career I've learned "experience" 9/10 means experience working at that specific company. Different organizations use different tools, processes, and division of labor. I find time at non-prestigious X is as valuable as time at prestigious Y.