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My Amazon Burnout Experience

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Re: My Amazon Burnout Experience

#91

Post by m3andros »

enraged_camel wrote: post #77
slunk wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I stopped reading a few paragraphs in when all the author had managed to convey was how great they are. I also find it strange that someone so competent who wants to remain anonymous would reveal so much information about their situation in the company. What little I read seems like it would be enough to pinpoint them within the organization.

You should read the whole thing. The author may come across as a narcissist at the beginning but that wanes rather quickly - he is also quite honest and forthcoming about his own shortcomings. Everything he writes will resonate with anyone who has worked in large bureaucracies.

Touché!

Re: My Amazon Burnout Experience

#92

Post by buckbova »

amzn_throwaway wrote: post #80
tsunamifury wrote: post #26

It seems obvious that this person is aware they don't work well with others, and actively refuses to try to do better -- while writing a self-aggrandizing story about how he is both the smartest person in the room and most everyone around him was an idiot. He seems to believe there was no one else smart at Amazon either, and all projects that 'got in his way' were created my simple minded peons. This type of retrospe…

I wasn't planning on responding to anything, but your comment has enough truth that the criticism is worth responding to. I am aware that I don't work as well as I could with others, especially those who hold lots of power but little technical aptitude. Its not out of a smug sense of superiority...I recognize these people are very much my superior in other ways. It is probably limitations of my vocabulary and inexper…

> I was sold on a meritocratic position under a boss who believed in a meritocratic ideal

I've found in the places I've worked there's a ceiling on a meritocracy in the workplace. Being the smartest, fastest, best worker doesn't get you through to those high level promotions.

You need to play the game. If you refuse, then be happy you are getting as much pay and good work as you are getting. Or, work for yourself.

Re: My Amazon Burnout Experience

#93

Post by [deleted] »

buckbova wrote: post #29
dmourati wrote: post #17

"Amazon hires intelligent people, and they retain the sociopaths" That is a damning statement that unfortunately has the ring of truth to me.

To me this also rings of "I'm too morally superior to engage in corporate politics." Suck it up and kiss ass, suppress information when necessary, make allegiances, and whatever else is if you want to move up in that structure. If all this is beneath you, then time to work for yourself.

[deleted]

Re: My Amazon Burnout Experience

#94

Post by [deleted] »

buckbova wrote: post #92
amzn_throwaway wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wasn't planning on responding to anything, but your comment has enough truth that the criticism is worth responding to. I am aware that I don't work as well as I could with others, especially those who hold lots of power but little technical aptitude. Its not out of a smug sense of superiority...I recognize these people are very much my superior in other ways. It is probably limitations of my vocabulary and inexper…

> I was sold on a meritocratic position under a boss who believed in a meritocratic ideal I've found in the places I've worked there's a ceiling on a meritocracy in the workplace. Being the smartest, fastest, best worker doesn't get you through to those high level promotions. You need to play the game. If you refuse, then be happy you are getting as much pay and good work as you are getting. Or, work for yourself.

[deleted]

Re: My Amazon Burnout Experience

#95

Post by rrss1122 »

tsunamifury wrote: post #26

It seems obvious that this person is aware they don't work well with others, and actively refuses to try to do better -- while writing a self-aggrandizing story about how he is both the smartest person in the room and most everyone around him was an idiot. He seems to believe there was no one else smart at Amazon either, and all projects that 'got in his way' were created my simple minded peons. This type of retrospe…

The impression I got was, he tried to be manager before being promoted. This gave his managers a convenient scapegoat when he axed his coworkers projects and they needed someone to be angry at. This reminds me a little of The Gervais Principle. This person is a de facto clueless manager (by The Gervais Principle's terminology) who takes the fall for upper management's decisions, and his managers didn't even need to promote him.

What I read was someone who was frustrated with their position in Amazon. Someone who made a bad bargain, not someone who necessarily would not be a great person to work with.

What I found most curious was the need to anonymize. I imagine for upper management at Amazon, finding employees

Re: My Amazon Burnout Experience

#96

Post by mildbow »

amzn_throwaway wrote: post #80
tsunamifury wrote: post #26

It seems obvious that this person is aware they don't work well with others, and actively refuses to try to do better -- while writing a self-aggrandizing story about how he is both the smartest person in the room and most everyone around him was an idiot. He seems to believe there was no one else smart at Amazon either, and all projects that 'got in his way' were created my simple minded peons. This type of retrospe…

I wasn't planning on responding to anything, but your comment has enough truth that the criticism is worth responding to. I am aware that I don't work as well as I could with others, especially those who hold lots of power but little technical aptitude. Its not out of a smug sense of superiority...I recognize these people are very much my superior in other ways. It is probably limitations of my vocabulary and inexper…

For what it's worth, I completely believe your story. Probably because I went through pretty much the exact thing. The only diff would be: I learnt "managing up" when I missed my first raise and so decided to play the game for fun and profit.

Anyway, sucks that middle management sucks and lives to only forward their existence.

Have a good one and thanks for the read. Hope it was cathartic for you.

Re: My Amazon Burnout Experience

#97

Post by rrss1122 »

amzn_throwaway wrote: post #80
tsunamifury wrote: post #26

It seems obvious that this person is aware they don't work well with others, and actively refuses to try to do better -- while writing a self-aggrandizing story about how he is both the smartest person in the room and most everyone around him was an idiot. He seems to believe there was no one else smart at Amazon either, and all projects that 'got in his way' were created my simple minded peons. This type of retrospe…

I wasn't planning on responding to anything, but your comment has enough truth that the criticism is worth responding to. I am aware that I don't work as well as I could with others, especially those who hold lots of power but little technical aptitude. Its not out of a smug sense of superiority...I recognize these people are very much my superior in other ways. It is probably limitations of my vocabulary and inexper…

At large companies like this there will always be politics you need to play to get ahead. It sucks but that's the way it is. The meritocratic ideal will remain an ideal unless you're in there on the ground floor.

There's a lot of books out there on corporate and office politics. Might be a good idea to read at least one.

Re: My Amazon Burnout Experience

#98

Post by tuyguntn »

therobot24 wrote: post #90
tuyguntn wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What? Who suggested that. Everyone has their own opinion on that topic, but if we rely on Wikipedia [1] Human resource management (HRM, or simply HR) is a function in organizations designed to -->maximize employee performance another topic tells Organizations will engage in a broad range of human resource management practices to capitalize on those assets. [2] If your HR cannot capitalize assets, if your HR cannot ma…

ok so i misunderstood your previous comment, i took "should create working environment for them" as segregating employees based on things like social skills. I definitely agree that HR should use other measures of accepting an applicant other than possible performance. But that doesn't mean that someone being an asshole is HR's fault. You're basically saying that there is consistent negative correlation between perfo…

You're basically saying that there is consistent negative correlation between performance and social skills - which is not true

I am not claiming any correlation between performance and social skills, I want to say, if performance is good but employee sucks social skills, then HR should help them in some way, maybe guy has a vision for future, but because he lacks social skill, he shouldn't be suppressed.

Re: My Amazon Burnout Experience

#99

Post by adekok »

DannyBee wrote: post #51
adekok wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> c) Leave. If you really do know best, why aren't you running your own business? That's not a good answer. A person staffing an assembly line making widgets may know how to double through-put. They do not know how to sell widgets. It's unreasonable to expect them to "start their own business" because they're competent at their job, which is probably one out of 100 jobs in the company. As for (a) and (b), I also find…

"As for (a) and (b), I also find those outcomes unsatisfactory." That's great. It's not your company :) Seriously. It seems you don't want to accept that it's someone else's choice what work should be happening and that you don't want to start your own business so it can be your choice. You want some magical third option where your intrinsic brilliance is magically recognized. This will never happen, and surprise, th…

> That's great. It's not your company :) Seriously.

No, what I meant was your explanation of the outcome is unsatisfactory. All of the outcomes you described are negative.

I don't believe that all choices result in negative outcomes. Companies succeed, and so do people inside of companies. Therefore, your description of the problem and/or outcomes is wrong.

Re: My Amazon Burnout Experience

#100

Post by adekok »

x0x0 wrote: post #44
adekok wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or to put a positive spin on it, this person was hired to do a job, was good at it, but was prevented from doing so by internal corporate politics. I've worked at companies where meeting major customer deliverables fell through the cracks. The managers simply didn't notice, and didn't care that the software was late and/or non-functional. What is an engineer to do? a) say he knows better, and get called "difficult to…

yeah, difficult people always scream politics after reading that post, my prob that the author is a very difficult person is 0.995. Or maybe higher. And the managers at amazon appear not to be running the company into the ground by, say, measures like company success.

> after reading that post, my prob that the author is a very difficult person is 0.995. Or maybe higher.

Oh, quite possibly. That doesn't negate the idea that perhaps their managers goals were opposite to Amazon's goals.

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