Jeff Bezos and the Amazon Way

Okay, these articles are getting really ridiculous. I just finished a Summer internship at Amazon. While it's true that there's more pressure on employees than other places I've worked, it's really not that bad. It definitely doesn't feel cutthroat, and an 80-85 hour work week is definitely not normal! The vast majority (I'd say >70%, and I think that's conservative) of people work 35-45, depending on what needs to get done that particular week - which is completely normal!

There are some teams where it's normal to work longer hours - mostly in AWS. Usually it's the case that a few people on the team have very high expectations for themselves, and that sort of forces everyone else to meet those same standards. I think that's actually not a bad thing - some people just love to work, and they end up producing a lot of really high quality software. But if you don't feel the same way, you can just transfer to a different team! I haven't heard of a manager asking someone to put in extra hours except when there are extenuating circumstances.

Now, don't get me wrong, as an employee you definitely get the impression that Amazon doesn't care that much about you. It's not really a fun place to work or anything like that. But some of these articles make it sound like everyone who works for Amazon is begin taken advantage of, and that simply isn't true.

My experience at Amazon was straight up abusive. It is a hostile work environment and it should not be tolerated.

If you have any self respect, do not go to work there. The only way abusive companies can learn is when their abuse is discovered and they have trouble hiring good employees.

The apologists and the rationalizers and the Amazon PR machine are out in full force.

this is not surprising, because the core methodology of Amazon's abuse is its cult nature.

Amazon is very much like a cult. The stories I read about scientology remind me much of my time at Amazon.

They lionize Bezos because they want to pretend he's like steve jobs (these same propagandists are why most of you think steve jobs was an asshole, by the way)

Reality is, he's a master manipulator, a poor business man, and terrible at technology and leadership.

But he did create a cult. He's more like charles manson.

So expect the cultists to continue to be out in force.

Look, you did the right things, both times.

Most people spend too much time putting up with BS or even rationalizing that it isn't BS they are putting up with (a lot of people at Amazon are doing this right now.)

Work on your temper if you want.

But if you can be fired on the spot, you can quit on the spot.

And you should. Every engineer should have their terms, and if the terms are violated, quit.

If you join a company that is flex-- changing it to not flex is changing the terms of employement!

Companies change your manager all the time, but how are you supposed to evaluate a company work environment if you can't count on the manager you interviewed being your manager when you get hired... but they think nothing of it because they think you're just a replaceable cog.

Allow them some flexibility, but don't give into this idea that it's a foregone conclusion that you have no say in your work environment.

Quitting on the spot sends a message. But that doesn't matter- they will rationalize. They aren't interested in learnign- and they won't learn from one person leaving.

In 2014 I worked for a company where the whole team quit. From Summer to fall they built a team who built a product. By february all of them had quit or been fired, except for one programmer (and me who had just been hired.)

Did the company learn from this? no.

We built a new team, built a new product, and by february of the next year we had all quit.

They are now on their third team.

Nothings changed .

Management complains about how hard it is to find good employees though.

They're terrible managers, and they just can't figure it out. Because its inconceivable to them.

Where on earth do they find money to pay the wages for each wave of employees? Are their shareholders blind?