Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Amazon's Leadership Principles

amazon.jobs

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 196 posts

Re: Amazon's Leadership Principles

#11

Post by candiodari »

felixgallo wrote: post #10
candiodari wrote: post #4

1. Screw 2. Every last employee 3. Out of their last dime 4. Deny 5. Lie 6. Deny the lying 7. Work them to death 8. As soon as it takes the slightest toll on them, fire them 9. Their suppliers too 10. And may God help delivery services 11. Deny 12. Lie about that too 13. Deny lying about it, of course 14. Don't even profit from it (except personally if you're Jeff Bezos, of course, who somehow became a billionaire cr…

I work for Amazon, and my management line all the way up to Jeff is sensible, comprehensible, and human; I have good work-life balance and am able to offer that to my reports; my compensation is fair; and I would escalate immediately if I ever saw anyone abused, mistreated, or cheated. Amazon's a big company and I'm sure there's terrible managers out there and true harrowing stories. And there are problems, here and…

Do you think those articles about conditions in the warehouses are lying ? If so, why ?

What I mean to say is, the odds of those conditions being either unintentional or just local aberrations seems rather small given the widespread articles about it from around the world. Germany, UK, US, ... everywhere workers are complaining about things like sick people getting fired, mandatory unpaid overtime, constant tracking of everything, ...

Re: Amazon's Leadership Principles

#12

Post by 6stringmerc »

Leaders are willing to take a 100x salary compared to their line employees because they know they can hustle hard enough to live up to the expectations.

I'm very excited to see the helmet cam video of Jeff Bezos serving a customary 8-10-12-14 hour shift at the Dallas Amazon Fulfillment Center and walk out with a smile. Can you do what you ask of others? That's leadership.

No, really. Principles not tested in the fire mean nothing (i.e. "The Man Who Corrupted Hadleyburg"). I know how much grinding I put in and I'd be happy to strap a Fitbit to Bezos and run a day shift side by side.

Dogfooding is a principle I'll never abandon.

Re: Amazon's Leadership Principles

#13

Post by TheGRS »

Do these leadership or company principles ever truly have any effect on employees or products? I've seen them thrown around at my company on a few occasions, but they never feel like they drive much beyond trying to be one of those gaudy motivational posters.

Re: Amazon's Leadership Principles

#14

Post by jshmrsn »

candiodari wrote: post #4

1. Screw 2. Every last employee 3. Out of their last dime 4. Deny 5. Lie 6. Deny the lying 7. Work them to death 8. As soon as it takes the slightest toll on them, fire them 9. Their suppliers too 10. And may God help delivery services 11. Deny 12. Lie about that too 13. Deny lying about it, of course 14. Don't even profit from it (except personally if you're Jeff Bezos, of course, who somehow became a billionaire cr…

Come on dude, this is just embarrassing. Amazon has created very real value for a wide variety of customers and for shareholders.

Off the top of my head: - Amazon online shopping - AWS - Kindle e-reader - Alexa

I do not work for Amazon, but I do live in Seattle and see thousands of Amazon employees walking around SLU at lunch time. They generally appear happy. Im sure there's terrible exceptions amongst the many thousands, but I do not understand this hyperbolic condemnation in your comment.

Re: Amazon's Leadership Principles

#15

Post by OneUnitOfWork »

felixgallo wrote: post #10
candiodari wrote: post #4

1. Screw 2. Every last employee 3. Out of their last dime 4. Deny 5. Lie 6. Deny the lying 7. Work them to death 8. As soon as it takes the slightest toll on them, fire them 9. Their suppliers too 10. And may God help delivery services 11. Deny 12. Lie about that too 13. Deny lying about it, of course 14. Don't even profit from it (except personally if you're Jeff Bezos, of course, who somehow became a billionaire cr…

I work for Amazon, and my management line all the way up to Jeff is sensible, comprehensible, and human; I have good work-life balance and am able to offer that to my reports; my compensation is fair; and I would escalate immediately if I ever saw anyone abused, mistreated, or cheated. Amazon's a big company and I'm sure there's terrible managers out there and true harrowing stories. And there are problems, here and…

Having worked in AWS Data Centres in Australia and India, I'm curious to know why you think the average DC technician leaves after 9 months?

Gotta love a work-life balance that forces you to work weekends and public holidays!

The culture _IS_ the issue at Amazon - you either learn to put up with the BS metrics your managers push down your throat or you leave for somewhere that treats you like a human being.

Re: Amazon's Leadership Principles

#16

Post by faldore »

candiodari wrote: post #4

1. Screw 2. Every last employee 3. Out of their last dime 4. Deny 5. Lie 6. Deny the lying 7. Work them to death 8. As soon as it takes the slightest toll on them, fire them 9. Their suppliers too 10. And may God help delivery services 11. Deny 12. Lie about that too 13. Deny lying about it, of course 14. Don't even profit from it (except personally if you're Jeff Bezos, of course, who somehow became a billionaire cr…

This is silly. The pay is really good, we have nothing to complain about. And everyone is responsible for managing their own work life balance. If a team is pushing you too hard, find a team that you can handle. It's a big company. It can only get to you if you let it.

Re: Amazon's Leadership Principles

#17

Post by newsat13 »

6stringmerc wrote: post #12

Leaders are willing to take a 100x salary compared to their line employees because they know they can hustle hard enough to live up to the expectations. I'm very excited to see the helmet cam video of Jeff Bezos serving a customary 8-10-12-14 hour shift at the Dallas Amazon Fulfillment Center and walk out with a smile. Can you do what you ask of others? That's leadership. No, really. Principles not tested in the fire…

What video are you referring to?

Re: Amazon's Leadership Principles

#19

Post by somethingsimple »

TheGRS wrote: post #13

Do these leadership or company principles ever truly have any effect on employees or products? I've seen them thrown around at my company on a few occasions, but they never feel like they drive much beyond trying to be one of those gaudy motivational posters.

At Amazon they are like a religion. I don't know if every group is like that, but someone very close to me works there and they tell me those leadership principles are a part of daily work and are explicitly mentioned in day-to-day activities. Amazon's leadership principles are also used during performance reviews, and to evaluate candidates in interviews.

Re: Amazon's Leadership Principles

#20

Post by ktRolster »

TheGRS wrote: post #13

Do these leadership or company principles ever truly have any effect on employees or products? I've seen them thrown around at my company on a few occasions, but they never feel like they drive much beyond trying to be one of those gaudy motivational posters.

It depends on how they're implemented. At my previous company, there was a small list of principles posted on the wall, such as, "make each other better," "show integrity." I was astonished one day when I realized that I had seen several people at different levels of the company actually try to make each other better. It inspired me, personally, and made me glad to work at that company.

Famously, IBM used to have their priorities:

       1) Customers first
       2) Employees second
       3) Stock holders third
That's something that the CEO needs to take the lead on. When IBM has followed that, they have done really well (and you can see evidence of it in the dedication of Mythical Man Month)

All that said, this particular list of principles looks like so much pablum. It's too long and unfocused to be really useful, and I can't see it having much affect. My guess is that Amazon is having trouble finding people to hire lately, and that's why they keep coming up with experiments like this (another example is their foray into 4-day work weeks)

Post reply on HN