171–180 of 196 posts
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I don't quite understand - what is it about financial gain that makes it incompatible with principles?
Principles is something that you keep regardless if there is money on the table. If money plays any role in the decision process - it's called a contract.
Principles are foundational. How you apply them is subject to interpretation and context.
The emphasis on "customer obsession" is clearly working, since it has topped the polls for best corporate reputation two years in a row. http://www.geekwire.com/2017/amazon-tops-harris-poll-corpora... I work for Amazon, and I personally am a huge fan of the "LPs" . I consistently find myself mentally consulting them when I'm not sure what to do in a particular situation. I also think it really helps to work in an env…
Is anything in this thread for real? This post talks about a bunch of stuff that sounds like gibberish to someone not working at Amazon. The hell is an LP? More importantly, how does this possibly become the top comment? Also this user has only made 2 comments in a year? That's worse than my throwaways
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How could that be? I stopped buying from Amazon after reading about how they treat their warehouse employees. To me, Amazon just represents monopolistic corporate greed, with no aspiration of caring even just a little bit about anything else.
I spent four years writing software for those warehouse associates. Spent a lot of time inside those behemoth buildings, met a lot of good people and worked pretty much every job for at least a few hours. The thing to remember is that warehouse jobs suck everywhere. Amazon just happens to be a large employer. And overall, if I had to work in a warehouse I'd prefer to work in an Amazon one. Now, if you want to hate on…
It was also a union job with decent pay/benefits and seemingly less of a grind than the Amazon FCs.
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I was introduced to these at USMC Officer Candidate School and agree wholeheartedly; these principles are effective and I have tried to live into them (as appropriate) as I've taken on manager/director roles in my career. Amazon recently reached out to me to attend a giant recruiting event and included a link to these principles, and the "Are Right, A Lot" line item turned me off completely. There's something about s…
Those USMC principles are fine principles; they exhort leaders to care for and develop the juniors under them. In my experience, in a political corporate environment, behaving that way will hold you back. Instead of "know your marines and look out for their welfare" you should "know your manager and look out for his/her welfare" ie "manage upwards". Instead of "keep your marines informed" you should "keep your manage…
My manager there largely did what you are talking about and it did nothing good for anyone involved. It's pretty much the reason why one of the guys who worked for him as an engineer is now moving up to senior manager well my former manager is still stuck at the same place.
Acting the way you describe just leads to poor performance from your subordinates, up to them just leaving. That reflects poorly on you.
The emphasis on "customer obsession" is clearly working, since it has topped the polls for best corporate reputation two years in a row. http://www.geekwire.com/2017/amazon-tops-harris-poll-corpora... I work for Amazon, and I personally am a huge fan of the "LPs" . I consistently find myself mentally consulting them when I'm not sure what to do in a particular situation. I also think it really helps to work in an env…
How does Amazon's purported customer obsession square with its vast offering of counterfeit goods? Just off the top of my head, I can recall reading articles about counterfeit perfume, pet accessories, books, CDs, DVDs, and clothing. This is not to mention my personal experience with counterfeit electronics (blue smoke!) At this point I'm not sure there's any product category I'd trust, with the possible exception of…
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Also because dehydration and injuries are a problem in fulfillment centers, especially during high volume or high heat.
Why should dehydration be an acceptable problem ? i can understand heat and not using air-conditioning, but even soldiers in hot countries manage to stay hydrated.
I grew up in Texas. Literally everyone I knew, and absolutely everyone who did manual labor, was familiar with the dangers of the dehydration+heat combo. It still happened all the time, despite being common knowledge.
Show me a warehouse actively preventing workers from getting water and I will join the moral outrage. But "dehydration happens in a warehouse during a heatwave" is an obvious consequence, not a shocking fact.
Some of these are contradictory - in addition, some of these aren't really even leadership principles of much merit outside the company they're created for. Here is an example of a proven set of leadership principles that is a worthwhile read: http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/usmc/leadership.htm . Someone who can embody all of these principles that the Marine Corps espouses is someone I can respect immensely regar…
Thanks for the link, really interesting. I'm an anti-militarist but I've recently become a little obsessed with the idea of conflict, the use of force, and how we negotiate the force-related conflicts we have with the others. For example this: > 1.Put your Marines' welfare before your own--correct grievances and remove discontent. reminded me of an essay ("The Concept of the Political") that I've read recently, writt…
Yep, sometimes I wonder what society would look like today if the (western) Roman empire had never collapsed, and they had somehow been able to correct its fatal flaws in time. Europe basically did nothing for 1000 years.
So how much do they pay for this kind of job? And how much latitude are you given as a "leader"? Is it all talk or are they serious about this? I don't really care if I can buy a private jet but I will put in a lot of hours if that means I get to live a life never caring about money (> 200k a year). I've seen this said before in other companies ("we want leaders") but when it's time to put some resources into X or Y…
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I spent four years writing software for those warehouse associates. Spent a lot of time inside those behemoth buildings, met a lot of good people and worked pretty much every job for at least a few hours. The thing to remember is that warehouse jobs suck everywhere. Amazon just happens to be a large employer. And overall, if I had to work in a warehouse I'd prefer to work in an Amazon one. Now, if you want to hate on…
> The thing to remember is that warehouse jobs suck everywhere. Keep telling yourself that if it helps you sleep. I mean, sure, they're not the most glamorous. But what sets Amazon apart is how, as with their other operations, they've "streamlined" things, being "data-driven." By all accounts I've read, in an Amazon warehouse you're truly a number, with metrics gathered and ruthlessly analyzed. They've streamlined th…
The jobs are designed to be doable with 5 minutes of training by anyone off the street. But they offer 40-hour weeks at above-average wages for untrained labour, with set expectations that can be met. Many sites offer after-work classes for in-demand skills to help people get better jobs. They have medical staff on-site in case of injuries, water stations everywhere to help keep people hydrated, safety rules and regulations they follow very carefully.
Most warehouse jobs do not offer those things.
>there's a line of people around the block waiting to take your job the moment you slip up.
Recruiting is typically handled by outside firms, at most sites I saw. They don't want to fire people, because hiring people costs money. Even if initial training takes 5 minutes, it takes a week or more to get good at the job, which means every time they fire someone, they lose money on labour efficiency while a new person gets up to speed.
I have some criticisms of the company after my time working there- including some that, as you said, gave me trouble sleeping at night. None are related to the way warehouse associates are treated.
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How does Amazon's purported customer obsession square with its vast offering of counterfeit goods? Just off the top of my head, I can recall reading articles about counterfeit perfume, pet accessories, books, CDs, DVDs, and clothing. This is not to mention my personal experience with counterfeit electronics (blue smoke!) At this point I'm not sure there's any product category I'd trust, with the possible exception of…
If you think Amazon's not working hard on this problem, you haven't been paying attention for the last 20 years.