Public protest against Amazon • Hacker News Board

Re: Public protest against Amazon

#61

Post by Scramblejams » Tue, Feb 19, 2019, 10:29 PM UTC

Amazon employee here, though I do not speak for the company.

At any big company, your management chain is the #1 influence on the quality of your culture. My experience at Amazon has been extremely positive, but then my org head is a great guy, so it's all been in line with my expectations. I've also left critical feedback through the Amazon Connect survey for my immediate manager and not suffered for it. That manager, as far as I can tell, made no effort to deanonymize the feedback, and addressed the issue fairly in a team meeting.

So, YMMV, but I would certainly encourage skilled devs, artists and designers to come help us make great games. :-)

Re: Public protest against Amazon

#62

Post by james_s_tayler » Tue, Feb 19, 2019, 10:29 PM UTC

bitL wrote: post #23

It's funny how you often notice bullies getting promoted - is destruction of a low-level person a rite of passage for a middle manager to get ahead at many US corporations these days? I can imagine if they select for some dark-triad characteristics and going all-in, demonstrating cold/calculating/cruel moves while keeping paperwork clean signalizes the right person?

In a way I can see how that might be the case.

It does somewhat establish a baseline capability of being able to put people through emotionally not nice things.

I suppose that any manager whether they are malignant or they are really just ordinary, well intentioned people have to at some point not of their own volition do exactly that because of legitimate business reasons outside of their control. So when push comes to shove if they can prove they are capable of handling those responsibilities then I guess that sends a useful signal???

Abusing it out of some childish sense of revenge is just unfortunate beyond belief.

Re: Public protest against Amazon

#63

Post by TallGuyShort » Tue, Feb 19, 2019, 10:30 PM UTC

Consultant32452 wrote: post #33

My recommendation is to NEVER leave negative feedback on an employee survey. The BEST outcome I've seen from them is incredibly painful meetings that only seem to make the matter worse. My speculation on this is two fold. The first is that putting things in those surveys is a "permanent record" or at least "yearly review" issue for your manager. So you are (justly or not) harming them, and they will tend to respond t…

This guy I know, we can call him Jim, left a large tech company and was honest in his exit interview about why he was leaving, and it was mostly his manager. He was later asked to apply for a job with a different team after his manager left the company years (and promotions) later. HR blocked the hire because he was "disgruntled" in his exit interview. As far as I know, they did nothing to recognize or fix the problem. But they held it against him because his feedback was negative. Unfortunately, a company that views employees as the enemy will find it a self-fulfilling prophecy. They kill the incentive to try help fix problems, and create a situation where you like it or you leave.

Re: Public protest against Amazon

#64

Post by bitL » Tue, Feb 19, 2019, 10:30 PM UTC

chickenfries wrote: post #45

bitL wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Spot on an industry-wide blacklist is yours!

I’ve always heard of blacklists but I seriously doubt their existence. Who would trust such a thing? It also sounds illegal as shit so I assume you can’t do this for profit.

It's like when you get MBA - you get a free network with it. Now you are inclined to trust your MBA circle due to shared history. Imagine the same with companies; there is a limited number of spots at the top, most people know each other or heard of each other, share common interests, club memberships etc. They are inclined to trust their own, insiders, or see benefit in it, than some random outsiders, i.e. in-group preference and benevolence. Then when an outsider is "put on a blacklist", i.e. some insider holds a bad opinion of an outsider, the whole group might be affected.

Re: Public protest against Amazon

#65

Post by wvenable » Tue, Feb 19, 2019, 10:31 PM UTC

ams6110 wrote: post #56

femiagbabiaka wrote: post #29

Workers need unions, plain and simple. The addition of an impartial arbitrator at any step along this process could’ve helped so much.

"impartial arbitrator" No such thing. They are being paid by someone.

Right. So it's good to have someone on your side.

Re: Public protest against Amazon

#66

Post by 14CharUsername » Tue, Feb 19, 2019, 10:32 PM UTC

Amazon's leadership principles may have a lot to do with this.

These must be memorized for any manager at Amazon and are part of the interview process.

http://whartonmagazine.com/blogs/learn-from-amazons-leadersh...

Choice quotes.

"Leaders are right a lot."

"Have Backbone; Disagree and Commit Leaders are obligated to respectfully challenge decisions when they disagree, even when doing so is uncomfortable or exhausting. Leaders have conviction and are tenacious. They do not compromise for the sake of social cohesion. Once a decision is determined, they commit wholly."

Re: Public protest against Amazon

#67

Post by whoisjuan » Tue, Feb 19, 2019, 10:34 PM UTC

t1o5 wrote: post #37

forgotmypw3 wrote: post #13

I want to preface this comment with a statement that in no way am I trying to blame the victim here, only to point out what can be learned from this situation. This is certainly not the first time I've heard of Amazon being a shitty place to work at, and I don't see much reason to doubt the story of a vindictive boss doing everything they can to make an employee miserable after learning that the employee submitted ba…

Re: Number 2: This is a common pattern in all big American companies. Hire an H1B, make the employee an indentured slave forever. H1B employées born in India and China have to wait 10+ years for a green card to break free from indentured servitude. While you can switch jobs on an H1B, it's risky and if it screws up, your queue position gets reset. Canada too have similar system called LMIA based Temporary closed work…

This is true, I left my previous company because they said I had to wait 1 year to apply for my green card. According to the HR lady this was the policy (there was no policy) and it was always better from an immigration point of view to wait more. Of course this is all bullshit. This was just a dirty strategy to keep people one extra year.

Re: Public protest against Amazon

#68

Post by dpcan » Tue, Feb 19, 2019, 10:34 PM UTC

This may seem mean, and feel free to argue with me and prove my statement below wrong.

Well, which was it? Was he taking his daughter to therapy or working from home? If his daughter requires additional care, he needs to care for his daughter, but that can't interfere with work. If your kids are not disabled, they may not be interfering with your work, and therefore, when you are working from home - you are, in fact, "working" from home.

Why is this person entitled to being paid to "work at home" when he's not actually "working" while at home, he's actually caring for his daughter?

People are confused. Working from home still means "working". It doesn't mean, be at home and do what I want but get paid, or not work as hard.

Maybe he thinks it should mean: I'll get the work done on my own time. But, if the work needs to be done that day, he still needs to be WORKING from home - and not doing something else.

Re: Public protest against Amazon

#69

Post by alecco » Tue, Feb 19, 2019, 10:34 PM UTC

femiagbabiaka wrote: post #29

Workers need unions, plain and simple. The addition of an impartial arbitrator at any step along this process could’ve helped so much.

I used to believe that. But I saw very close how an IT union was taken over by old school, corrupt fat union guys. And they just pander to the lowest common denominator. They go against meritocracy.

I'd rather pay attention and vote with my feet.

Re: Public protest against Amazon

#70

Post by skookumchuck » Tue, Feb 19, 2019, 10:37 PM UTC

SolaceQuantum wrote: post #2

" I left a negative feedback about my manager Uwais Khan in the daily “Amazon Connect” survey. Amazon Connect team sent to me the report showing how my manager can calculate my answer. At our 1:1 meeting, Khan prohibited me to leave feedback in the system. Since then oppression started. Khan asked me to work on weekends. Then he asked HR how to prevent me from immigration benefits (not informing me about that)." "My…

> Holy crap is all I can say, honestly.

It sounds bad, but I'd reserve judgement until I heard the other side. There's always the other side, and I for one am tired of the recent rushes to judgement we see in the media recently.