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Public protest against Amazon

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Public protest against Amazon

#151

Post by chrisco255 »

baumy wrote: post #79

In case people don't realize, the linked site has one blog post per day going back the past ~2 weeks all about this protest. Some choice excerpts: > I am sure in the future Mr Bezos will be placed in one line with Adolf Hitler as an example of genocide. > There are 2 most difficult parts in the rally: > - to get courage to start > - to make a banner > Courage is easier. Few YouTube videos about Martin Luther King, AC…

It is interesting to see the mindset of the person who wrote this post. He's obviously been triggered by some internal politics and then he's extrapolated that all the way up and down the corporate chain of command. Amazon has 613,000 employees. I can imagine there's going to be a few bad managers in that mix.

Re: Public protest against Amazon

#152

Post by joering2 »

Abusive managers... after all the years I need to thanked them because they forced me to start my own company.

My "favorite" was a CTO that I worked for in NYC.. horrible human being with few ex wives and an eye for girls that barely turned 18. My favorite line was: "if you have family, don't work here" when I was complaining that he really didn't need me at the office on Sunday 9pm to "monitor" system I could remotely connect in case all the way from home.

He also did the same to me - everyone came at 10, he wanted me at 7. Everyone left 5pm, he wanted me to work on extra project at 7pm. Those projects never came and I was just sitting there bored. Of course I questioned his reasoning few times but he just said "you're the most important person in the company you need to be here earlier and leave the last in case". At the same time I was making the lowest salary in the corp... on time asked him about raise he told me: "remember you are on McDonald sales guy salary here.. you are not an exec".

Fun times looking back at 15 years ago when I was young and naive...

Re: Public protest against Amazon

#153

Post by gigel82 »

All that reads like the ramblings of a frustrated (probably mentally broken down), extremely self-entitled, combative individual. He needs help, but not of the legal variety... of the psychological variety. I truly hope he seeks it out and accepts it.

Re: Public protest against Amazon

#154

Post by thorwasdfasdf »

Besides H1Bs, and fresh graduates (who don't have any choice), I don't understand how Amazon can still higher Software engineers. I understand that Amazon teams are diverse, but as a candidate with any other possible option, how could anyone even consider amazon considering everything that's been written about the company already.

Re: Public protest against Amazon

#155

Post by deanCommie »

14CharUsername wrote: post #66

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 exhaustin…

Amazon Leadership principles are for all employees at the company not managers.

"Leaders are right a lot" isn't indoctrination to trust your manager implicitly because they are right. It's "Be a leader. Have good judgement. Work to improve it. As a result be right a lot"

Backbone one is also misunderstood: "Don't succumb to do the easy thing. Push back when you know when it's the right thing to do even if it's harder. BUT if you are overruled, and the group decision goes against it, don't try to fight it and undermine the decision, commit to the path."

Re: Public protest against Amazon

#156

Post by CharlesColeman »

bitL wrote: post #64
chickenfries wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

My impression of blacklists is that they're much more systematic and pervasive than that. If you're an individual contributor, I think it'd be really hard to become so infamous that your manager's manager is complaining about you to his peers during a golf game and they remember you.

Also, if you're writing your Representative about some kind of abuse or malfeasance, you could always use and assumed name (and say you're doing so to avoid retaliation).

Re: Public protest against Amazon

#157

Post by rmrfrmrf »

chrisco255 wrote: post #146
whyisthewhat wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You’re talking about an organization that built market dominance on the backbreaking labor and suffering of underpaid warehouse workers. It’s just not in the corporate DNA to care. The fish rots from the head.

I'm not familiar with this. Is there some reports on workplace injuries or something of that nature or is this hyperbole?

https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-employees-describe-pe...

https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/7xm4dy/ambulances-were-ca...

Re: Public protest against Amazon

#158

Post by Tehchops »

sdinsn wrote: post #137
Tehchops wrote: post #110

I hope this guy gets help with his issues, because they seem to extend far beyond "working at Amazon".

And it also seems to not be ' Amazon ', it seems to be his immediate manager that's the larger problem

>it seems to be his immediate manager that's the larger problem

Not discounting this, but someone that thinks comparing to Jeff Bezos to Adolf Hitler is either legitimate or merits public attribution is bringing their own issues to the table, and is likely not telling us the whole story.

Re: Public protest against Amazon

#159

Post by tivert »

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.

> No such thing. They are being paid by someone.

Having a union represent you at work is like having a lawyer represent you at court. Sure some rugged individualists choose to represent themselves pro se, but we all know how smart that is.

Re: Public protest against Amazon

#160

Post by outside1234 »

bitL wrote: post #100
borkt wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same thing happened to my wife. A newly promoted VP transferred her out of a great position she loved to work on a special project he invented to make department look innovative, under promise of a promotion once complete. Instead as soon as the project was done he hired a new manager into another newly created position above my wife, only supervising her. He proceeded to have the manager take all her responsibilitie…

Yeah, it's fun :( Sociopathy seems to be the norm these days. Anyway, nothing beats that one German bank that told all employees of a branch on Friday that on Monday they are working at a location 80 miles away and are required to be there as usually.

And what happened? My understanding of German labor laws is that, for any reasonably sized German company, there would be a workers council that would have to approve work level changes like this. Did that happen?
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