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Public protest against Amazon

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Re: Public protest against Amazon

#161

Post by graphememes »

joering2 wrote: post #152

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 remote…

>you are the most important person in the company >you are not an exec

I'd have come back with

>yeah but I'm the most important person here so either my time changes or money

Re: Public protest against Amazon

#162

Post by mindfulplay »

Sorry to be pedantic as this is often incorrect: King county was NOT named after MLK Jr, but rather changed recently from referring to Rufus King to MLK Jr. I had mistakenly believed this too before I learnt about our history.

But Washington State is indeed named after George Washington.

Re: Public protest against Amazon

#163

Post by halbritt »

rdtsc wrote: post #145
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…

> My recommendation is to NEVER leave negative feedback on an employee survey. Even better, game the system and give them glowing reviews. For example I had noticed the feedback "anonymous" surveys they were sending had a location field as in employee's country, city, town, etc. Well, in a distributed team it's pretty clear who is who based on that location. So I just gave them glowing and happy reviews. Same when le…

So much, this.

Re: Public protest against Amazon

#164

Post by madrox »

Disclaimer: I currently work at Amazon as an SDM (I do not speak for the company). I've also worked a lot of other places. In my experience, bad managers can happen anywhere.

I'm not going to take sides since all we have is a story told by an ex-employee who has every reason to be spiteful toward his former employer. The other side of this story is one we'll likely never hear.

I do want to comment on the visa aspect of this (sounds like he's on an EB3). I have worked with and managed visa-holding engineers who've been passed over for promotions or otherwise discriminated against because of their visa status (not at Amazon). Certain kinds of promotions can run the risk of a visa holder getting their visa rejected. Many things a company might do to improve the circumstances of a regular employee runs the risk of triggering a visa re-evaluation. More often than not the company will play it safe so the employee doesn't run the risk of getting deported. That can involve denying them promotions or "unofficially" giving it to them (all the responsibility but no title). It's systemic discrimination, and the worst part is it has the "best interests" of the visa holder at heart.

Personally, I tried to counter this kind of discrimination by making the employee aware of the situation and the risk, then asking what they would like me to do. Usually, though, my influence is limited and I get blocked by HR and legal.

If this story didn't happen to a visa holder, it would be a simple story of "just go somewhere else," but I can understand how helpless these people must feel.

Re: Public protest against Amazon

#166

Post by rmrfrmrf »

plainOldText wrote: post #114
ams6110 wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Speaking of payments: I was actually amazed to find out how much certain union leaders make. Some of them are in the top 1%, with yearly salaries of over $400,000. [1] [1] https://laborpains.org/2018/06/04/union-president-pay-watch-...

...which is pennies compared to tech CEO salaries.

Re: Public protest against Amazon

#167

Post by jcrites »

org3432 wrote: post #12

This kind of retribution is pretty normal from the companies I've worked it, it's clumsy that it ended up in writing here and a bit more vicious than usual with a child involved. Normally it's done offline in private conversations or simply as something that's understood between like minded managers with passing comments. One manager I had was pretty candid about it, he said he couldn't find another job and was looki…

> One manager I had was pretty candid about it, he said he couldn't find another job and was looking to retire so he was going to give me a bad performance review despite actually being the top performer so he wouldn't be affected.

How would he be affected by giving you a well-deserved good performance review? I don't understand.

Re: Public protest against Amazon

#168

Post by bsenftner »

alistairSH wrote: post #132
TheSpiceIsLife wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was recently offered a job by a software company, work from home, paid monthly. I presently work in metal fabrication. Not only was their offer $30,000 below my current income, their deal was I front cash for expenses and submit claims monthly. Is this standard in the software world? Because from my perspective there’s only one possible answer to paying expenses out of pocket and having to claim them back: No.

My employer issues corporate Visas to any employee expected to incur >$500/year in expenses. Which means most of us have cards, at least in the US. We still have to complete expense reports, but we don’t pay anything out of pocket.

Sony Computer Entertainment does this, but then they don't pay back for 6-9 months, forcing your personal credit to be their credit cushion. One of the reasons I quit.

Re: Public protest against Amazon

#169

Post by halbritt »

morley wrote: post #57
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 #1: I realize this is the safest option for your own self-preservation, if you don't give negative feedback, how do you expect your work environment to change? The way I see it, if you're in a bad situation at work, you have two options: try to change it, or leave. If you're going to leave anyway, why not at least try to improve your situation first so you give yourself the best chance of success? And that way, th…

Pro-tip: never expect your work environment to change. The chances of a report overcoming the whims of a shitty manager are very, very small especially in the context of a company that tolerates the shitty manager in the first place.

Generally speaking, the best thing to do is to smile, appear to do reasonably decent work, and begin looking elsewhere.

Re: Public protest against Amazon

#170

Post by mrhappyunhappy »

Someone talented enough to work at Amazon has the option of going out on their own. This was the best decision I’ve made and now I have all the time in the world to spend with my child. There was an excellent post on how to be a consultant and charge good rates. It doesn’t matter where you live or your accent if you do it right. Sucks for the poster to be treated the way he was, these companies need to be held accountable for human suffering on all levels but at the same time it’s hard to sympathize when the company is that large and the chance that the CEO can control what one asshole supervisor does is tiny. Bezos probably has no clue about this or has few reasons to care. He rightfully stated that he is making others rich, hence all the more reasons not to keep doing it at other places. Russia is a beautiful country where highly paid developers can live comfortably. I’m not saying he shouldn’t live where he wants (US) but there are means of doing well outside of working for behemoths like Amazon, google or Facebook.
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