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Public protest against Amazon

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Re: Public protest against Amazon

#301

Post by driverdan »

all_blue_chucks wrote: post #252
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.

Software engineer pay at tech companies in the US tends to be $150k for junior engineers to $300k+ for senior engineers.

That's not true at all. That's bay area large companies. The rest of the country is nowhere near those numbers.

Re: Public protest against Amazon

#302

Post by dominotw »

nojvek wrote: post #241
ownagefool wrote: post #14

I had a manager that took over from a previous person when I was working remote. There were a few issues, but the one that stands out is they flew me down to London for a week, set me up in a hotel, and had me take taxis back and fourth to the office and expense food etc. After returning home, he rejected my expenses because of variance of costs of the taxis, despite me pointing out that I was using the stipulated ve…

Well amazon hires a ton of H1Bs. When they let go, they have to go to back to their country unless they can find another company to sponsor their H1B. So people go to extreme lengths and managers can get away with anything. I’m super grateful for Microsoft to help me with my green card. However my life there was miserable and my manager frequently asked us to work weekends. Pagerduty was hell and I once came home at…

Yea you can feel this when you work on a team mostly of H1B. Most of them don't speak up and just say yes to whatever project management gives them. Ofcourse upper management loves this, they take all the credit and become the face of the project and if it fails they simply blame it on h1b/contractors ect.

I've seen this many many times in all company sizes over last 15 yrs. I would steer clear of teams where most ppl are h1b indians.

Re: Public protest against Amazon

#303

Post by minkzilla »

all_blue_chucks wrote: post #296
not_kurt_godel wrote: post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Both of those numbers are possible, but much higher than average by my estimation. Glassdoor says average ~$111k for software engineering as a whole[0]. A more realistic expectation for a 'good' compensation package would be ~$80-95k for junior engineer and ~$180-250k for senior. Obviously there are many factors to account for, and both those numbers can vary widely, but the ones you gave are not what one should be e…

Glass door either only shows base salaries or is completely out of touch with tech companies. Sure, the lone "web developer" at a small nonprofit might make $80k, but at a FAANG? Please.

FAANG is 5 companies. Granted they have a lot of employees, but they do not make up a significant portion of all developers in the US.

Re: Public protest against Amazon

#304

Post by r00fus »

freddie_mercury wrote: post #255
flatline wrote: post #124

Welcome to life in practically any large US corporation. Most employees will never complain to HR, they may need some routine services that HR provides and that’s the extent of their interaction. But there are a few who do complain. If these are peer-related complaints, HR will work with the employees managers to resolve the issue. But let’s say someone has a problem with their manager. Maybe no one else has complain…

> Welcome to life in practically any large US corporation This is a common refrain, especially on HN. But it is a bit misplaced: Small companies are just as bad and often worse. All you have to do is look around at the average small company where nepotism is the default (doesn't matter how good you are, the owner's son will be the next CEO) and where many owners see staff as personal servants. Some of the things I've…

> They always fall back on -- well, I've succeeded so far doing it my way.

Put more simply: "My way or the highway".

I wonder if there are probing questions you can subtly ask to ferret out these kinds of managers/workplaces so you can avoid during interviews or early on the job?

Re: Public protest against Amazon

#305

Post by krinchan »

thegayngler wrote: post #116
ardit33 wrote: post #78

Former Amazon employee here (worked at Lab126, on the original Kindle devices). While I didn't have a bad manager there (my managers were actually nice people), it is Amazon's corporate culture that turns the place into a 'dog eat dog', arse-hole driven, development. Managers have to run around and cover their arse, as in the first or second misstep, they are out. This pressure filters down to employees who are often…

Everyone I've ever known in real life to actually work there (it is more than just a couple of people) has told me that its not a place a person should want to work. I've never heard of literally everyone I know who works for a company has nothing good to say about it at all....especially from other engineers. So I always ignore the recruiters when they send me linked in messages and emails.

Same. I try to keep in mind that anecdotes do not evidence make. However, when my sample size is in the high thirties and I still do not have one positive opinion, something smells.

There is long standing evidence that Amazon actively manipulates social media to try to paint working in the warehouses as a great job.

HN tends to have an outsized representation of prospective H1B candidates.

Added up, it's really hard to take any of the positive comments from "Amazon Employees" seriously in this post.

Re: Public protest against Amazon

#306

Post by sixdimensional »

This sounds like retaliation. I am not a lawyer, don't know the details, and this is not a pleasant process to go through, but it may be illegal in your state. For example, here are some of the laws in California[1].

[1] https://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/HowToFileLinkCodeSections.htm

Re: Public protest against Amazon

#307

Post by Mirioron »

setquk wrote: post #181
ownagefool wrote: post #14

I had a manager that took over from a previous person when I was working remote. There were a few issues, but the one that stands out is they flew me down to London for a week, set me up in a hotel, and had me take taxis back and fourth to the office and expense food etc. After returning home, he rejected my expenses because of variance of costs of the taxis, despite me pointing out that I was using the stipulated ve…

I worked for a similarly horrible person many years ago. I was doing on call support for a bunch of Linux machines. Literally it was him and me left because the moment I started the other two engineers bailed. One went to work packing salad because it was a better job (big warning!) and the other one had a breakdown. So didn't get paid properly, argued mileage down to the mile, the clients and him constantly gave me…

Couldn't you have taken him to small claims court?

Re: Public protest against Amazon

#308

Post by selectodude »

elliekelly wrote: post #269
avinium wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Is this standard in the software world? This is standard in every world. Corporate credit cards are usually reserved for senior executives or people who travel/entertain a lot (e.g. sales reps). Cash advances aren't a thing outside of small companies.

I had an AmEx @ Deloitte as an intern

I had one at Bank of America as an intern, too. Booked first class transcon tickets on it, no less.

Re: Public protest against Amazon

#309

Post by anonymousblip »

avinium wrote: post #173
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.

> Is this standard in the software world? This is standard in every world. Corporate credit cards are usually reserved for senior executives or people who travel/entertain a lot (e.g. sales reps). Cash advances aren't a thing outside of small companies.

I work for a small (<20 employees) software company. Every single employee has a company AmEx card they can use for any expense.

Re: Public protest against Amazon

#310

Post by lukeschlather »

TheSpiceIsLife wrote: post #99
ownagefool wrote: post #14

I had a manager that took over from a previous person when I was working remote. There were a few issues, but the one that stands out is they flew me down to London for a week, set me up in a hotel, and had me take taxis back and fourth to the office and expense food etc. After returning home, he rejected my expenses because of variance of costs of the taxis, despite me pointing out that I was using the stipulated ve…

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.

Are you actually paying cash? Assuming you're using a credit card, and assuming your company isn't looking to defraud you, using a card with decent cash back makes it a nonissue and "fronting the cash" for expenses is just a way for you to get a kickback from your credit card company for using them as a payment processor for work expenses. (And kind of a net positive relative to if you had a company credit card where the company claims any kickbacks.)
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