An Amazon programmer’s perspective (2015)
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An Amazon programmer’s perspective (2015)
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Re: An Amazon programmer’s perspective (2015)
#2It's an old gist, you should flag it as [2015]
Re: An Amazon programmer’s perspective (2015)
#3A former colleague of mine suspects that Amazon is going to eventually run out of developers to hire because of how rapidly they burn through them.
Yet to know anyone who lasted more than a year or two there. Obviously some do, but they go through an enormous number of people.
Re: An Amazon programmer’s perspective (2015)
#4This is what I don't understand. When Tbray left, he said he was doing so in solidarity with the distribution center types, but he held to the line that AWS was great. This despite nightmare stories like this one regularly bubbling up, and I've heard similar from friends.
What is it about tech culture that people within it refuse to admit the level of abuse-by-design that happens at these companies? Is it that they want to believe that they are somehow fundamentally different from the distribution and grocery store workers, and fundamentally similar to Bezos? I can't help but feel it's just this kind of false consciousness that prevents developers from _getting organized_.
Sidenote, payroll tax on Amazon in Seattle trying to get revived. It's a long and winding story. Check out taxamazon.net
Re: An Amazon programmer’s perspective (2015)
#5The loaner thing is so true - having two bosses is THE PITS! That and not sleeping.
My first job out of college I had two bosses. HORRIBLE.
This came up recently, a manager, trying to be helpful, not sure they could manage someone said why don't we both manage them. NO!
The other things - trading sleep and shutting off friends - the first will destroy your quality of life and the second you will regret for a LONG time no matter how critical the day to day was.
I'm not perfect. Setting boundries. I focus on situations in my case - what situation lead to bad results. Also - you can sometimes trade time for reduced money - which in some of these situations is a NO BRAINER. I'm trying to do that. Society really IS NOT setup to support that.
I go home even if I'm behind. I sleep next to my wife and play with my kid. Covid has made catching back up with friends harder.
I think what folks from the outside don't realize is that folks making big money+ - you put a lot of pressure ON YOURSELF. You are given lots of money, often lots of responsibility, your work impacts lots of people (internally and externally). This is even if Jeff Bezos is not your boss.
Re: An Amazon programmer’s perspective (2015)
#6This is what I don't understand. When Tbray left, he said he was doing so in solidarity with the distribution center types, but he held to the line that AWS was great. This despite nightmare stories like this one regularly bubbling up, and I've heard similar from friends. What is it about tech culture that people within it refuse to admit the level of abuse-by-design that happens at these companies? Is it that they w…
There is something about the human psyche that makes you partial to something that treats you well.
My work treats me exceptionally well. It does not treat the sales center employees as well. I find it hard to say it's a terrible place to work, because as mentioned earlier, it takes tremendous care of me, and is the reason I am able to have the life I have, the house I have, and support the family I have in the way I can.
It's ok to want to continue to be treated great, and also have them treat others better.
Re: An Amazon programmer’s perspective (2015)
#7This is what I don't understand. When Tbray left, he said he was doing so in solidarity with the distribution center types, but he held to the line that AWS was great. This despite nightmare stories like this one regularly bubbling up, and I've heard similar from friends. What is it about tech culture that people within it refuse to admit the level of abuse-by-design that happens at these companies? Is it that they w…
Payroll tax? The website should be taxamazonworkers.net
Re: An Amazon programmer’s perspective (2015)
#8> On-call wasn’t (and isn’t) too terrible for my team. At first we averaged 1 page every 2 weeks; now we’re up to about 1 a week.
Wow, I wish I had once a week. This is way better than my previous employer/role. I was on-call for months straight, and would get paged multiple times a night, every day, even at 2am, 4am. I had to carry my laptop to dinners, date nights, game nights, etc.
I got burned out and moved careers into a role that never has on-call. I don't get to code much anymore, but I've found other things to enjoy
Re: An Amazon programmer’s perspective (2015)
#9I enjoyed reading this.
'Encourage employees to be critical not just of ideas, but also of expectations.'
From my experience as a developer; I've never really been involved in the process of setting expectations. Something I find incredibly frustrating at times. It's like sure you can give your opinion but it's too late to make any difference. I think it comes back to the main point in the article about open communication.
I think open communication needs to be inclusive. However, that's rarely the case at least in terms of setting business expectations. It's only natural to want to be involved in shaping some objective or some expectation that impacts you and for which you may be one of the more qualified to discuss.
Re: An Amazon programmer’s perspective (2015)
#10This is what I don't understand. When Tbray left, he said he was doing so in solidarity with the distribution center types, but he held to the line that AWS was great. This despite nightmare stories like this one regularly bubbling up, and I've heard similar from friends. What is it about tech culture that people within it refuse to admit the level of abuse-by-design that happens at these companies? Is it that they w…
This guy didn't work in/for/on AWS:
https://www.reddit.com/r/cscareerquestions/comments/4eu909/i...
The divide between AWS employees and everyone else employed at Amazon seems to be "2007 Google employee" against "sweatshop"; they're run mostly-separately, from what I've read.
This was also four years ago; the gist is a copy of a post from 2015, by the above reddit poster.