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An Amazon programmer’s perspective (2015)
131–140 of 281 posts
Re: An Amazon programmer’s perspective (2015)
#132Amazon's 401k plan is terrible when compared to competing companies. I cancelled my Amazon interview the second I saw the terms of it. I had to find the details for myself because the info packet the recruiter sent me, conveniently left out any details except that there was a 401k plan and some matching.
Only 50% match, and the maximum match they will pay is 2% of salary. (Competitors match 1:1, high or no limit).
Three years vesting on the match. (Immediate vesting elsewhere, e.g. Google).
No match on catch-up contributions. (WTF? Naked age discrimination as policy?)
Source: https://www.amazon.jobs/en/landing_pages/benefitsoverview-us
Re: An Amazon programmer’s perspective (2015)
#133Earlier quoted context omitted.
It’s worth pointing out why it needs to be “revived”: because the first iteration of the tax would have destroyed grocery stores and was protested by construction unions due to its disastrous policy. This iteration is targeting the 800 largest employers in Seattle, many of whom aren’t currently profitable. “Tax Amazon” is classic dishonesty — neither bill has been focused on Amazon, both would be a disaster for Seatt…
As someone not from Seattle, the drama around that tax was quite ridiculous. The idea of a "head tax" is utterly nonsensical in that it's an incentive to NOT hire people, which is the entire point that companies are pulled into cities. Jobs. Jobs are one of the things cities care most about more than anything. A head tax actively disincentives hiring of new workers. A head tax can maybe make sense if you have permane…
> Jobs are one of the things cities care most about more than anything.
And look where that got cities.
One school of thought is "just keep importing jobs AND add a ton of new housing" but there's a sort of capitalistic dystopian feeling to that, like that's the path to Blade Runner. Just need to start shipping out the people without high-enough paying jobs (again, actually - Europeans moving to the Americas doesn't seem that dissimilar) and we're there!
Re: An Amazon programmer’s perspective (2015)
#134Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think it depends on the size of the signing bonus. Smaller ones are paid upfront as a lump sum, larger ones are paid out over time. The latter of course is just an abuse of language by Amazon to disguise the fact that they're cutting your salary in year 3/4 in exchange for stock.
I don't think that is a fair way up putting it when they are very upfront about it and don't call it salary. On the other hand at the end of year 2 when you have gotten used to the monthly payments I guess the we told you so is it bit harder to agree with.
To be clear, I don't think they're abusing employees. I just think calling it a 'signing bonus' is a ridiculous linguistic contortion.
Re: An Amazon programmer’s perspective (2015)
#135Earlier quoted context omitted.
>How are you proposing to run a complex system that essentially powers a big chunk of the entire internet and can go down any second without on-call? hire more people?
Hire more people to do what? Be on-call? Hiring more people is a great idea for making on-call less stressful, because it allows for much sparser on-call shifts (e.g., one week every 8 months vs. one week every 2 months). But I don't see how hiring more people gets rid of on-call completely. Someone will always have to be on-call. You cannot just hire people who do on-call-only duties and nothing else, you have to be…
If the concern is about performance during business hours in China, you should have employees in China. Or hire a night shift.
Re: An Amazon programmer’s perspective (2015)
#136Earlier quoted context omitted.
> What is it about tech culture that people within it refuse to admit the level of abuse-by-design that happens at these companies? The Amazon example is extreme, but a lot of tech workers fit the stereotype of people who don't have a lot else to do. I spend 100+ hours at my computer a week, so if you want long hours, I can live with that. I am up at 1AM anyway, so if you need something done at that time, sure. I jus…
yeah no. as someone who has worked at Amazon for 7 years I can tell you that it’s not true across the board and there are good “pockets” where there is respect for people’s boundaries. To add to this, in my time there I worked during the weekend 3 times (i don’t count oncall here). My work day included 8 hours at most. I would get in at around 8AM and leave at 4PM. (optimizing the commute) I started as an SDE 2 by th…
I am sure it is not all of Amazon, but that is where the horror stories are coming from. So Amazon as a whole may not have this culture, but the teams with this culture seem to disproportionately be at Amazon.
Re: An Amazon programmer’s perspective (2015)
#137Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Amazon has forced attrition Do you know how they implement it? Is it the old Microsoft model with obligatory bell curve distribution of performance reviews?
Every org of, say, 100 people has a quota of X poor performers that they need to produce to senior management every year. Each manager of, say, 10 people rates their own reports. The managers in the org compare notes, and count up how many poor performers they have between them. If the number is below X, managers who did not downrate enough people are told to go back, and find more people to give bad ratings to. If t…
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Re: An Amazon programmer’s perspective (2015)
#138This 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…
Perhaps the first thing they should arrange is to have lunch breaks together with the low-wage work-force, i.e. in the same physical space. Or perhaps a company outing. That could result in some awareness and perhaps solidarity.
If these developers don't ever see or talk to the people who are suffering from the company strategy, then the problem may remain to appear imaginary or abstract.
Re: An Amazon programmer’s perspective (2015)
#139The on call stuff sounds outright dystopian to me, it's not even legal in my country. More places should think about adopting something akin to France's El Khomri law's ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_to_disconnect ) and ensure that every citizen has enough time to recuperate from work and isn't pestered by their employer 24/7.
What was stated seems pretty typical on small teams who manage critical systems. How are critical systems managed otherwise without having to 3x your team (assuming you want 24hr coverage with a 8hr workday)?
Then that's the cost of managing the service. The only reason companies don't pay that now is because of the significant leverage they have over software development labor. We may be better compensated than many other roles, but we're still just entirely expendable resources.
Re: An Amazon programmer’s perspective (2015)
#140The 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 tim…
My favorite example of having two bosses was as an intern. I was getting loaned out to a team that thought I was working full-time when I was really working 20 hours per week. I wasn't aware of this until I started getting super negative feedback from the manager. She basically thought I was the worst developer alive haha - then when I clarified I was a part-time intern and full-time student she totally lost it on my og manager. Of course he then was furious at me for blowing his scheme... not sure exactly how the internal budget/trading hours/money worked, but they were offloading 40 hours of full-time budget for my part-time efforts.