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Who’s in charge at Amazon? Moves on secretive S Team signal giant’s priorities

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Re: Who’s in charge at Amazon? Moves on secretive S Team signal giant’s priorities

#101

Post by mantap »

Pfhreak wrote: post #24
lowiqengineer wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People sometimes do, they just don't publicize it. It's specifically noted in the intellectual property agreement, though nobody seems to be sure why.

Search inside for the 'Game Development Policy', it's separate from the intellectual property commitment. Reasoning is likely from Amazon Games Studios? I think there may be a concern that someone at Amazon might make the next flappy bird or Minecraft and Amazon couldn't capitalize on it.

If it's in your own free time on your own hardware why would Amazon be able to capitalize on it? Employees are not slaves.

Re: Who’s in charge at Amazon? Moves on secretive S Team signal giant’s priorities

#102

Post by testvox »

cjrp wrote: post #97
poutrathor wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see some. Top of my head : Games development are limitless in scope and technical complexity and very passion driven. So, a developer could spend countless hours each night improving his game. Next day, all the team has is a tired developer, drinking coffee and unable to code straight or analyse issues without missing subtleties. Opening a wordpress for your mom and her gardening hobby is a significantly less time…

If they're trying to avoid people coming to work tired, presumably they also have a no-children policy for their staff?

I'm sure they would if it wasn't against the law.

Re: Who’s in charge at Amazon? Moves on secretive S Team signal giant’s priorities

#103

Post by tinalumfoil »

cjrp wrote: post #97
poutrathor wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see some. Top of my head : Games development are limitless in scope and technical complexity and very passion driven. So, a developer could spend countless hours each night improving his game. Next day, all the team has is a tired developer, drinking coffee and unable to code straight or analyse issues without missing subtleties. Opening a wordpress for your mom and her gardening hobby is a significantly less time…

If they're trying to avoid people coming to work tired, presumably they also have a no-children policy for their staff?

That generally wouldn't be legal.

Re: Who’s in charge at Amazon? Moves on secretive S Team signal giant’s priorities

#104

Post by paganel »

dextralt wrote: post #100
paganel wrote: post #99

Yeah, real diversity when it comes to Amazon's C-suites, no black person in sight and the only 3 women in that S-team are in charge of HR, fashion and advertising. Granted, that's a step up from having to take notes in a room full of men, but still, I would have expected something better.

Are you: - suggesting that Amazon is passing over better qualified minorities in favor of less qualified white men? - bemoaning that Amazon is passing over less qualified minorities in favor of better qualified white men? I mean, I already know the answer, as does everyone else who is paying any attention to the shift in the narrative, but I just want you to remind everyone else that meritocracy is fascism and people…

I'm just stating the fact that the current societal status quo is such that no black person is part of the executive-team of one of the first biggest three companies in the world and that the women that are part of said team have been put in positions that have been usually associated with women, the positions usually associated with men are occupied only by, well, men.

I personally believe that all men and women are created equal, no matter their skin color, and when a society is "built" in such a way that only white men get to put their hands on the positions that "matter" then it means that no way in hell that society is meritocratic. Believing otherwise is believing that there are intrinsic differences between men and women, and more generally speaking between people of different skin colors. We both know that is not the case. Which leaves us with why do only white men get to "profit" from the current status-quo?

Re: Who’s in charge at Amazon? Moves on secretive S Team signal giant’s priorities

#105

Post by testvox »

mantap wrote: post #101
Pfhreak wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Search inside for the 'Game Development Policy', it's separate from the intellectual property commitment. Reasoning is likely from Amazon Games Studios? I think there may be a concern that someone at Amazon might make the next flappy bird or Minecraft and Amazon couldn't capitalize on it.

If it's in your own free time on your own hardware why would Amazon be able to capitalize on it? Employees are not slaves.

Salaried employees don't have free time.

Re: Who’s in charge at Amazon? Moves on secretive S Team signal giant’s priorities

#106

Post by whoevercares »

whateveracct wrote: post #52
whoevercares wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The length of tenure by level would make more sense. Senior and Principal SDEs (L6&7) in Amazon are like semi and full god, while lower level ICs are design to “hire fast, fail fast”

I think you gave it backwards. Or at least it goes both ways. Long tenure naturally results in becoming L6 if you have a boss who develops you and aims to get you there (+ understands how to work in the review/promotion system and check the boxes.) Maybe I misinterpreted, but it sounds like you deify L6 engineers as "better" and that's why they remain. I don't think that's exactly it lol. Also..people leaving in 2 ye…

For L6+ my point is more they remain because of the amount of authority/resources given and better fitness of the culture. Also I think there are many people stuck in L5 with 5+ years of tenure.

That’s a good point that some people leave by plan. On the other hands there are tons of L4/5s get into “PIP” within a year or less and generally we know Amazon holds a lower bar at interviewing, that’s why I think it “fail fast”

Re: Who’s in charge at Amazon? Moves on secretive S Team signal giant’s priorities

#107

Post by astura »

tasogare wrote: post #68
Pfhreak wrote: post #2

One of the things I really liked about working for AWS was the accessibility of the S-team. Even as a fairly junior engineer I was in meetings where you could get their opinions, see where they were going, and understand their goals. AWS has a lot of things I don't love (not least of all, their policy towards developing games in your spare time), but they had a ton of rigor around setting goals while still giving dev…

> I was oncall 24/7 for months in the worst times and received no extra comp How is that even legally possible?

Some employees are exempt from the FLSA.

https://www.deputy.com/us/glossary/what-does-it-mean-to-be-e...

Re: Who’s in charge at Amazon? Moves on secretive S Team signal giant’s priorities

#108

Post by mantap »

testvox wrote: post #105
mantap wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it's in your own free time on your own hardware why would Amazon be able to capitalize on it? Employees are not slaves.

Salaried employees don't have free time.

I'm going to assume this is sarcasm.

Re: Who’s in charge at Amazon? Moves on secretive S Team signal giant’s priorities

#109

Post by dextralt »

paganel wrote: post #104
dextralt wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you: - suggesting that Amazon is passing over better qualified minorities in favor of less qualified white men? - bemoaning that Amazon is passing over less qualified minorities in favor of better qualified white men? I mean, I already know the answer, as does everyone else who is paying any attention to the shift in the narrative, but I just want you to remind everyone else that meritocracy is fascism and people…

I'm just stating the fact that the current societal status quo is such that no black person is part of the executive-team of one of the first biggest three companies in the world and that the women that are part of said team have been put in positions that have been usually associated with women, the positions usually associated with men are occupied only by, well, men. I personally believe that all men and women are…

I suppose you have similar concerns about men occupying the overwhelming majority of physically taxing and hazardous jobs, correct? Obviously, we both know there are no intrinsic differences between men and women, so this is a great injustice that women's representation among miners, construction workers, metalworkers, truckers, heavy machinery operators, fishermen, foresters, waster disposal workers, and so on, is virtually nonexistent.

And of course you find it outrageous that in the entirety of Asia, Africa and Middle East, white people constitute nonexistent percentage of the population, and there are virtually no white men in the positions of power there.

Right?

Re: Who’s in charge at Amazon? Moves on secretive S Team signal giant’s priorities

#110

Post by alistairSH »

chrisseaton wrote: post #75
tasogare wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I was oncall 24/7 for months in the worst times and received no extra comp How is that even legally possible?

If you're paid a significantly large salary then you are 'exempt' overtime and they can ask you to be available at any time. The expectation is that you're being paid as a professional to achieve something, not to clock-in and clock-out. If you want to work hours only with formal overtime you can get a job that's paid less and paid hourly so that you are eligible for overtime, or you can ask for extra compensation an…

If you're paid a significantly large salary then you are 'exempt'

Exempt status has little to do with salary (minimum salary for an exempt employee is $35,568). In general, the only requirements are... salaried (vs hourly), and perform any of executive, administrative, or professional duties. So, darn near everybody on a salary gets lumped into the exempt category.

More details here... https://www.thebalancecareers.com/exempt-and-a-non-exempt-em...

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