141–147 of 147 posts
Hindsight is 20/20, but how do you spot for “it was very cool” and “could be a big deal”? I often hear these used as justification to build something, but the projects often go nowhere..
This myth that Amazon is customer obsessed like what part of Amazon are you looking at?
I have principles-fatigue after going through a number of companies that promise to abide by certain good sounding principles only to backtrack at the slightest pushback. I would actually trust a company more if it had no defined principles. Perhaps just honesty and transparency.
I know from painful experience that it's easier to forgive someone who has never promised you they have them than someone who has and then backpedals.
Even allowing for the fact that most such statements are aspirational more than descriptive, there are degrees where it transitions from not reaching your goals to straight up betrayal.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The Leadership Principles are less "principles" and more "operational guidelines". Aside from maybe "Strive to be Earth’s Best Employer" (which is a recent addition) they're not saying what Amazon wants to achieve; they're recommendations for effective ways to get things done.
"Strive to be Earth's Best Employer" coming from Amazon leadership is maybe best understood as a joke. Amazon is a meat grinder, even more so since the big tech layoffs started. (This kind of comment always elicits current Amazon engineers who disagree because they haven't personally experienced this. To them, I say: Stay at Amazon long enough and it /will/ happen to you. To those currently in the grinder: I hit the…
I worked a short contract there and I've seen the 'meatgrinder' bit. I joked (not really joking) with my fellow contractors that maybe the reason they walk four abreast is shell-shock, not arrogance. A couple days a week we went to lunch in a daze.
It's clear there's not enough quality control in their 'culture', by almost an order of magnitude. I've known two different people who quit after less than 2 weeks. One after being called on Sunday asking why he wasn't at work. On his second fucking week at the company.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
If they are just recommendations, perhaps Amazon shouldn't require them in their recruitment and performance review processes :)
> perhaps Amazon shouldn't require them in their recruitment and performance review processes They are selecting for people who will "play the game" or, even better, will believe proactively. No one with a lick of sense would believe that Amazon strive to be the best employer in the world. But someone who is capable of doing, for e.g., a highly skilled coding job and who believes that Amazon actually strives to be th…
The amount of blood I'll bleed for a team I've been gelling with for two years is a lot. The amount I'm going to bleed for some jackass I just met who wants me to lick his boots for a job is approximately zero.
I hated frat boys in college for the frat culture. I didn't expect to find it in dev culture as an adult. They're called Frat BOYS for a reason. Fuck hazing.
Now, when the CEO says "Disagree and Commit" to the entire company for (returning to office 5 days week or quit), the meaning of the principle is entirely different.
The principles are not used in practice as they meant to me. They are inherently ambiguous and in practice, are used as tools for performance management usually by dirty or opportunistic managers.
The "leaders are owners" bit is a great idea from the shareholders' perspective, but a bit of a raw deal for the employees. That is, every owner wants the employees to act as if he has as much skin in the game as an owner does. But the employees simply do not. They might have some equity, but at Amazon it would only be the tiniest sliver. If you can convince such employees to act as if they are owners, then good for…