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Amazon Worker Jumps Off Company Building After E-Mail to Staff

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Re: Amazon Worker Jumps Off Company Building After E-Mail to Staff

#161

Post by sah2ed »

infinitone wrote: post #81
SuperPaintMan wrote: post #15

>The man survived the fall from Amazon’s 12-story Apollo building at about 8:45 a.m. local time Monday and was taken to a Seattle hospital, police said. Aside: That is a testament to the resilience of a body. The physics behind that fall would be astounding to analyze! I come from a long line of suicidal people we're not jumpers, but swingers.

I've survived a 4 story building fall when i was 3. Came out with no scratches or broken bones.

You actually knew that you survived the fall at age 3 or someone much older told you the story of how you survived a 4-storey fall when you were much older?

Re: Amazon Worker Jumps Off Company Building After E-Mail to Staff

#162

Post by chris_wot »

rifung wrote: post #145
u489utaa wrote: post #19

Amazon screws employees in ways unseen in other companies. From the perspective of an engineer, this is a terrible place for people to work and grow. To list a few things: - Equity vesting schedule is 5%, 15%, 40%, 40% over 4 years - Relocation package is prorated for TWO years. If you leave after staying for a full year, you still need to return 50% of it. - 401K matching only vests after working for 3 years. If you…

> They don't even know how to write bash scripts Is this weird? I only know of one or two coworkers who knows how to write bash scripts.. Despite almost knowing no bash, I was hired as an SDE1 at Amazon so your story adds up though!

It's super weird that anyone exposed to a Unix system can't write a bash script!

Re: Amazon Worker Jumps Off Company Building After E-Mail to Staff

#163

Post by Kiro »

u489utaa wrote: post #19

Amazon screws employees in ways unseen in other companies. From the perspective of an engineer, this is a terrible place for people to work and grow. To list a few things: - Equity vesting schedule is 5%, 15%, 40%, 40% over 4 years - Relocation package is prorated for TWO years. If you leave after staying for a full year, you still need to return 50% of it. - 401K matching only vests after working for 3 years. If you…

Seriously, from your initial sentence I was expecting something way worse. Those problems seem very trivial to me compared to most normal jobs where you don't get offered anything at all, ever. Not to mention the many jobs where you get abused for real.

Re: Amazon Worker Jumps Off Company Building After E-Mail to Staff

#164

Post by icu »

dilemma wrote: post #31
Spooky23 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Managers are cogs too. The way to work that kind of system is to identify and exploit the fears of the boss or his boss. I've seen this happen with employees under the thumb of micromanaging PMs in particular. They start spreading rumors, then undermine PM. My solution is to eliminate micro managers asap.

Interesting, never heard about this dynamic before. How does spreading rumors help them get out of being micromanaged? (sincere question)

The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene is a must read for understanding this dynamic and others. In the case of spreading rumors the 39th of 48 'Laws of Power' applies:

Stir up waters to catch fish

Anger and emotion are strategically counterproductive. You must always stay calm and objective. But if you can make your enemies angry while staying calm yourself, you gain a decided advantage. Put your enemies off-balance, find the chink in their vanity through which you can rattle them and you hold the strings.

Re: Amazon Worker Jumps Off Company Building After E-Mail to Staff

#165

Post by dagw »

chris_wot wrote: post #162
rifung wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They don't even know how to write bash scripts Is this weird? I only know of one or two coworkers who knows how to write bash scripts.. Despite almost knowing no bash, I was hired as an SDE1 at Amazon so your story adds up though!

It's super weird that anyone exposed to a Unix system can't write a bash script!

Why? Do you think it weird that most Windows user couldn't write a .bat script? I've worked support at a large university that used Unix as its main desktop OS for staff and students in most departments. I'd bet that most people there couldn't write bash script. 90+% of peoples interaction with the OS was click browser icon, click e-mail icon, click text editor icon and click icon/type in name at command prompt of whatever programs they needed to get work done. Writing bash scripts is simply not something that ever came up for the vast majority of users.

Re: Amazon Worker Jumps Off Company Building After E-Mail to Staff

#166

Post by ex_amazon_sde »

kafkaesq wrote: post #2

The man had recently put in a request to transfer to a different department, but was placed on an employee improvement plan, a step that can lead to termination if performance isn’t improved, said the person, who asked not to be identified discussing company personnel matters. PIPs are bullshit, and fundamentally degrading. Just tell people "Maybe it's your fault, maybe it's our fault - but either way, it's not worki…

Ex Amazon here. PIP are used to covertly apply stack ranking. A lot of managers seem to always have at least one employee in PIP in their team.

Re: Amazon Worker Jumps Off Company Building After E-Mail to Staff

#167

Post by ekianjo »

IndianAstronaut wrote: post #90
Spooky23 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Managers are cogs too. The way to work that kind of system is to identify and exploit the fears of the boss or his boss. I've seen this happen with employees under the thumb of micromanaging PMs in particular. They start spreading rumors, then undermine PM. My solution is to eliminate micro managers asap.

I work under a micromanaging boss (who doubles as a PM). It is stifling. I can't function, get much done, move projects forward, etc. It's horrendous.

Been in that situation before, I can relate in how horrendous it feels. I hope you can find a way out.

Re: Amazon Worker Jumps Off Company Building After E-Mail to Staff

#168

Post by ekianjo »

theparanoid wrote: post #98
manish_gill wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is tuition reimbursement a thing at companies? That would be pretty awesome. TIL

Almost all, I'd never heard of a tech company not do it.

The parent said "companies" not necessarily "tech companies".

Re: Amazon Worker Jumps Off Company Building After E-Mail to Staff

#169

Post by ridiculous_fish »

jonathankoren wrote: post #85
SomeCallMeTim wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I only stayed at Amazon for one year, but I was told that if I'd stayed for two years they would have offered me more equity. So yes, there are refresh equity grants. I've heard from a good source that they do that at Apple as well.

I've heard Apple's equity grants are stupid though. Instead of the standard grant-value / share-price-at-hire = number of shares, and then then vesting the number of shares over 4 years, Apple vests the grant-value over 4 years and then converts to stock using the share price at the time of vesting. This of course results in lower compensation over the vesting schedule assuming an appreciating stock price.

FWIW, during my time at Apple, equity grants worked in the usual way of converting completely to a share count on the grant date. I never saw the grant-value vesting that you describe.

Re: Amazon Worker Jumps Off Company Building After E-Mail to Staff

#170

Post by dagw »

theparanoid wrote: post #98
manish_gill wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is tuition reimbursement a thing at companies? That would be pretty awesome. TIL

Almost all, I'd never heard of a tech company not do it.

As in university tuition? Or as in sometimes they decide to send you on a course and pay for it?
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