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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

#181

Post by joshstrange »

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…

I don't work in SV so maybe my comment doesn't matter but most of these things seem pretty trivial....

> - Equity vesting schedule is 5%, 15%, 40%, 40% over 4 years

I haven no equity in my company or opportunity to get any.

> - Relocation package is prorated for TWO years. If you leave after staying for a full year, you still need to return 50% of it.

I don't think my company offers any relocation packages (I could be wrong on that) but even so this policy doesn't strike me as completely crazy.

> - 401K matching only vests after working for 3 years. If you leave within 3 years, no matching for you whatsoever.

My vesting schedule only vests after 6 years (with 20 percent vesting every year after the first). It's not great but on average it's not the worst AFAICT.

> - No tuition reimbursement. Want to get a part-time masters in CS? Pay it yourself

> - No catered food. No free soda. No free snacks. If you are hungry, you can eat at one of the shltty cafes.

Both of these... We have nothing like it at all, I'd kill for a "shitty cafe". We have coffee and that's about it. This comment comes of as extremely spoiled to me.

> - Obnoxious oncall routines. You are woken up 3:30am waiting for the event to be over. Why not automate things? Because replacing people is cheaper than building great software!

My job doesn't include being on call but I work with people who are, I don't fully understand what this bit is talking about. Are you woken up just to be told your "shift" is starting or is this just referencing being woken up because there is a problem? Cause that's kind of the definition of being on call....

Maybe I'm just naive and stupid to think my job is good (every job could be better of course) but from where I'm sitting 90% of your comment comes off as entitled and spoiled and it colors the rest of it.

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

#182

Post by lawless123 »

mter wrote: post #64
vonklaus wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand this. Amazon seems to have seriously cutting edge infrastructure; they sell it as a service and operate more servers than google. Also, according to the article 20k people work for them, although I am not sure if that was total or engineers. I am curious how they can retain people to manage all of their operations. Those terms sound terrible and not competitive. I would take those terms, but I am d…

The nightmare stories are often from years ago or non devs. There are some pretty awful oncalls though. I'm on a team I like, work with people I get along with and have hours that are good ( 2 years after college, I make enough (~160k total comp, a bit over 100k salary) for money to not really be a motivating factor. When I first got to amazon, I fully expected to jump ship within 6 months and move somewhere else. I…

Maybe some are biased here but i think non-devs are humans too.

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

#183

Post by joshstrange »

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.

My company doesn't and a whole slew of ones I've talked to don't either... I'm not sure what bubble you are living in where you've "never heard of a tech company not do it'.

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

#184

Post by mmcconnell1618 »

nojvek wrote: post #130
theparanoid wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Microsoft has this program but it's pretty bad. Only masters courses are allowed with managers approval. Rest is out of pocket. Most managers don't approve. Tuition benefit is very much a myth.

Microsoft tuition assistance is available for both undergraduate and graduate programs. There are annual limits to how much is reimbursed and you get more for graduate school. Yes, it does require manager approval too. (I work at Microsoft)

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

#185

Post by watt »

mrob wrote: post #159
yazaddaruvala wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I work under a micromanaging boss I don't have a "boss" I have a "manager" or "team lead". I don't work "under" or "for" my "manager", I work "with" them. If you understand that connotations of words matter, you should use other words. When you start to use other words, you might start to act differently. When you start to act differently your manager might too. Meanwhile, your manager sounds terrible. My condolenc…

There's nothing subconscious about it. A boss by definition has more power. Pretending it's not so won't change the facts.

I wonder if it's not in fact that he only has as much power as you yourself give him. Then pretending that he has no power, actually makes it so that he does not have any power over you.

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

#186

Post by rmc »

yazaddaruvala wrote: post #152
IndianAstronaut wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> I work under a micromanaging boss I don't have a "boss" I have a "manager" or "team lead". I don't work "under" or "for" my "manager", I work "with" them. If you understand that connotations of words matter, you should use other words. When you start to use other words, you might start to act differently. When you start to act differently your manager might too. Meanwhile, your manager sounds terrible. My condolenc…

If they can tell you what to do, and you can't tell them what to do, then yes, you work under a boss.

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

#188

Post by intended »

praptak wrote: post #60
dilemma wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I don't believe that spreading rumors can magically transform a micromanaging boss. What it can do is keep them occupied, just as any other form of employee micro-sabotage. It also makes the workplace generally crappier.

This stuff is so deeply frightening, to someone like me.

I am color blind to a vast range of interpersonal interactions, the fact that people have a vocabulary/taxonomy of interactions which includes or can generate - "micro sabotage"... hints at a world too exhausting to imagine

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

#189

Post by kefka »

watt wrote: post #185
mrob wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's nothing subconscious about it. A boss by definition has more power. Pretending it's not so won't change the facts.

I wonder if it's not in fact that he only has as much power as you yourself give him. Then pretending that he has no power, actually makes it so that he does not have any power over you.

No, it's the fact of:

"They can tell you what to do, and how to do it. And if you don't, they can fire you. And when you have no job, you have problems eating, a place to stay, and a much harder time getting jobs."

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

#190

Post by allengeorge »

notyourwork wrote: post #99
vonklaus wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand this. Amazon seems to have seriously cutting edge infrastructure; they sell it as a service and operate more servers than google. Also, according to the article 20k people work for them, although I am not sure if that was total or engineers. I am curious how they can retain people to manage all of their operations. Those terms sound terrible and not competitive. I would take those terms, but I am d…

Remember that the most vocal are the most dissatisfied. Also remember that at a company that large there are going to be more dissatisfied than smaller companies. Lastly, don't forget that no one wants to read a story about an upset engineer from a small no name company. People like seeing big brand names fail and we as a society are a sucker for a negative drama. They retain people because not every team is like wha…

The volume of stories coming out of Amazon far outstrips those from Google or Facebook for example.
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