Notably something he said in 2018, not recently. I believe it was discussed here then too.
Jeff Bezos: Work-Life Balance Is 'Debilitating Phrase'
51–60 of 61 posts
Re: Jeff Bezos: Work-Life Balance Is 'Debilitating Phrase'
#52> "If I am happy at home, I come into the office with tremendous energy," Bezos said. "And if I am happy at work, I come home with tremendous energy." Surely that same thinking goes the other way: if you are having a rough time at home and it's clearly affecting your work performance, Amazon understands and tries to improve your home situation since real life is intertwined with work, right? Right?
I personally would not want my employer actively trying to meddle in and improve my home life. I don't really get your objection
You are totally missing the point.
Suppose some ill luck befalls you: your house burnt down, you got sued , etc, that would quite reasonably affect your work perfprmance.
If we follow Bezos's logic, would the company make a material controbution to solve your issue, like hire you a lawyer to help reclaim claim losses, etc. If not, he is a hypocrite
Re: Jeff Bezos: Work-Life Balance Is 'Debilitating Phrase'
#53Debilitating to a few men's fortunes perhaps, but richly rewarding to the thousands of people with a broader outlook to life. Bezos holds fair amount of respect for his accomplishments, but statements like these make him sound more like Mr. Burns than anyone. Just trying to extract maximum output out of his labourers. I for one am fairly surprised by the shamelessness demonstrated by some of these excess haves. Remin…
A lot of people get satisfaction out of their work. I know I do. I don't see it as an exploitive relationship with my employer, although I'm fortunate enough to have a job that requires cooperation and creativity. Maybe I'd feel different if I were an Uber driver, though, but maybe not. Even when I had menial jobs (e.g. lifeguard, pizza delivery driver), I got satisfaction from providing some kind of value (e.g. watc…
>"People like Bezos similarly work long hours so its not like they're idle while expecting others to work on his behalf."
On one hand we have a blue-collar man working 60 hour week laying bricks, raising kids, looking after aging parents and doing house chores, cooking and repairs. Also he is not paid for overtime.
In the other we have a millionaire who's work is 60% meetings, who has a chef, a nany, a secretary, driver, a cleaner, etc. And he gets to keep all fruits of his labour.
Are they comparable?
Re: Jeff Bezos: Work-Life Balance Is 'Debilitating Phrase'
#54Earlier quoted context omitted.
> he's a million times richer than everyone else. So they think he's a million times smarter. The more I talk to people I disagree with and spend time outside of the US, the more I come to believe that this mental distortion is very near to a root cause for so much misery and suffering, particularly in the US. The way we worship the rich and let them get away with distorting our politics and laws to suit them to the…
Jeff is in fact is an exceptionally intelligent man. He’s easily at least three sigma above the mean. Anyone that’s worked with him can tell you that.
>"Jeff is in fact is an exceptionally intelligent man"
Equally true for Generals in charge of Oberkommando der Wehrmacht.
Smart people can do no wrong?
Re: Jeff Bezos: Work-Life Balance Is 'Debilitating Phrase'
#55Not to defend the tone-deaf comments, but in some circumstances there's maybe part of a point? When you're aligned with your work, when it's meaningful and aligned with your personal goals, hard separations between work and life matter a lot less. You can be in a flow kind of state for quite a while and be happy. I believe that discounting finding meaning from work is too cynical. But it only exists for some people i…
It's a bit easier to align work with your personal goals when your wish is law for the worlds biggest firm
Re: Jeff Bezos: Work-Life Balance Is 'Debilitating Phrase'
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
Jeff is in fact is an exceptionally intelligent man. He’s easily at least three sigma above the mean. Anyone that’s worked with him can tell you that.
>"Jeff is in fact is an exceptionally intelligent man" Equally true for Generals in charge of Oberkommando der Wehrmacht. Smart people can do no wrong?
Good example I guess. German rocket technology was a decade past anyone else. The space race and moon landing wouldn't have been possible without the Nazis. But I don't think anyone is stupid enough to argue it was a worthwhile trade off
Re: Jeff Bezos: Work-Life Balance Is 'Debilitating Phrase'
#57> "If I am happy at home, I come into the office with tremendous energy," Bezos said. "And if I am happy at work, I come home with tremendous energy." Surely that same thinking goes the other way: if you are having a rough time at home and it's clearly affecting your work performance, Amazon understands and tries to improve your home situation since real life is intertwined with work, right? Right?
I think what he's trying to say here is that, "It's good to be king."
Re: Jeff Bezos: Work-Life Balance Is 'Debilitating Phrase'
#58It's easy to be 1000% dedicated to your job when you make over $9,000,000 an hour. But he wants the same dedication from people he pays $6. He's also vicious about crushing unions and is known for giving employees so little breaks they have to piss in bottles. Fuck Bezos. The US has a real problem with wealth worship. People lap up every drop that comes out of this asshole just because he's a million times richer tha…
Re: Jeff Bezos: Work-Life Balance Is 'Debilitating Phrase'
#59Debilitating to a few men's fortunes perhaps, but richly rewarding to the thousands of people with a broader outlook to life. Bezos holds fair amount of respect for his accomplishments, but statements like these make him sound more like Mr. Burns than anyone. Just trying to extract maximum output out of his labourers. I for one am fairly surprised by the shamelessness demonstrated by some of these excess haves. Remin…
A lot of people get satisfaction out of their work. I know I do. I don't see it as an exploitive relationship with my employer, although I'm fortunate enough to have a job that requires cooperation and creativity. Maybe I'd feel different if I were an Uber driver, though, but maybe not. Even when I had menial jobs (e.g. lifeguard, pizza delivery driver), I got satisfaction from providing some kind of value (e.g. watc…
That satisfaction vs. being bored thing is a matter of mentality, or maybe lutheran/calvinist work ethics, deeply engrained by societal standards.
There is so much wrong with that. Not the least because it IS boring!
Besides that, do we know how he lives? How many personal assistants he has? Who is cleaning his hous(es)? Making his bed? Cooking? When did he ever prepare his own sandwich the last time? Been shopping groceries? Stood in line at some DMV, waiting to get a new license plate for a car? Does he even do that anymore? Do you think so?
I don't. And because of that any demands of his workers to suck it in, while denying them that level of assistance is utter hybris.
Same goes for all the other exploiters.
Re: Jeff Bezos: Work-Life Balance Is 'Debilitating Phrase'
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
A lot of people get satisfaction out of their work. I know I do. I don't see it as an exploitive relationship with my employer, although I'm fortunate enough to have a job that requires cooperation and creativity. Maybe I'd feel different if I were an Uber driver, though, but maybe not. Even when I had menial jobs (e.g. lifeguard, pizza delivery driver), I got satisfaction from providing some kind of value (e.g. watc…
He could consume all of his wealth quite easily but purchasing one too many companies or too many properties. Money isn't endless even at his level. Work is good for the soul. Over working means a shorter lifespan for you. Employers will accept that trade-off. Bozo keeps working because he doesn't know how to stop and live. Steve Wozniak, Mark Cuban, Paul Allen, even Musk could teach Bozo a few things.
Maybe Bozo buzzes around the Blue Origin, now that he has some more time. Or goes bust, trying. I don't really care. Though I'd really like something like that to succeed, independently of any Bozo.