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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

#81

>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.

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

#82
post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, the Seattle PI article said that he fell 20 feet (2 stories) into a balcony after jumping from the 12 story building.

Following this, he was assigned to Amazon's employee suicide improvement plan.

that's too dark for the polite society here. we're civilized; suicide is too serious for levity.

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

#83

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…

Those points you mentioned are pretty standard for any corporation that isnt an insanely profitable tech company.

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

#84

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 was at AWS for six months as a contractor and a year as an SDE3. Equity vesting was low for the first year, but they gave me a (cash) signing bonus that made up for it. Pretty much one-to-one based on the starting value of the equity, and it paid out monthly instead of waiting until the end of the year. The cafes were awesome and the prices there were decent. I was paid more than enough to buy my own lunch. Catered…

The oncall routines were terrible, though, I agree. Luckily I was in a strange situation and was able to avoid them.

I would think that Amazon of all places would automate anything they could.

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

#85
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait there are no refresh equity grants at Amazon? I'm at Google and making over double what I was when I started, almost all from additional equity grants every year. It worked out to more like 1.3x, 1.5x, 1.8x, 2.4x, ...

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.

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

#86

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…

I know not every part of every company is the same since your direct manager plays a big part in your experience but I have to wonder why people put up with the bad experiences. Maybe the pay for AWS consulting gigs is worth a couple years in that kind of environment.

Not so much the pay, as the wonders it works for your resume. Prior to Amazon, I tried applying to Google, Facebook, Microsoft, etc. Nothing. After Amazon, recruiters from those companies started contacting me.

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

#87

Do they still have the backloaded RSU vesting schedule? Something like 5%, 15%, 40%, 40% (each year)? Does anyone else do this?

Some places do 10/20/30/40. I think Snapchat is one of them, but I'm not 100%. My last employer was on this schedule. Left after 2 years, got 30%. Would not accept this sort of offer again.

Yes can confirm that Snapchat does this.

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

#88

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…

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

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

#89
post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can anyone think of a single instance where an employee survived the PIP in any organization? I've never heard of one.

I did. I truly wasn't performing as my peers, and my manager was pretty awesome about the whole situation. He asked me for my honest opinion on whether I was performing at the level I could (I thought I could do better), and what things I thought were causing it. I named things about me, things about the team, and things about the company in general. He explained the PIP was a deal: for three months he would take car…

Was it a formal PIP, though? In my experience there are many managers who'll do that for employees that they wish to retain, but who, for various reasons, aren't performing up to snuff. However, I've never heard of a manager bringing HR in, doing the PIP paperwork, and the employee surviving the PIP. In general, the moment HR gets involved (either in person or via formal paperwork) between you or your manager, you know you're done. As others have stated, treat the time of your PIP as a form of severance pay, do the minimum amount of work necessary to not get fired that day, and look for a job elsewhere.

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

#90

Tyler Cowen has written a lot about this: "Individuals don’t in fact enjoy being evaluated all the time, especially when the results are not always stellar: for most people, one piece of negative feedback outweighs five pieces of positive feedback. To the extent that measurement raises income inequality, perhaps it makes relations among the workers tenser and less friendly. Life under a meritocracy can be a little to…

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.
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