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Public protest against Amazon

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Public protest against Amazon

#81

Post by ardit33 »

Scramblejams wrote: post #61

Amazon employee here, though I do not speak for the company. At any big company, your management chain is the #1 influence on the quality of your culture. My experience at Amazon has been extremely positive, but then my org head is a great guy, so it's all been in line with my expectations. I've also left critical feedback through the Amazon Connect survey for my immediate manager and not suffered for it. That manage…

Former Amazon employee here, my experience was terrible. (see my other comment).

While it is great you are happy and defend your company, your experience might not match others.

Re: Public protest against Amazon

#82

Post by jkingsbery »

Scramblejams wrote: post #61

Amazon employee here, though I do not speak for the company. At any big company, your management chain is the #1 influence on the quality of your culture. My experience at Amazon has been extremely positive, but then my org head is a great guy, so it's all been in line with my expectations. I've also left critical feedback through the Amazon Connect survey for my immediate manager and not suffered for it. That manage…

I am also an Amazon employee (and also do not speak for the company), and I agree with this assessment. My manager has told me and my teammates on multiple occasions to take care of family stuff first, to make sure we're working sustainably (i.e., not super late all the time) and so on. I also have scored some questions low on the same survey and not suffered retribution.

I don't want to claim that anyone's experience isn't valid, just that it doesn't match mine.

Re: Public protest against Amazon

#83

Post by taurath »

Scramblejams wrote: post #61

Amazon employee here, though I do not speak for the company. At any big company, your management chain is the #1 influence on the quality of your culture. My experience at Amazon has been extremely positive, but then my org head is a great guy, so it's all been in line with my expectations. I've also left critical feedback through the Amazon Connect survey for my immediate manager and not suffered for it. That manage…

That's always been the argument to people who are on the fence about Amazon: "I've heard some bad things, but haven't seen it in my department". Amazon, and the people that work on the "good" teams never seem to be terribly concerned about horrific reports, and I frequently wonder why that is. In companies I've worked for, had I heard about people crying at their desk and being forced to choose between their child's health and their job I'd want to know how the company is putting a stop to it. It seems that everyone believes that the people complaining are doing so for attention, but from the outside it seems like there's been a lot of reports that are credible - and this is the white collar stuff, not even warehouse worker things.

Its hard to know: Is everyone indoctrinated? Are they addicted to the paychecks? Is the sense that there are bad things happening but its being handled properly?

Re: Public protest against Amazon

#84

Post by kazinator »

jkingsbery wrote: post #82
Scramblejams wrote: post #61

Amazon employee here, though I do not speak for the company. At any big company, your management chain is the #1 influence on the quality of your culture. My experience at Amazon has been extremely positive, but then my org head is a great guy, so it's all been in line with my expectations. I've also left critical feedback through the Amazon Connect survey for my immediate manager and not suffered for it. That manage…

I am also an Amazon employee (and also do not speak for the company), and I agree with this assessment. My manager has told me and my teammates on multiple occasions to take care of family stuff first, to make sure we're working sustainably (i.e., not super late all the time) and so on. I also have scored some questions low on the same survey and not suffered retribution. I don't want to claim that anyone's experienc…

The thing is, your manager is from a decent background as a human, they probably aren't going to do otherwise no matter where they work!

Re: Public protest against Amazon

#85

Post by [deleted] »

maxxxxx wrote: post #8
_0nac wrote: post #4

> I am sure in the future Mr Bezos will be placed in one line with Adolf Hitler as an example of genocide. The guy may have a case somewhere in there, but this kind of hyperbole isn't doing it any favors. Stripping out the fluff, the concrete concerns seem to be: - Denied permission to transfer - Denied permission to WFH - Placed on PIP and eventually fired The author's hypothesis is "manager is evil and this is all…

Agreed. Using the H word doesn't help the author's case.

[deleted]

Re: Public protest against Amazon

#86

Post by nine_k »

dpcan wrote: post #68

This may seem mean, and feel free to argue with me and prove my statement below wrong. Well, which was it? Was he taking his daughter to therapy or working from home? If his daughter requires additional care, he needs to care for his daughter, but that can't interfere with work. If your kids are not disabled, they may not be interfering with your work, and therefore, when you are working from home - you are, in fact,…

No, working from home means working, as in getting particular things done.

Working from home often means that your (equivalent of) lunch break is a time you can spend elsewhere, e.g. take your child to therapy. You don't waste time commuting from your office if the doctor's office is nearby.

You can also spend more time for off-work activities in the middle of the day, but work until a later hour, again because you're not commuting back from the office.

As long as you get done what you planned to, and participate in whatever communications you planned to participate (video calls work well these days), I don't see why working from home would be a materially inferior way of working, at least if practiced in moderation.

Taking a day off is a different matter.

Re: Public protest against Amazon

#87

Post by arrrg »

dpcan wrote: post #68

This may seem mean, and feel free to argue with me and prove my statement below wrong. Well, which was it? Was he taking his daughter to therapy or working from home? If his daughter requires additional care, he needs to care for his daughter, but that can't interfere with work. If your kids are not disabled, they may not be interfering with your work, and therefore, when you are working from home - you are, in fact,…

You seem to be confused. Being able to bring someone someplace at a certain time can be, depending on the locations, much easier and less time intensive if done from home.

So, for example: If your commute takes twenty minutes and therapy is twenty minutes from your home taking someone to therapy who is at home takes 40 minutes if you do home office or between 60 and 80 minutes of you have to be at work.

Nowhere does it say that he wanted to do home office to take care of someone. That’s nonsensical and a nonsensical interpretation of what was said. The most straightforward interpretation is that this is a simple case of simplifying logistics.

Re: Public protest against Amazon

#88

Post by [deleted] »

morley wrote: post #57
forgotmypw3 wrote: post #13

I want to preface this comment with a statement that in no way am I trying to blame the victim here, only to point out what can be learned from this situation. This is certainly not the first time I've heard of Amazon being a shitty place to work at, and I don't see much reason to doubt the story of a vindictive boss doing everything they can to make an employee miserable after learning that the employee submitted ba…

Re #1: I realize this is the safest option for your own self-preservation, if you don't give negative feedback, how do you expect your work environment to change? The way I see it, if you're in a bad situation at work, you have two options: try to change it, or leave. If you're going to leave anyway, why not at least try to improve your situation first so you give yourself the best chance of success? And that way, th…

[deleted]

Re: Public protest against Amazon

#89

Post by ianamartin »

napo wrote: post #76
mothsonasloth wrote: post #52

I used to think big tech companies like Amazon and Google would be different, however now I see they are just becoming like any older traditional corporation with a HR department functioning like the stasi and the ability to oppress through mass policies and hiring contracts. We are lucky as developers to have a fairly easy way of life but I still follow my Grandpa's advice from years working in the shipyards of Glas…

"* When things are good, think about leaving" => Wait what? So what do you do when things are bad?

Not be there.

Re: Public protest against Amazon

#90

Post by bluntfang »

dpcan wrote: post #68

This may seem mean, and feel free to argue with me and prove my statement below wrong. Well, which was it? Was he taking his daughter to therapy or working from home? If his daughter requires additional care, he needs to care for his daughter, but that can't interfere with work. If your kids are not disabled, they may not be interfering with your work, and therefore, when you are working from home - you are, in fact,…

>Why is this person entitled to being paid to "work at office" when he's not actually "working" while at office, he's actually [getting coffee | taking a walk | socializing | etc?

does that help why this makes sense?

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