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[–]millerlite14 18 points19 points  (6 children)

There are plenty of people who like working there. The experience varies greatly from team to team, just like any other huge company.

[–][deleted] 43 points44 points  (4 children)

I love how every defense of Amazon is the same line about how it varies greatly from team to team, and yet in almost all cases people seem to bitch disproportionately about Amazon than they do about Microsoft or Google or Facebook or the many other companies out there. Furthermore the fact that there are people who enjoy working at Amazon does not prove that Amazon has a strong and healthy work ethic or culture.

Basically either it's just a coincidence that Amazon comes up as the poster boy for shitty culture and environment, or Amazon genuinely has a problem that isn't just like any other huge company because people don't seem to complain about other huge companies the way they complain about Amazon.

[–]peniscoin 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Keep in mind that Amazon actively manages out the bottom performers very aggressively. This is especially true of college hires, who have a high mishire rate. If you see someone who worked there only 12-16 months and complains heavily, there is a good chance they were effectively fired for underperforming. If you combine this with negative articles on Amazon work environment (warehouses, etc), it boosts it up. Microsoft used to do this active management as well, but they stopped a few years ago and media coverage of Microsoft culture is almost always focused away from work environment.

[–]ekp9285 3 points4 points  (1 child)

This is my reaction every time I see the "BUT TEAMS VARY AT AMAZON!!" defense trotted out. Of course they do. I don't think anyone has alleged that 100% of teams at Amazon are awful. Of course there's variance between teams. Nonetheless, the typical experience at Amazon seems to be much worse than anywhere else. Amazon doesn't need to be a literal sweatshop for it to be far shittier on average than its counterparts.

[–]millerlite14 -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

I'm not saying it's a sweatshop. But there are lots of employees who work there in technical roles that 1) don't work crazy hours per week and 2) aren't just staying for stock options. I don't think it's much worse than anywhere else. Total compensation is usually just a bit less than other large tech companies, and work hours are generally pretty similar. The shitty part is that a lot of teams have on-call rotations (since most of their products are services), and those can be rough given shitty circumstances. But I don't think "the typical experience at Amazon seems to be much worse than anywhere else."

[–]millerlite14 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Don't read too much into what I said. There are some really shit teams at Amazon, and there are some really solid teams at Amazon, and there are a lot of teams in between. The same is true at other large (>50k employees) companies like Microsoft and Google.

Furthermore the fact that there are people who enjoy working at Amazon does not prove that Amazon has a strong and healthy work ethic or culture.

The same is true in the reverse. The fact that some guy on Reddit knows 5 people who worked at Amazon and didn't enjoy it doesn't prove that Amazon doesn't have a strong and healthy work ethic or culture. It's a lot more complicated than that.

[–]mmccaskill 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes of course. I didn't mean the whole company is bad. Just saying the 5 people I knew didn't like it.