Amazon Working Conditions

[Reeve]

The New York Times has published an expose discussing the working conditions and culture at Amazon.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/16/te...workplace.html

Here are some choice excerpts from the article:

Bo Olson was one of them. He lasted less than two years in a book marketing role and said that his enduring image was watching people weep in the office, a sight other workers described as well. “You walk out of a conference room and you’ll see a grown man covering his face,” he said. “Nearly every person I worked with, I saw cry at their desk.”

At Amazon, workers are encouraged to tear apart one another’s ideas in meetings, toil long and late (emails arrive past midnight, followed by text messages asking why they were not answered), and held to standards that the company boasts are “unreasonably high.” The internal phone directory instructs colleagues on how to send secret feedback to one another’s bosses. Employees say it is frequently used to sabotage others. (The tool offers sample texts, including this: “I felt concerned about his inflexibility and openly complaining about minor tasks.”)

In 2012, Chris Brucia, who was working on a new fashion sale site, received a punishing performance review from his boss, a half-hour lecture on every goal he had not fulfilled and every skill he had not yet mastered. Mr. Brucia silently absorbed the criticism, fearing he was about to be managed out, wondering how he would tell his wife.

“Congratulations, you’re being promoted,” his boss finished, leaning in for a hug that Mr. Brucia said he was too shocked to return.

But workers are expected to embrace “frugality” (No. 9), from the bare-bones desks to the cellphones and travel expenses that they often pay themselves.

However, many workers called it a river of intrigue and scheming. They described making quiet pacts with colleagues to bury the same person at once, or to praise one another lavishly. Many others, along with Ms. Willet, described feeling sabotaged by negative comments from unidentified colleagues with whom they could not argue. In some cases, the criticism was copied directly into their performance reviews — a move that Amy Michaels, the former Kindle manager, said that colleagues called “the full paste.”

A woman who had thyroid cancer was given a low performance rating after she returned from treatment. She says her manager explained that while she was out, her peers were accomplishing a great deal. Another employee who miscarried twins left for a business trip the day after she had surgery. “I’m sorry, the work is still going to need to get done,” she said her boss told her. “From where you are in life, trying to start a family, I don’t know if this is the right place for you.”

Those are some of the worst things I saw there, but there was a lot more. I'm incredulous that they have a fucking buzz word for inter-employee sabotage.

Yet their results are impressive. They're the world's biggest retailer now, having edged out Wal-Mart. Their company is growing at a staggering clip, with new warehouses, new data centers, etc. going up constantly. They're building office space in Seattle for 50,000 employees.

So the question I have is this. Is this the future of the corporate world? Is this what it's going to take to be successful in the future? We live in a time when the productivity per employee has more than doubled since 1970, yet we're pushing our employees harder than ever with the ability now to force employees to work from home and answer emails 24 hours a day. I personally don't like this direction. What do you all think?

[Deleted]

Yeah but those deals and 1 day free delivery

[Cyberowl]

The New York Times has published an expose discussing the working conditions and culture at Amazon.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/16/te...workplace.html

Here are some choice excerpts from the article:








Those are some of the worst things I saw there, but there was a lot more. I'm incredulous that they have a fucking buzz word for inter-employee sabotage.

Yet their results are impressive. They're the world's biggest retailer now, having edged out Wal-Mart. Their company is growing at a staggering clip, with new warehouses, new data centers, etc. going up constantly. They're building office space in Seattle for 50,000 employees.

So the question I have is this. Is this the future of the corporate world? Is this what it's going to take to be successful in the future? We live in a time when the productivity per employee has more than doubled since 1970, yet we're pushing our employees harder than ever with the ability now to force employees to work from home and answer emails 24 hours a day. I personally don't like this direction. What do you all think?

Isn't this Chinese retailer the biggest retailer? Alibaba or something?

[Deleted]

Sounds like a friendly and healthy work atmosphere...

[Reeve]

Isn't this Chinese retailer the biggest retailer? Alibaba or something?

Amazon generates about 7.8 times as much revenue as Alibaba on an annual basis.

[Puupi]

Yeah but those deals and 1 day free delivery

And even abroad.

I've been ordering books from Amazon and they are shipped from UK right to my door in Finland in 2-3 days, for free. It's kind of mind boggling, because if I ordered those books from a Finnish book store, the books would cost 50% more, the shipping will take 5-7 days and cost 10 euros.

Finnish postal system is slow and expensive.

But as we all know, there are no free lunches and no free deliveries. Somebody is paying for those.

[Sykol]

I mean, if you don't wanna work there, don't.

[Puupi]

Amazon generates about 7.8 times as much revenue as Alibaba on an annual basis.

I wouldn't trust Alibaba's official numbers.

[Jester Joe]

That's horrible. Like, oh my god, I enjoy seeing happy stories instead, like the one of someone saying that they requested off from Valve and this happened

But I suppose when it comes to specifically retail like Wal-Mart and Amazon, it's a lot more cutthroat...

[vindicatorx]

I mean, if you don't wanna work there, don't.

Pretty much this. I don't recall anyone forcing anyone else to work for Amazon.

[Reeve]

That's horrible. Like, oh my god, I enjoy seeing happy stories instead, like the one of someone saying that they requested off from Valve and this happened

But I suppose when it comes to specifically retail like Wal-Mart and Amazon, it's a lot more cutthroat...

NSFW warning on that link. The page is covered in porn.

[qw4]

This is every business.

The entire idea of business is the exploitation of human capital.

Look at the history of just the United States. Where you find human misery, you will find profit.

[TwoNineMarine]

The New York Times has published an expose discussing the working conditions and culture at Amazon.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/16/te...workplace.html

Here are some choice excerpts from the article:








Those are some of the worst things I saw there, but there was a lot more. I'm incredulous that they have a fucking buzz word for inter-employee sabotage.

Yet their results are impressive. They're the world's biggest retailer now, having edged out Wal-Mart. Their company is growing at a staggering clip, with new warehouses, new data centers, etc. going up constantly. They're building office space in Seattle for 50,000 employees.

So the question I have is this. Is this the future of the corporate world? Is this what it's going to take to be successful in the future? We live in a time when the productivity per employee has more than doubled since 1970, yet we're pushing our employees harder than ever with the ability now to force employees to work from home and answer emails 24 hours a day. I personally don't like this direction. What do you all think?

I'm all for a competitive work environment but man some of that seems harsh.

But it's working for them obviously.

As long as nothing they are doing is illegal then I suppose you just have to toughen up.

[Cyberowl]

Amazon generates about 7.8 times as much revenue as Alibaba on an annual basis.

Here's some data from 2013 from the FAZ, a respected German newspaper.



It's volume, sales and profit.

[Reeve]

I mean, if you don't wanna work there, don't.

The problem with that attitude is that when Amazon drives all the competitors who do have better working conditions out of work, you don't end up with a lot of choice. Companies having success with exploitive techniques tend to set the bar for the rest of the industry.

[Deleted]

I mean, if you don't wanna work there, don't.

Pretty much this. I don't recall anyone forcing anyone else to work for Amazon.

Stop being rational - that goes against the "Moral Outrage Brigade" and their agenda.

[Deleted]

The important question is: does it pay well?

[Puupi]

NSFW warning on that link. The page is covered in porn.

Mine wasn't. Are you sure they weren't google ads reacting to your recent browsing history?

[Deleted]

The problem with that attitude is that when Amazon drives all the competitors who do have better working conditions out of work, you don't end up with a lot of choice....

sure you do - go work at a fucking McDonalds.

[Sykol]

The problem with that attitude is that when Amazon drives all the competitors who do have better working conditions out of work, you don't end up with a lot of choice. Companies having success with exploitive techniques tend to set the bar for the rest of the industry.

Everyone has plenty of choice, and if you don't that's your own fault.