@DonnaL, I agree working for Amazon isn’t that different from working in Big Law, finance and other fields. Unfortunately, more & more, that’s the reality of corporate America. I spent a decade working for a corporation that regularly appeared on a list of worst companies to work for. Sadly, I think their HR department spent hours over the weekend poring over the NY Times article, taking notes and stealing ideas. :))
i never liked Bezos, but he sounds even worse than advertised.
http://gizmodo.com/working-for-amazon-sounds-utterly-soul-crushing-1724325816
I say it is easy to attack a visible giant and draw a few “wows” from folks who are not familiar with how things are done in the corporate world. Small companies that crush their employees much worse than Amazon and don’t provide the level of compensation Amazon does fly under the radar all the time. For instance, there was a local biotech that used to advertise positions and state that full time employees were required to be present on site from 8 am to 8 pm. How’s that for work/life balance?
I didn’t think the described environment sounded over the top for a highly competitive business. Some of its ideas are great, like less bureaucracy, honesty about bad ideas, and quickly cutting the poor performers. I started out in Big Law where the environment was miserable. But no one is forced to work at these places and some people thrive in them.
That has not been my experience with corporate America. My current job is the worst job I’ve held.
They need a union if they are not paid for their working hours, or do they get away with that by having them be " salaried"?
There are always worse jobs, obviously. One of our new neighbors works for the mayors office.
@DrGoogle , Actually, no. Many, many universities are moving towards “post tenure review” or even eliminating tenure, so tenure is no longer sacred or a free ride. Also, tenure track is incredibly hard to get into and a one-shot deal. If you are denied tenure, good luck ever finding another tenure track position anywhere–better hope your research appeals to industry!
It sounds stressful. My uncle left that track and became entrepreneur for a reason.
I agree no one is forced to work at them. They can always live somewhere else.
In our area several companies have moved in which pay well, and which has pushed housing to be very expensive, as two bedroom bungalows from the 1940s go for $800,000 and it is $2000 to rent a studio.
But then they require you to work all hours, which you need to do to afford a place to live.
Folks are still attracted to Seattle.
http://youtu.be/c-5pDhnLJ8o
http://youtu.be/coklW-xcWMk
Don’t forget Amazon competes with Alibaba in China. When Alibaba first went public, all the analysts predict trouble for Amazon. Not so much now. If anything Jeff Bezos should get zoysia for providing jobs to over 180,000 American workers.
It’s barely profitable, just last quarter I think.
the article is completely believable, although the Amazon PR people are going to pull out all the stops to discredit it. The rot starts from the top in an environment where success is demanded but there are no limits put in place to say enough is enough, we’re not going to demand every waking second from you. Amazon workers are 21st century coal miners, used until they can’t work anymore and then replaced with fresh workers.
We see something similar here on CC in the admission process. Back in the day (say the 70’s) a kid taking 2 or 3 college level classes in HS really stood out. Nowadays, 3 AP classes and you’re quickly outshined by the kids with 3 each year. ECs have been ratcheted up the same way.
They spend a ton on R&D, and could turn profitable at will if they cut that a bit.
The worry would be, from an investment standpoint, that they are “misclassifying” regular operating expenses as r&d, which would make their performance quite a bit different than what it appears to be. I’ve no reason to believe that they are, and they have reputable auditors. But it wouldn’t be the first time something like that had happened. They call it Technology and Content in the annual report.
CEO’s who are surprised to find out how much it s**ks to be a worker bee in their company are a dime a dozen. Undercover Boss used to show that on a weekly basis. 30 years or so ago, I was a production supervisor in an auto plant … bigwigs never came by unannounced. We kept crews overnight, cleaning until the factory floor was spotless, painting the floor so it was less … factory-like, I guess. When a bigwig’s vehicle was being produced, everyone was alerted … you know, because we wouldn’t produce a good enough vehicle otherwise, I guess. My friend who climbed way up the ladder of that corporation forgot what it was like to be in the trenches long ago. Corporate America is great at mushrooming its leadership (keeping them in the dark & feeding them bulls*t) … and the leadership is happy to be mushroomed.
If you aren’t good enough, lucky enough, smart enough, whatever enough to be promoted to the top … well, guess you should feel lucky to have a job.
“It’s barely profitable, just last quarter I think.”
I worked for a company that always reported negative earnings yet their cash steadily increased every quarter despite the hefty R&D expenses. The reason? GAAP reporting vs the “real money.” Since Amazon invests a lot in R&D and gives employees stock, GAAP data may not reflect the real picture. Of course, I’ll have to take a look at their financial reports to confirm my speculation.
Of course they play game with accounting but so does everybody else reporting.
I don’t think Bezos is surprised, not one bit. Every word you hear from him, though, is going to be based on the carefully scripted advice from his PR consultants and you can bet they are the ones who told him to say “if this is true anywhere, let me know” as if some worker bee that has a family to support is going to slice her/his own throat by stepping forward. Bezos cares about perception. Perception among the public that amazon is a wonderful company doing great things, a perception that helps foster a steady stream of workers that want to be part of that wonderful enterprise. His PR people understand the importance of keeping the glitter.
But is Bezos surprised? He wants smart people to dedicate themselves 150%, and when they are unable to do so for any reason then they’re out the door and the next person is given a try. So long as they receive many applications for every opening there is no need to change a thing. Bezos is the one that created (and no doubt continues to enforce) the “no excuses” environment. Maybe “no excuses” isn’t such a bad thing when its applied to someone that didn’t bother to think thru the consequences of work and did something shoddy, but it quickly expands to be “no excuses” period as the article shows. This is the company Bezos built, its run the way he wants, and if someone can’t perform because they have cancer, a death in the family, are pregnant, then get him the next person who can.
Post #72, I would vote NOT to rescue those companies but POTUS outranked me so he bailed them out.
Again, you don’t have to work for anybody, be your own boss. I have three relatives that are doing that. They set their own rules.
Bezos is apparently going for the role of Captain Renault in the next remake of Casablanca, according to local buzz.
Love the onions take on the subject:
http://www.theonion.com/article/jeff-bezos-assures-amazon-employees-hr-working-100-51121