[noahm]

Almost every account? You mean almost every account that NYT bothered to include in that article.

As a current employee at Amazon, that article might as well be fiction as far as I can tell. It describes nothing like what I or any of my co-workers have ever experienced here. We chuckle about it, occasionally, making jokes about crying at our desk, etc. But seriously, that article does not describe the place where I work.

When the article came out, Jeff sent a response to the company that has subsequently been published online. In it he said, paraphrased, "I would quit if my work environment was what the NYT article described, and I'm sure any of you would, too. If you're here, and you're work environment is anything like what the article describes, please _tell me_ so we can fix it."

You've mentioned elsewhere that Amazon has among the worst employee retention in the industry, but that's a fact that I'd also dispute. I've seen articles like http://www.slate.com/blogs/business_insider/2013/07/28/turno..., but as far as I can tell they're using median tenure as a proxy for employee retention. That's going to skew the results in any company that is hiring at a high rate. Imagine a hypothetical company that has gone from 50 to 100 employees in the past 12 months. Median tenure is only going to be less than 1 year at that company, regardless of whether or not anybody has quit. Amazon also hire lots of seasonal workers to handle shipping, customer support etc, which also very likely skews the results.

[devopsproject]

These tech workers seem to say otherwise about both working conditions and turnover: https://www.reddit.com/r/cscareerquestions/comments/4fg44p/1...

Glassdoor is filed with them too

I'm glad you are happy at your job. Many people disagree.

[noahm]

Sure, but just as with customers, the dissatisfied (ex-)employees are going to be most vocal.

Do you really think Amazon could build things like AWS, Alexa, the Go Store, etc, if it was a sweatshop where everybody but Jeff was in hell? I don't.

[mercutio2]

> Sure, but just as with customers, the dissatisfied (ex-)employees are going to be most vocal.

Agreed that Glassdoor is an outrageously bad indicator about a company, taken in isolation.

> Do you really think Amazon could build things like AWS, Alexa, the Go Store, etc, if it was a sweatshop where everybody but Jeff was in hell?

Nobody is claiming that every single employee has a terrible life at Amazon. But new college grads who don't mind and/or mind but don't really believe better working conditions are possible can build most of what you referenced.

I have only anecdotal evidence, but the majority of ex Facebook, Apple, and Google employees I know say pretty balanced pro/con things about their former workplaces.

Of the six ex Amazon employees I know well enough to discuss this with, they universally decry the horrible work cultures they experienced there.

So, I'm glad you like your work culture, but I know I'd never even consider working at a Jeff Bezos company. Despite how awesome I thing Blue Origin is.

[praneshp]

4 people I graduated with in 2013, plus my wife (who went to work there more recently) all work at AWS, and they all love it. More anecdotal evidence.