[throw8881]

I'm an engineer now at Amazon and have bounced around a few organizations in the years I've been here.

Maybe the particular team you interviewed with wasn't happy, but I don't think this is systemic.

Often times, people will jump ship to another team or another org because they have brand new, greenfield projects, or something that the person is more passionate about. You typically don't see people stay in roles where they're unhappy.

Amazon can't certainly do better in how it scales its business, but alot of the posts here that give the appearance that everyone at Amazon is unhappy are exaggerated. Alot of people don't like Amazon, period, and think the company should be broken up. While I think we can do alot of things better, I also believe there's a particular agenda pushed because Amazon is perceived as a threat across many industries, not just retail sales or cloud services.

[int_19h]

FWIW, I know quite a few people from FAANG and associated companies, and those coming from Amazon are consistently the most unhappy about work there. So, while this may not be universal inside the company, Amazon definitely does have a problem compared to the industry at large.

[SkyPuncher]

To be fair, most employees leaving their company are _likely_ to be unhappier than average.

[int_19h]

Not necessarily. Jumping around is fairly common practice for those who seek fast promos in large tech companies, because it's usually a faster track to get up to the higher levels than just grinding in place. It's not all that uncommon to find people who went Microsoft/Amazon/Google/Facebook full circle, for example. And they aren't necessarily unhappy about their past stints. But, again, the recurring theme seems to be that Amazon is the worst of the bunch in terms of hours worked (and work/life balance in general) and career opportunities.

[throw8881]

I will offer my perspective, and this is not to disparage or dispute anyone else's experience at Amazon or any other company.

Personally, I worked at two companies before Amazon.

I left both companies because I was unhappy. Two people from my last company also left for the same reasons I did. One of them is at Amazon, and the other one is at SalesForce.

Does my experience at my last employer represent a systemic problem in their work force? Probably not. I did know folks who were plenty satisfied and didn't leave, who didn't follow me even after I tried to recruit them.

All I'm saying is – it's easy to draw a conclusion and the wrong one. When you have a company that hires at Amazon scale, 1% of your workforce being unsatisfied and some percentage of that 1% willing to speak out about it means you have a lot of negative press. At that point, your rival companies, especially in the news media, have plenty of ammunition to run campaigns where that 1% seems like it's 80% or 99%.

Lastly – there is a negative Amazon article on HN just about every single day, and from reading those articles, it seems like people out there wish my mental was suffering or I hate d my job, even if I feel great and like the people I work with.

[wildfire]

No, your experience does not represent a systemic problem.

It represents your lived experience.

(I'd also say that with only three different company cultures that you have personally expirenced, your perspective is skewed).

What you are missing is that you do not see similar news reports about (say) Google, Netflix, etc. Sure there will always be individual stories in any organisation but the fact that there are *continual* stories about Amazon in all areas (blue collar, white collar) indicates that this is a systemic, widespread problem that they are either unaware of (unlikely) or do not care about.

Whether it is not caring (probably) or unawareness you have to be worried if an organisation like Amazon is this complacent.

[ note: I work at AWS, and I've experienced all this bullshit from the inside. When people I know ask me for a referral in, I tell them to run away. I'm looking to leave shortly ]

[int_19h]

We're comparing companies that all hire at Amazon scale, at least when it comes to tech talent. If scale was all there is to it, they'd all have the same reputation. They do not.

[bob33212]

I believe you, and just for context, I have spent 600k on AWS over the past 3 years, when I could have spent it on Azure. I don't think AWS should be shut down.

[subsubzero]

I absolutely don't believe AWS should be shut down. I do think AWS and Amazon(retailer) should be split up, and thats what a majority of sensible people believe.

[gergi]

Source? I consider myself “sensible”, do not agree with this statement, and haven’t seen any data that would suggest the “majority” would agree.

[asteroidbelt]

59% Americans support breaking up big tech.

https://www.vox.com/2021/1/26/22241053/antitrust-google-face...

[gergi]

What percentage of "sensible" Americans? If there's anything we've learned over the past several years, many Americans are not sensible.

My point is that I don't think sensibility is measurable so there is no way to assert "sensible" people want Amazon broken up.

[TomSwirly]

Did you try actually looking for any data? It's trivial to find and another poster did your work for you.

-sensible guy who also wants the cruel monopoly broken apart.