[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.