[Xeronate]

i worked there for a couple years. wasn’t terrible, money was fair, and people i meet always seem impressed when i mention i used to work at amazon music which is kind of nice.

i’ve got recruiters saying i can go back without a real interview because i left less than a year ago and i might go back. it’s really not any different than any other programming job i’ve had.

[BeetleB]

How did you like their benefits? For me, PTO is the main reason I avoid Amazon. I get 20 days a year, not counting sick days. I think Amazon is still stuck at 15 days[1], and almost no sick leave.

[1] 10 days for the first year

[hughesjj]

If you can take it, PTO was one of the better parts at Amazon if you were tenured. I think it was

- 4 weeks (20 days) of PTO if you were there for 6 years or more, plus

- 6 "personal" days

- in Seattle at least, 3 sick days

Holidays were pretty bad (I don't think MLK jr day was a holiday until like 2021), but personally I'd rather be able to chose my own time off than have random enforced "rest days/development days" and enforced week long vacations when all the hotels and flights are full or pricey and traffic is terrible.

Come to think of it, some of my best work was done in the quiet times of Christmas/New Years when everyone else was gone and I was thus left without distractions. Lots of fun prototyping and project bootstrapping memories.

[rebeccaskinner]

4 weeks after 6 years seems absurdly bad to me. The last job I had with fixed PTO had unlimited sick time plus 20 days per year of vacation starting (pro-rated) on your first day, and most places I’ve worked in the last decade have had “unlimited” PTO, which typically works out to around 6 weeks of vacation time plus unlimited sick time.

[BeetleB]

Ah, not so bad then. Still a bit worse than where I'm at, though.

For me, 4 weeks is too good to lose. I'd go to Amazon only if I can't find another company to give me at least as much immediately.

[Xeronate]

not sure how it is with mandatory 5x a week in office. i had a good relationship with my manager (aka a lot of trust) and he basically let me do whatever i wanted (aka didnt care if i took days off assuming i was producing enough value) which has been the case for me everywhere i worked. it’s a big company. there’s not going to be one consistent experience.

[hackerdood]

California at least is 15 days/year the first year, 20 to year 5, then 25/year after

[LandR]

15 days a year is awful!

Here in the UK for a full time employee the minimum by law, regardless of how long you've worked at a place, is 28 days. For all full time employees.

I think I'm on 32 now, and sick leave doesn't come out the holiday allowance, that's absurd!

[simoncion]

Yep. The PTO policies of US companies are just terrible. Often even the ones with "unlimited" PTO have defacto limits that just happen to work out to typical US PTO policies. (What a coincidence!)