Amazon's Internal Study of Its Culture in 2021 Found 'Stress, Burnout, Churn' (businessinsider.com) 54
Business Insider reports:
An official Amazon study run as part of the company's "Earth's Best Employer" initiative showed mounting employee frustration and other challenges around the time the crucial project was getting off the ground.... The 11-page document, created in October 2021 for Amazon's most senior leaders, gives a brutally honest assessment of employee sentiment.... "We learned we are not seen as distinctively innovative and that our innovation culture is not fun. Innovation at Amazon is associated with stress, burnout, churn, and a cut-throat atmosphere," the document said....
A competitive labor market was one of the main drivers for change, according to the report. Amazon anticipated a "tech talent shortage" of 6 million to 8 million workers in the US by 2030. The Amazon Web Services cloud business alone was projected to need 210,000 to 336,000 tech employees by 2031, or at least 123,000 additional workers. Yet, Amazon is not perceived as a particularly attractive workplace even by its own employees, the report found. Corporate employees said they were subject to long hours and exhausting workloads. Sometimes, even finding answers to trivial HR policies led to confusion. For frontline workers, Amazon wants to provide more behavioral health support and reduce injuries like musculoskeletal disorders, which are more common at its warehouses than other similar facilities
. "Neither corporate nor front-line employees feel Amazon is a place they can clearly grow their careers and achieve personal success," the report stated.
The report identified six areas where Amazon sees room for improvement, including work-life balance and compensation and benefits.
A competitive labor market was one of the main drivers for change, according to the report. Amazon anticipated a "tech talent shortage" of 6 million to 8 million workers in the US by 2030. The Amazon Web Services cloud business alone was projected to need 210,000 to 336,000 tech employees by 2031, or at least 123,000 additional workers. Yet, Amazon is not perceived as a particularly attractive workplace even by its own employees, the report found. Corporate employees said they were subject to long hours and exhausting workloads. Sometimes, even finding answers to trivial HR policies led to confusion. For frontline workers, Amazon wants to provide more behavioral health support and reduce injuries like musculoskeletal disorders, which are more common at its warehouses than other similar facilities
. "Neither corporate nor front-line employees feel Amazon is a place they can clearly grow their careers and achieve personal success," the report stated.
The report identified six areas where Amazon sees room for improvement, including work-life balance and compensation and benefits.
So what they're saying is.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:So what they're saying is.... (Score:5, Interesting)
Same thing happened to Mao. He led a revolution that gained control of a country, but he didn't know how to *run* a country. So he decided to stick with what he knew, declaring a state of *permanent revolution*. And so they had the Cultural Revolution. When a successful revolutionary gets nostalgic, look out.
When an entrepreneur leads a startup, people devote a few years of their lives slaving for him with the promise of a pot of gold when the IPO happens. But after that whoever leads the company had better find a way to succeeds without requiring his employees to devote their lives to him, because there's no pot of gold to promise them. If employees don't find their employment to be rewarding, or at least bearable *now*, you won't keep them.
Re: So what they're saying is.... (Score:3)
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Exactly *how* am I misinterpreting Mao?
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Mao killed more people than Jeff Bezos.
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Sure, but I wasn't comparing that particular aspect of their leadership.
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Cut him some slack. He saw a meme somewhere, and he has to repost it, but Slashdot doesn't allow images.
Wait, you were expecting him to read, comprehend, and engage with your analysis?
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They're intertwined. You can not have one without the other.
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Sure you can. It depends on which end of the stick you're looking at. Someone who commits mass murder of his own people is surely a dictator, but everyone who acts dictatorially is not necessarily a mass murderer.
Re: So what they're saying is.... (Score:1)
Lay off the Mao Mix. It's hurting your brain. (Score:5, Informative)
And Mao was correct; but, as I understand it, he inexplicably threw that gauntlet down and then stepped back leaving a power vacuum. Most of the loss of life happened in that vacuum and lack of guidance as various factions fought for power and his approval.
Mao "stepped back" a month after he died when his wife and the rest of the handpicked Gang of Four were arrested.
Only then was the country free to move away from the cultural revolution lunacy.
Calling that shit "correct", you might as well call Nazi death camps correct.
You DO realize you are giving praise to a fucking genocide? [wikipedia.org]
Genocide involving mass cannibalism justified with political reasons? [wikipedia.org]
That getting through the Mao Mix?
Particularly in the light of your very words showing understanding that Mao could have stopped it all at any time - if he wanted to.
He didn't. He couldn't have cared less about millions being killed and tortured. Mao thought there were to many people in China anyway. [newyorker.com]
China is such a populous nation, it is not as if we cannot do without a few people.
That's Mao on death tole of "cultural revolution".
Also, might wanna give a thought to checking your thought process - as it results in Mao being both out of power (which he clearly wasn't) AND those "factions actually in power" fighting over his approval.
If people "in power" kowtow to someone - that someone is actually in power.
Re: Lay off the Mao Mix. It's hurting your brain. (Score:2, Insightful)
I said Mao was correct that the class structures of capitalism were reproduced under socialism when the only thing that was changed was the economic base. That was a major problem with the USSR. Stalin thought if you change the economic base the culture will resolve itself. We saw after the collapse of the Soviet Union that society reverted directly back into the harshest form of capitalism.
As for the rest of what you said, it has nothing to
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None of what he posted is "anti-China rhetoric". It is anti-Mao rhetoric.
Your issue is you seem to equate Mao with China, which is the CCP's corrupted view.
China != Mao. China existed before Mao and the CCP, and it will continue exist long after its corrupt influence has been excised from the country.
Re: Lay off the Mao Mix. It's hurting your brain. (Score:2)
Re: Lay off the Mao Mix. It's hurting your brain. (Score:1)
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Nothing has changed in the past 10 years at Amazon
Well, actually one thing has changed to confirm your point.
A growing demand for unions.
Go figure.
Self-relfection (Score:5, Insightful)
Amazon should just stop pretending to be anything other than they are. No one buys the bullshit and it's more demoralizing to have someone lie to your face than to give it to you straight. But if they were capable of that level of self-reflection that wouldn't be vomiting out proto-Newspeak and wondering why it convinces no one.
Re: Self-relfection (Score:2)
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Hmm... More interesting branch than the FP side.
I want to claim retroactive prophecy credit. (Yeah, the oxymoron is intentional.) I look two looks at Amazon over twenty years ago and said "Never again." Hain't seen nothing since then to make me reconsider.
One minor reservation to some of the anti-Jeff stuff. I think he's largely detached himself from Amazon and is focusing on other kinds of sociopathic behaviors. I don't want to make it sound ad hominem, but the whole point of the story is that the people m
Re: Self-relfection (Score:2)
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Just the ACK, nothing much to add.
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"People matter"...Simon Sinek's observations concur with this.
Earth's Best Employer (Score:4, Funny)
They are. Because they plant so many employees there.
Grass is green (Score:3)
Huh. How about that (Score:2)
In June of 2021 there was this story [businessinsider.com] where Amazon execs were worried they'd run out of people to hire because of the huge amount of churn they had. Wonder if this story is related to this study.
Amazon has been hiring hundreds of thousands of workers for roles in its warehouses, which it calls fulfillment centers, but those employees have been quitting almost as fast as they can be hired, according to a huge report from The New York Times published on Tuesday.
Many of the over 350,000 workers Amazon hired from July to October stayed with the company "just days or weeks," the report said.
Bag of spiders (Score:5, Interesting)
The problem is management, starting from the top. They're all greedy little spiders.
Now, now... let's not overact. (Score:2)
He couldn't have been both a spider AND a worm.
Re: Now, now... let's not overact. (Score:2)
This is very insulting to spiders. (Score:2)
They do something useful.
I ended up passing on Amazon... (Score:2, Informative)
I got an offer from Amazon, but between that reputation and an offer elsewhere at a company where I liked the people I talked to more, I ended up going elsewhere... even though Amazon was offering a bit more money.
Now I'm even more glad that I did as it seems Amazon is letting some people go at the moment and freezing hiring. It's a good lesson for others to keep in mind not just to accept jobs for resume potential, you have to decide on the whole package what would be better for you personally in terms of
Re: I ended up passing on Amazon... (Score:3)
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These things do NOT exist for your benefit.
True but still helpful (Score:1)
Man, you had me until the part about the leadership principles. They're like horoscopes and biblical scripture; You can interpret them and bend them to mean whatever biases you started with
Absolutely I agree.
BUT they provide interesting facets for introspection. You absolutely can interpret things you do in ways to match each one; but it means you have to remember enough about what you did to do so. Then you come up with an angle that fits especially well and is more meaningful and you can use that to tell
Re: True but still helpful (Score:3)
I can just say, having formerly been religious and having worked at Amazon, the leadership principles are just used to signal corporate submission or dominance.
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I can just say, having formerly been religious and having worked at Amazon, the leadership principles are just used to signal corporate submission or dominance.
Interesting, they do give off that vibe.
Psychopaths (Score:3)
What did they expect?
How could anyone other than psychopaths work in Amazon management?
Intersting thing about stress (Score:5, Interesting)
Besides being treated by sunlight, exercise, quality food, and sex, some folk think it is evolutionary.
Studies of baboons show that stress happens in three situations: 1) When another is trying to take your spot in the hierarchy.
2) When you are the lowest in the hierarchy
3) When you feel there is no chance for improvement (when the baboon was losing every fight, i.e. on the way down).
It does not surprise me low status jobs like those offered by Amazon increase stress.
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The short answer is 'keeping-up with the Jones-es': We derive much status from general approval by the tribe. Humans want to shun anyone who's different, so the need to belong and be 'normal' is strong. Normally, we belong to a family, then we create our own family (marriage) for belonging. Sometimes family is replaced by a gang or military service.
Point 2) means you have nothing; no family, friends or wealth to provide approval or protection. (That is, no safety net.) Point 3) happens for similar re
Is that a joke? (Score:2)
"Earth's Best Employer"?
I dare every single idiot who came up with this "initiative" to work a week on the packing floor or in delivery and then discuss that bullshit with them.
Holy shit, how detached from reality can you be?
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Intake at an FC can be pretty chill. Pack sucks. Not sure about anyone downstream from pack.
I'm shocked, shocked! (Score:2)
...to find stress, burnout, churn, and a cutthroat atmosphere in an American technology corporation!
"Here's your share price increases, Captain Renault."
Oh, thank you very much.
so, working as designed then (Score:2)
The idea is that the people at the top figure out just how much bullshit the people at the bottom can take.
Actually they want to _exceed_ that level if they can and work towards a new floor.
That only works if you have a large enough pool of potential employees.
Also, an environment like this selects for the absolute most atrocious people to end up in management and perpetuating the cycle.
i work at amazon... (Score:3, Interesting)
...but that's saying that i work at a company. amazon is so big that it's unfair to generalize. there's over a million employees. of course, this is just my anecdote
i particularly work for aws, which as you may know is the amazon company that brings most of the profit. and i work as an entry level support engineer
compensation is roughly on par with other companies. i earn 92k and i live in texas
work life balance is great. i work a shift 5 days a week and i hardly ever work late and no one requires me to
benefits, this is where i believe the most improvement can be made. 401k and rsu are worse compared to other tech companies. amazon only puts in 2%. they don't even give us prime for free. they give us a 10% voucher for amazon purchases up to $1000 (basically they give us $100 a year for free). healthcare policy is meh
having said this, the average engineer lasts less than 3 years in the job that i have, but not because they quit amazon, they usually find another job within the company that is more prestigious, as eventually you will get tired of working the same cases every day. they tend to move to either technical account manager or solutions architect
What??? (Score:2)
You mean the Amazen booths [youtube.com] didn't induce workers to pack up their troubles and smile, smile, smile? I'm shocked!
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How detached from reality do you have to be to think this is a good idea?
Do they even notice they treat their workers like cattle?
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Do they even notice they treat their workers like cattle?
Notice? I'm sure it's in the 'unofficial' verbal job description that new hires above a certain level are given during orientation. I expect to see at some point a leak of the 'Amazon Papers' - internal eyes-only documents wherein warehouse workers and delivery drivers are referred to as "herds"...
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I said it before, I say it again: Some people are just still alive because they ain't worth a second of jail time.
No way (Score:2)
Not a surprise at all (Score:1)
This is not a secret, in the last year quite a few AWS people left primarily because stock is a large part of total comp and it is down almost 50%, so Amazon pay is trending below market average - especially for those who've been there over 4 years and did not get a promotion. It is pretty clear trend if you keep an eye on LinkedIn posts from folks who are leaving.
Culturally, Amazon is a high performance culture and it is required to always stay on top of things - which is not well positioned for work/life
Exec who commissioned all this: (Score:2)
Stoolie: Yeah, yeah, here's the investigative on the unions....and here's cost of living...
PHB: Cost of wha? No no. We wont need that. And how exactly is it that we are actually spending money on tampons