Amazon boss Jeff Bezos defends company's workplace culture

I'm not surprised he feels this way, being solely unaccountable in the way that his employees are and primarily responsible for both denying and preserving the culture.

> Mr Ciubotariu invoked the company's culture of fun in his LinkedIn post. "We have Nerf wars, almost daily, that often get a bit out of hand," he wrote.

Did this make anyone else cringe? You couldn't pick an example that better demonstrated an awkward, forced element of corporate "fun."

I have to wonder, though, what he means by them getting "a bit out of hand":

- "fun" exhaustion?

- loss of place in stack ranking system?

- injuries? deaths?

- productivity lost to spontaneous bouts of letter-writing from employees to their friends about how much fun it is to work at Amazon?

I work at a large enterprise (5,000+ employees) and this is a huge problem for us. Upper management has a vision for the organization, but it gets lost on its way down the chain. A simple phrase is the main culprit: "...<any given policy> is up to manager discretion."

For example, upper management: "We are creating a flexible part-time teleworking agreement whereby employees can work from home up to 2 days per week. Usage of this arrangement is up to manager discretion." Lower management: "I know about the new teleworking option, but our department is not participating because how can anyone get work done at home?"

If upper management does not actively monitor and intervene with stifling lower-level managers, they can definitely create an organization that, in practice, differs greatly from the one they imagine, the one they wanted to create.

Of course, that would not maximize profits at amazon or most other companies so that's not really what will happen.

It's easy for management to say how peachy things are when they are the people who very well might be (unknowingly) creating this culture.

The most amazing part about all of this is that not a single person who has come out saying this is false has said they will either look into it themselves or put their money where their mouths are and do something about it. It's easy to be the general when the guns aren't pointed at you.

That's sort of like being the National Security Adviser and telling all NSA agents, "if you notice anything illicit, please email me personally [whereafter you will receive a personal drone visit]".

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/amazonians-response-inside-am...

Understandably, a story that could have been titled "Nick Ciubotariu from Amazon responds to criticism" is not as eye-catching as "Jeff Bezos defends company's workplace"

This reminds me of Rackspace. Rackspace claims to have this great fun environment and they love their employees and they're always doing this fun stuff at work. I know a handful of people that work there and I'm always being told about the elaborate pranks games going on.

Then I wonder why it takes them 2 days for a sales specialist to call me back, 6 hours to respond to a support ticket or it takes them 45 minutes to locate my server in one of their datacenters.

Well, if you're willingly working nights and weekends (which we know you do, as you penned the response on a Saturday), then of course nobody is going to tell you to do so. This statement does nothing to disprove that those who wish to have lives outside the workplace aren't harassed by their coworkers and/or managers.

Oh well, this seems to be a bit hypocritical. ("Hey Mr. Bezos, my boss, John Doe (cc'd!) wants me to do this task until tomorrow, but it's 8 pm. What do you think about this?")

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/02/mac-mcclelland-f...

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7902887

It is helpful to be aware of how all different types of workers are treated when evaluating whether or not to work for a company.

I'll even include the Amazon link =p http://www.amazon.com/The-Everything-Store-Bezos-Amazon/dp/0...

All of what we've been told about the war for talent, desire for caring work places, etc. seems to be exaggerated. Companies can literally have a policy of "be happy you have a job, punk" for professionals for YEARS, and people will suck it up. Morale does have an impact but not as much as you'd think once your company is large enough AND it is successful. One commonality in both companies is that they are very data driven. Eliminating a costly perk? Do it and see what the data says. Make a change to a major process that people are resisting? Do it, fire any insubordinates, and see what the data says. Basically don't take management policy or process for granted unless you have data to back it up.

There's a line between tough and abusive, however, and this seems to be where Amazon's (and other tough cultures) walk the line.

:facepalm: I hate this part of the popular culture where developers are seen as kids or weirdos with no social skills.

We have to make clear that we didn't like nerf wars neither overworking, if we didn't respect us nobody is gonna do it.

Amazon and most other companies have separate staff, culture and levels of morale for engineering and non engineering divisions. Can't really compare them directly.

H1 would have to leave (the country) if they lose their job, so they are stuck working for a bad boss. Women can sense that, hey, this makes no sense faster than man who is somewhat expected to 'solider on'.

If there was less H1 (but more legal immigration other ways), than that would force a turn around and encourage more welcoming places. And less bad bosses.

I even look at product manager job postings and cringe: 'hold engineering team accountable for commitments'. The issue maybe that there is H1, that there are people willing to do it.

My note: Zero tolerance policies without recourse for correction are a perfect example of the Amazon inhumanity. Straight from the mouth of the leader. There's your culture problem right there.