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Comment by atomical | Hacker News Reader

From reading answers on Quora I came to the conclusion that Amazon employees aren't given expensive perks (i.e. computers and work place furniture). Are things changing at Amazon?

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10 year Amazonian here. I think we have one of the most expensive perks of all: an active, expansive, downtown campus. That's not cheap, those towers cost billions, and there's a reason many big technology competitors are in more suburban locations (Redmond, Mountain View, Kirkland, etc ...). But it really is something to be able to get to and from work relatively quickly via public transport, to be in the middle of a cool city with great restaurants and food trucks, and to be so easily able to socialize with colleagues and friends.

But it's true that we don't have free cafeterias, free sodas, gyms (though we do have free on-campus workouts and yoga classes) and so on. We do have some other unusual perks though: our mailrooms get the "Amazon" shipping rates from USPS/DHL/FedEx, and since Amazon is one of their biggest customers, it's really really cheap to ship personal packages. We have a dog park with awesome puppies that's 17 stories up, with a crazy view of the Puget Sound and Downtown Seattle.

There's lots of less tangible things like that, but in general, people aren't here for the perks.

> get to and from work relatively quickly via public transport

I have to lol a little at this, given that it's faster to walk up Denny than take the 8 bus during rush hour.

Doesn't get more "public transport" than using a public sidewalk via free manual transport. ;)

(The fact that you can feasibly walk to work is an even bigger benefit.)

I have never thought of location and a building as a perk. It is easy for even a moderately funded company to have an office in the downtown of any major city.

A perk is not a perk because of the ease of providing it or its cost. It's a perk because it's a benefit not part of core compensation. And it is true, none of the other tech giants have downtown HQs (although plenty of Google satellite offices are in urban centers, at least).

There is a formal definition, but not everyone will agree building and location are perks.

Food trucks and restaurants aplenty. Being in an urban campus is one of my favorite things about being here (also for 10 years)

so, being able to buy lunch from a food truck is a benefit of working at Amazon?

Having access to the significant diversity of food choices that downtown Seattle offers, that non-urban campuses do not, is the obvious perk.

Finding free perks outside of work is the perk.

Personally, my perk is Gold Club in downtown SF.

I've worked at some of the FANGs, including Amazon. As far as their standard workspace equipment goes (e.g. computers, desk, monitors, etc...), they seemed to be more or less at parity with the other companies. The workspaces used to be on the drab side, but they've taken to modernizing them with bright colors and lounge furniture in common areas that looks trendy but is damned uncomfortable. They don't really have any perks like high-quality micro-kitchens (except at subsidiaries and sites where those sorts of perks are standard locally), cafes, gyms, etc...

EDIT: I should mention that I'm pretty easy when it comes to things like computer hardware and desks. I just need a terminal, chair to sit in, plain old desk, and I'll be happy. I might not notice any differentiating factors other people find important...

Amazon are probably the only large monopolistic tech company that make employees pay for their own lunch.

EDIT: I am mollycoddled and wrong (see below).

Which is great for the city. Amazon's big perk is that they're in the city and since they don't feed the staff there are tons of restaurants to walk to.

There are also thousands of other companies in the city as well.

None nearly as large as Amazon... Amazon has 19% of all prime office space in the whole city [1] and they're concentrated over a fairly small number of blocks. They're bigger than the next 40 largest employers combined.

[1] https://www.seattletimes.com/business/amazon/thanks-to-amazo...

So does Microsoft.

Amazon doesn't have free soda though

Out of the FAANG's neither Apple nor Amazon provide free lunch (although Apple's on-site cafes are very good. You pay $5-10 for an entree, depending on what you get).

Going by Glassdoor, Netflix doesn't universally provide free food at all its offices either.

My employer provides free meals, and it's amazing how much of an outsized effect it has on my affection for them, relative to the actual cost to them of the perk. I know there's plenty of other perks that they spend more money on than the free food (office in good location, 401k match, and healthcare for starters), but the free food really sticks out as something I'm appreciative of. I'd definitely miss it once I no longer had it.

> My employer provides free meals

Do you mean most big tech employers in the US?

I've never heard of an Australian company providing food for employees. Is it common in the US, or just amongst the big tech companies?

Well Atlassian's Australian and provides food to employees, as does Seek (also Australian). It isn't full-catered hot food everyday but it's still great.

I haven't heard of a non-tech Australian company that does though, and would certainly say it's a 'big tech company' thing

It's common in the US, not just at big tech companies, but at any "Silicon-Valley-style" tech company of any size. Companies that aren't big enough to have their own cafeteria might have a daily Seamless order, for example.

It's common at some startups because the startup wants to keep the employee at work. Ordering dinner at 6 so it arrives at 7 and employees stay until 8:PM. It happens.

I think it’s just a google-and-people-poaching-googlers thing? (Facebook, Linkedin are the only other two I know of). We did not get free lunch at Apple.

How are computers are a perk? They're required to do your job. And yes, Amazon does provide them. I haven't ever heard of a developer job where you're expected to buy a work computer with your own money, and I've worked at places that had fewer perks than Amazon. I'd flat out refuse to buy my own. Requiring that might even be illegal.

Err, I think OP just meant the computers were not the best, you might not get 2 monitors, or something like that. Not that you don't get a computer at all.

You get a 34” curved monitor or 2 * 27” ones these days. Not uncommon to see engineers with 3 monitors either.

I keep going back and forth on multiple monitors. I'm using one big one right now, which felt better than my previous setup of two displays at first, but now I'm thinking I might want another smaller one off to the side to monitor running terminal output ... ugh.

I will say that two monitors has the significant drawback that there isn't a single central display, so you're always either tilted to the left or to the right relative to your desk. That's not good ergonomics.

I would rather give a developer a $2K signing bonus and tell them to go buy whatever laptop they want... and they own it. That way, if/when their employment ends, we don't have to go through the awkward process of taking the equipment back.

If you get good hardware it's a perk. If you get a hard disk and 8 gigs of ram you won't be as productive.

That's not how I think about it. The fundamental tools required to do your job aren't a perk, they are a necessity. If an employer skimps on the tools in a way that makes their employees less productive, then that is simply penny-wise/pound-foolish thinking from them. I'll use what I'm given at work; I'm certainly not going to spend my own money to buy a better work computer.

It's also true that I'm likely to leave a job that is so cheap they can't provide good computers to their employees, as if they're so short-sighted in that area they're likely bad in other areas as well.

Thinking about it again I agree with you.

Last I checked they don't even get free Prime accounts, the Amazon discount is capped ridiculously low, and the stock vesting schedule is terrible, especially considering how short the tenure is likely to be given how they treat employees. The vibe I get is that you're supposed to think working there is the perk. But you can do so much better elsewhere.

This looks infinitely better than the Facebook industrial-esque spaces, but then this is for a tiny portion of the company's employees.

The workspaces in Amazon buildings are pretty standard (open plans subsectioned off for specific teams, etc) and look pretty similar to the Facebook buildings I've been to at the HQ.

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