amztawy_1190

Word of advice to anyone. Don’t complain about your boss, in any company, very few cases it will end up in your favor. Second, never complain to HR. As Oleg said, HR is to protect the company, not you.

I’m very saddened it ended up this way. I don’t know the full story so I can’t judge. But if even half of what he says is true, everyone involved should be fired.

Having that said, I work for AWS and pretty happy but I’m very concerned I keep hearing cases like this in the media. Maybe when the dust is settled I’ll try to take apply to his team and this will give me an excuse to see their culture from first hand. So far all employees I personally know didn’t have similar issues, but maybe I’m just lucky.

I’m not located in Seattle, but if I was there, and got the details, and was convinced Oleg is right I’d try to mobilize some like minded people, make sure there is no clause forbidding me to do so as I like to have a job, maybe give my boss a heads up (maybe he would even join) and I’d be happy to join his protest. But I believe this should start internally, it will look better to leadership if some of us for example write a one pager on this amazon good bad discrepancy and that the fact many teams are happy doesn’t cover the fact there are apparently some toxic ones. I love my job and I hate the fact the same company can cause others have the opposite experience, it hurts them but also much to lesser extent, hurts all of us at Amazon. Ego hurt, can intimidate candidates, lost prestige. Small problems but still should make us all concerned and driven for action to fix it.

Which team? Before I joined I spoke with a few friends who work there (after reading the NYT article and comments like yours) and got positive feedback. I work here for the past 3 years and so far touch wood nothing even near this. Pretty happy all in all. It’s like people talk about a different company. I’m at AWS, Sr SDE, any teams the above warning is more applicable to? Asking for myself in case I want to switch a teams to know what to avoid but also since we are hiring, I’d like others to know if it’s a specific team / department to avoid... Also, all of us in “good teams” should take ownership and figure out how to systematically fix the issues others obviously experience in other teams. If it’s a specific branch or department, I’d like to see all amazon employees protest to eradicate any toxic bosses / culture in these teams. I just have no way in knowing which ones are, it’s a huge company

I have a pretty lucky experience with amazon (Sr. SDE at AWS for 3 years) but I completely agree, I’m sure my boss won’t be vindictive if I live a bad connections feedback but I won’t take my chances, also in my previous company I was on a L1 visa which also marries you to the employer, I had bad bosses and great bosses there but I treaded like on thin ice there, trying to stay positive, avoid rocking the boat, as soon as I got my green card and was allowed to switch I moved to AWS. This sounds to me like a bad boss situation and maybe also bad choices situation. In any case I don’t know the details, I hope he sees justice and find happiness, but he’s painting a picture that is totally different than what I experience. It’s a huge company, all I can say it’s nothing like what I experience. Had my doubts, read the NYT article, asked a friend, he swore to me he has no clue where it came from, maybe AWS is much better than retail... but I’m sure anywhere in any big companies you’ll see cases like this. Hope it’s resolved and justice prevails. No one should suffer like this.

Sounds terrible and hope justice prevails. I’m not familiar with the case but in case anyone wondering or caring, I work for AWS and never heard of any similar cases in any of the teams I’m working with. It’s a big company and there are some bad bosses apparently. I wouldn’t have taken that approach personally even if I was in his shoes but I’m not in his shoes and don’t know all the facts. I hope this gets resolved but this is far from my own experience (3 years in AWS as a Sr SDE)