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This happened to me: October, we notice an issue when our boss gives us bad specs. Boss insists it came "directly from Bezos." We push back because we know it
by MCRed 11y ago
This happened to me: October, we notice an issue when our boss gives us bad specs. Boss insists it came "directly from Bezos." We push back because we know it's wrong. Boss is a wimp and knows nothing about technology. We talk to peers of bosses boss and boss, and get word to Bezos who confirms he wants to make the change.
So we make the change.
The change exists on the site for weeks. Then the early hours of the day before Thanksgiving, at 2am I am awoken by a page. I check the ticket, Bezos discovered the change. He is livid. Thanksgiving is important. We much fix it. Right then. around 70 people are on the ticket, most of the management above my boss (who is asleep) is weight in and constantly making demands... which means fixing it is hard to do while being bombarded by these people with big titles (and no understanding of engineering. This is a retailer, not a tech company.)
Finally, after around 4 hours I push the fix to production. I managed to get to sleep at around 8:30am.
Then roll into work at 10:05am!
5 minutes late for the daily standup! (Which were always 30 minutes because some useless PM liked to drone on for 25 minutes telling us things we already knew. BTW, she became a rising star- because she was excellent at kissing ass and manipulating people, but I never saw her contribute anything of actual value.)[1]
The DAY before thanksgiving!
To get CHEWED OUT BY MY BOSS for being late!
Because I was up all night fixing something that I had raised as an issue months ago (whole team raised it) and Bezos had changed his mind.
I've been working as an engineer for 25+ years. Amazon was the worst job I ever had. Period. Full stop.
Absolutely incompetent management, and that went from my boss (Who was dealing drugs to employees in the pacmed parking garage on the side) to Bezos himself.
I sincerely hope Blue Origin's first flight ends in disaster and Bezos is aboard. I would consider that justice.
I don't feel that way about any other place I worked. I worked from some jerks, I worked for a lot fop people out of their element, and in a lot of startups that were poorly run... but circumstances. It's understandable.
Amazon is the only truly evil company I worked for, ever. (and that includes Microsoft in the 1990s!)
[1] And since I know we live in the age of SJWs, this isn't misogyny. Most of the women I worked with at Amazon were competent, including one with a significant handicap who was a fantastic engineer despite it.
- sagansucker 11y ago> And since I know we live in the age of SJWs, this isn't misogyny. Says every misogynist ever. That you even used "SJW" unironically proves you're a shitlord.