4 ms·

Amazon guy who wrote a rebuttal to NYT worked 100-hour week at another company

56 points by sidcool 11y ago

vacri 11y ago
> Most of us hadn't slept more than an average of 2 hours a night in months. This doesn't pass the sniff test. Not to say that the work in this mysterious company wasn't gruelling, but it makes the numbers suspect.
- thrownaway2424 11y ago
  Maybe they did all their sleeping in the daytime? But you're right that the whole story has the whiff of b.s.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- kzhahou 11y ago
  Sniff test, nothing. This is absolutely ludicrous. 20 hour work-days (9am->5am) for months straight??? Gimme a break. You'd be hallucinating on the second week. For the life of me I don't understand how this humble-brag is repeated year after year by people.
  - skuhn 11y ago
    An occasional 100 hour work week is tough but do-able. Claiming an entire team got an average of 2 hours of sleep a night for months (meaning that some on the team got even less than that) is outright preposterous. It also reeks of "powering through" machismo and I don't believe it happened quite like that. If it did happen though, that is a total failure of leadership. Not only were these people being tormented, they were a danger to themselves and others just driving in to the office every day. Unless the fate of the entire human race relied on the success of their project, everyone involved should have given this ultimatum on the second week of this ordeal: reschedule the project to realistic goals or cancel it entirely, or I quit.
  - Evolved 11y ago
    We've all heard it and done the collective eye roll when people tell us this. Then there's the equally nausea-inducing douche who claims to work less than 40 hours a week and still pull down a healthy six-figure salary, etc.
- EliRivers 11y ago
  It's also a bizarre and somewhat grotesque thing to brag about. I've always been more impressed with successful people who sleep as much as they like because they can afford it, or because they get done in eight hours what sleep-deprived suckers manage in sixteen.
  - brianwawok 11y ago
    For some reason people like to brag about how many hours they put in. Not sure why. What quality work got put in between hour 80 and 90?
    - devonkim 11y ago
      I put down that I worked a lot as a sign of protest and that I have little confidence in my superiors to manage the business properly, not to indicate that I'm being productive or "better" than anyone or anything.
InclinedPlane 11y ago
Relevant: http://pastebin.com/BjD84BQ3 http://pastebin.com/BjD84BQ3 Also, I'll link my critique of amazon's work environment/culture here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Seattle/comments/3hc9gs/jeff_bezos_is_simply_shocked_to_hear_amazon_is_a/cu6ac7r https://www.reddit.com/r/Seattle/comments/3hc9gs/jeff_bezos_... Amazon isn't the worst place to work, certainly, and some parts of it are alright, but it has some enormous, deep seated institutional problems with the way it treats its workers (blue collar and white collar). Fundamentally the problem is that Amazon treats workers like machinery, and even when they aren't being "overworked" in a nominal sense of hours per week they are still often being overburdened in terms of stress and workload. I've had many friends and friendly-acquaintances who have worked for amazon in one capacity or another and nearly universally (with one exception) the story is that it's a decidedly sub-par experience, and many of them leave of their own volition after only 1 or 2 years. For myself I left a significant amount of bonuses and stock grants, let alone salary, on the table to only work 1 year there. There are some things amazon does well, even exceptionally well, but maintaining a healthy work environment is not one of them.
richardwigley 11y ago
>> Disclosure: Jeff Bezos is an investor in Business Insider through his personal investment company Bezos Expeditions. Meh.
Evolved 11y ago
Even if he actually did put in a 100-hour work week (highly suspect as I and probably others question if actual quality work was getting done during all 100 hours or if he counts other activities as part of "working"), he likely was and even admits that he was a walking zombie which definitely calls into question the quality of the work[0]. [0] http://lifehacker.com/working-over-40-hours-a-week-makes-you-less-productive-1725646811 http://lifehacker.com/working-over-40-hours-a-week-makes-you...
kordless 11y ago
Here's the article referenced: http://www.businessinsider.com/an-amazonians-response-to-inside-amazon-wrestling-big-ideas-in-a-bruising-workplace-2015-8?_ga=1.59315822.299718283.1439354017 http://www.businessinsider.com/an-amazonians-response-to-ins... That is a seriously dense piece that took major effort to write.
pinewurst 11y ago
Direct pointer to referenced article to avoid parsing it from BI clickbait: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20141208045206-6976444--the-work-death-march-a-survivor-s-tale?trk=prof-post https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20141208045206-6976444--the-w... This is definitely about Microsoft - the "HiPo" reference gives it away and I think worth reading. I knew someone in that same period who was killing himself there, sleeping in his office for one dubious effort after another.

56 points by sidcool 11y ago

vacri 11y ago

> Most of us hadn't slept more than an average of 2 hours a night in months. This doesn't pass the sniff test. Not to say that the work in this mysterious company wasn't gruelling, but it makes the numbers suspect.

thrownaway2424 11y ago
Maybe they did all their sleeping in the daytime? But you're right that the whole story has the whiff of b.s.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
kzhahou 11y ago
Sniff test, nothing. This is absolutely ludicrous. 20 hour work-days (9am->5am) for months straight??? Gimme a break. You'd be hallucinating on the second week. For the life of me I don't understand how this humble-brag is repeated year after year by people.
- skuhn 11y ago
  An occasional 100 hour work week is tough but do-able. Claiming an entire team got an average of 2 hours of sleep a night for months (meaning that some on the team got even less than that) is outright preposterous. It also reeks of "powering through" machismo and I don't believe it happened quite like that. If it did happen though, that is a total failure of leadership. Not only were these people being tormented, they were a danger to themselves and others just driving in to the office every day. Unless the fate of the entire human race relied on the success of their project, everyone involved should have given this ultimatum on the second week of this ordeal: reschedule the project to realistic goals or cancel it entirely, or I quit.
- Evolved 11y ago
  We've all heard it and done the collective eye roll when people tell us this. Then there's the equally nausea-inducing douche who claims to work less than 40 hours a week and still pull down a healthy six-figure salary, etc.
EliRivers 11y ago
It's also a bizarre and somewhat grotesque thing to brag about. I've always been more impressed with successful people who sleep as much as they like because they can afford it, or because they get done in eight hours what sleep-deprived suckers manage in sixteen.
- brianwawok 11y ago
  For some reason people like to brag about how many hours they put in. Not sure why. What quality work got put in between hour 80 and 90?
  - devonkim 11y ago
    I put down that I worked a lot as a sign of protest and that I have little confidence in my superiors to manage the business properly, not to indicate that I'm being productive or "better" than anyone or anything.

InclinedPlane 11y ago

Relevant: http://pastebin.com/BjD84BQ3 http://pastebin.com/BjD84BQ3 Also, I'll link my critique of amazon's work environment/culture here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Seattle/comments/3hc9gs/jeff_bezos_is_simply_shocked_to_hear_amazon_is_a/cu6ac7r https://www.reddit.com/r/Seattle/comments/3hc9gs/jeff_bezos_... Amazon isn't the worst place to work, certainly, and some parts of it are alright, but it has some enormous, deep seated institutional problems with the way it treats its workers (blue collar and white collar). Fundamentally the problem is that Amazon treats workers like machinery, and even when they aren't being "overworked" in a nominal sense of hours per week they are still often being overburdened in terms of stress and workload. I've had many friends and friendly-acquaintances who have worked for amazon in one capacity or another and nearly universally (with one exception) the story is that it's a decidedly sub-par experience, and many of them leave of their own volition after only 1 or 2 years. For myself I left a significant amount of bonuses and stock grants, let alone salary, on the table to only work 1 year there. There are some things amazon does well, even exceptionally well, but maintaining a healthy work environment is not one of them.

richardwigley 11y ago

>> Disclosure: Jeff Bezos is an investor in Business Insider through his personal investment company Bezos Expeditions. Meh.

Evolved 11y ago

Even if he actually did put in a 100-hour work week (highly suspect as I and probably others question if actual quality work was getting done during all 100 hours or if he counts other activities as part of "working"), he likely was and even admits that he was a walking zombie which definitely calls into question the quality of the work[0]. [0] http://lifehacker.com/working-over-40-hours-a-week-makes-you-less-productive-1725646811 http://lifehacker.com/working-over-40-hours-a-week-makes-you...

kordless 11y ago

Here's the article referenced: http://www.businessinsider.com/an-amazonians-response-to-inside-amazon-wrestling-big-ideas-in-a-bruising-workplace-2015-8?_ga=1.59315822.299718283.1439354017 http://www.businessinsider.com/an-amazonians-response-to-ins... That is a seriously dense piece that took major effort to write.

pinewurst 11y ago

Direct pointer to referenced article to avoid parsing it from BI clickbait: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20141208045206-6976444--the-work-death-march-a-survivor-s-tale?trk=prof-post https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20141208045206-6976444--the-w... This is definitely about Microsoft - the "HiPo" reference gives it away and I think worth reading. I knew someone in that same period who was killing himself there, sleeping in his office for one dubious effort after another.