4 ms·

I'm at Amazon (non-tech; 3 different orgs; so literally NYTimes' focus or whatnot). Your first paragraph is exactly how I describe Amazon to people. You either

by justinv 10y ago

I'm at Amazon (non-tech; 3 different orgs; so literally NYTimes' focus or whatnot). Your first paragraph is exactly how I describe Amazon to people. You either love the culture - or you hate it. There are very few people I know who are ambivalent about working there. It's hard work. It's important work. It's demanding work. It's not for everyone.

serge2k 10y ago
> It's hard work. It's important work. It's demanding work. It's not for everyone. It's needlessly hard and too much of it is unimportant. Do you really think people at Google/Facebook/Microsoft/etc... aren't working hard? Aren't working on things they think are important? The job isn't demanding? Yet the horror stories consistently come from Amazon.
- ex_amazon_sde 10y ago
  The company has a pattern of bruteforcing through problems using lots of sweat instead of thinking and planning more. Almost ironically, Amazon has a principle called "Bias for Action".
kafkaesq 10y ago
Hard work, get it. But what about the stories of people bringing their laptops into the bathroom stalls (which are always packed to the gills because why would Jeff want to waste money on, you know, extra bathrooms and stuff)? And once there, talking to each other about work stuff while doing, you know, their "business"? Taken together, these anecdotes paint a picture of a company that's not just hard-driven, but... weird. And in some corners, apparently kind of gross.
- jaffa214525 10y ago
  No one takes their laptop to the stalls and they are not packed.
  - kafkaesq 10y ago
    Both of you: any thoughts about this article? http://motherboard.vice.com/read/at-amazon-employees-treat-the-bathroom-as-an-extension-of-the-office http://motherboard.vice.com/read/at-amazon-employees-treat-t... Particularly this little vignette: Even more alarming was the bathroom culture. I can only speak to the men’s room, most of which each had two urinals and two stalls. I come from a background where a bathroom is a place where you do a certain kind of business, in silence, and you leave. At Amazon, the men’s room is an extension of the office. People chitchat about work in the bathroom, as if it is just another meeting room where you can piss everywhere. The most horrifying moment of my employment at Amazon was the time I was using the toilet and a coworker began talking from the stall next to me. He asked me why I had not responded to his very pressing email. I closed my eyes and pretended this wasn’t happening. What email could be so important that it could not wait five minutes for me to use the bathroom? He began tapping on the wall between our stalls, asking why I wouldn’t respond, as if inter-stall conversation should be a totally normal, not disgusting means of communication. He became more specific about what he needed—referencing a project I’d never heard of, nor would I ever have involvement in—and I realized he had misidentified me from my shoes. (Many brown dress shoes look alike, apparently.) We both exited our stalls around the same time, and he realized his mistake. He didn’t apologize, only explained that he thought I was someone else. As we washed our hands, he just laughed, and I vowed I would never use the stalls on that floor again. Is the guy lying? Just imagining things? Please share your thoughts.
- mter 10y ago
  > But what about the stories of people bringing their laptops into the bathroom stalls There's no where else to put it if you need to go to the bathroom and you take your laptop. I mean, some people just leave it at the sink but eh. But laptop into a stall to work? No. > which are always packed to the gills because why would Jeff want to waste money on, you know, extra bathrooms and stuff Most of the buildings weren't owned by amazon. So they have a normal amount of stalls. Which is a problem on the floors with lots of devs because we have the normal dev demographics.

by justinv 10y ago

serge2k 10y ago

> It's hard work. It's important work. It's demanding work. It's not for everyone. It's needlessly hard and too much of it is unimportant. Do you really think people at Google/Facebook/Microsoft/etc... aren't working hard? Aren't working on things they think are important? The job isn't demanding? Yet the horror stories consistently come from Amazon.

ex_amazon_sde 10y ago
The company has a pattern of bruteforcing through problems using lots of sweat instead of thinking and planning more. Almost ironically, Amazon has a principle called "Bias for Action".

kafkaesq 10y ago

Hard work, get it. But what about the stories of people bringing their laptops into the bathroom stalls (which are always packed to the gills because why would Jeff want to waste money on, you know, extra bathrooms and stuff)? And once there, talking to each other about work stuff while doing, you know, their "business"? Taken together, these anecdotes paint a picture of a company that's not just hard-driven, but... weird. And in some corners, apparently kind of gross.

jaffa214525 10y ago
No one takes their laptop to the stalls and they are not packed.
- kafkaesq 10y ago
  Both of you: any thoughts about this article? http://motherboard.vice.com/read/at-amazon-employees-treat-the-bathroom-as-an-extension-of-the-office http://motherboard.vice.com/read/at-amazon-employees-treat-t... Particularly this little vignette: Even more alarming was the bathroom culture. I can only speak to the men’s room, most of which each had two urinals and two stalls. I come from a background where a bathroom is a place where you do a certain kind of business, in silence, and you leave. At Amazon, the men’s room is an extension of the office. People chitchat about work in the bathroom, as if it is just another meeting room where you can piss everywhere. The most horrifying moment of my employment at Amazon was the time I was using the toilet and a coworker began talking from the stall next to me. He asked me why I had not responded to his very pressing email. I closed my eyes and pretended this wasn’t happening. What email could be so important that it could not wait five minutes for me to use the bathroom? He began tapping on the wall between our stalls, asking why I wouldn’t respond, as if inter-stall conversation should be a totally normal, not disgusting means of communication. He became more specific about what he needed—referencing a project I’d never heard of, nor would I ever have involvement in—and I realized he had misidentified me from my shoes. (Many brown dress shoes look alike, apparently.) We both exited our stalls around the same time, and he realized his mistake. He didn’t apologize, only explained that he thought I was someone else. As we washed our hands, he just laughed, and I vowed I would never use the stalls on that floor again. Is the guy lying? Just imagining things? Please share your thoughts.
mter 10y ago
> But what about the stories of people bringing their laptops into the bathroom stalls There's no where else to put it if you need to go to the bathroom and you take your laptop. I mean, some people just leave it at the sink but eh. But laptop into a stall to work? No. > which are always packed to the gills because why would Jeff want to waste money on, you know, extra bathrooms and stuff Most of the buildings weren't owned by amazon. So they have a normal amount of stalls. Which is a problem on the floors with lots of devs because we have the normal dev demographics.