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I'm getting really sick of HN's attitude toward Amazon employees. Not Amazon, hate all you want on the company, but I really think the the "only a desperate mor

I'm getting really sick of HN's attitude toward Amazon employees. Not Amazon, hate all you want on the company, but I really think the the "only a desperate moron would work at Amazon" type comments don't belong here. I love my job, but reading HN makes me feel like I should hate it. This is a place that told me to "take as much time as I need" when I got married, told me the same thing again when my dad was taken to the hospital two months later, and again when my father-in-law had a heart attack a month after that. I will never forget the kindness I've been shown in one of the most difficult years of my life. I know that my experience doesn't align with everyone's. But this broad categorization of Amazon employees as "desperate" or "corporate drones" is just false.

st3v3r 10y ago
Then work to change your company's culture. Speak out against those doing what makes headlines here. It's not on us to make sure that Amazon employees are positively represented. It's on you to make sure that Amazon employees deserve to be positively represented.
- andrewguenther 10y ago
  I do what I can, but any opinion that contradicts the HN hivemind makes me a corporate shill. At this point, Amazon could save a truckload of puppies and HN would find a way to make it evil.
- user5994461 10y ago
  Agree. I'd like to see more spam in favor of Amazon if that's your experience.
  - andrewguenther 10y ago
    But that's not the content that the HN echo chamber wants to see. Amazon is a terrible place to work, so we can only upvote stories that support that opinion. The last time I saw a positive Amazon article on the front page, the comments were filled with absolute vitriol. Amazon could cure cancer and HN would bemoan how terrible the on-call must be for whoever ran the protein folding servers.
    - linkregister 10y ago
      You have a positive upvote balance (so far) for your comments. I believe you are victimizing Amazon employees and taking comments personally. Anyone on HN who hasn't worked at Amazon has to rely on the experiences of those who have. And there is a large amount of negative accounts, especially compared to other companies. Whining about a hive-mind is a self-fulfilling prophesy. Sustaining an opposing view when people generalize about employment at Amazon is a good way to change minds. HN is about entrepreneurial activity and technology, not fatalism.
delegate 10y ago
Don't worry, this is good for Amazon and you. If Amazon has the wisdom to hear all this criticism, then the company culture should improve and you will all be happier as employees. If it doesn't, then you'll eventually see it yourself and it will be easier for you to quit. Note that we actually work for our bosses - and they work for theirs. We don't do company work, we do what our bosses decide we should do. So a corporation is a group of people working on goals set by others. If you follow the recursion, you'll notice that these changes need to come from the very top, so that's where you need to knock if you want to improve your company's image.
- andrewguenther 10y ago
  Criticism of Amazon the company is good, I'm fine with that. What bothers me is the insults toward the engineers who work there.
ex_amazon_sde 10y ago
Ex-Amazon here. The good technical skills of my peers was the highlight of being there. Many had offers from the usual Google/Facebook/Twitter & co. No, they weren't desperate. People here are criticizing the management, not the engineers.
- andrewguenther 10y ago
  > People here are criticizing the management, not the engineers. They are though. I have seen Amazon engineers referred to as "desperate", "morons", and "idiots" in multiple threads here on HN. I'm fine with criticizing management. I encourage it. But criticizing the engineers simply for working here is an unfair generalization.
  - lerpa 10y ago
    That kind of name calling is way over the top and inapropriate, but to be fair you can be a genius while having a lower bar for what is acceptable during an interview.

st3v3r 10y ago

Then work to change your company's culture. Speak out against those doing what makes headlines here. It's not on us to make sure that Amazon employees are positively represented. It's on you to make sure that Amazon employees deserve to be positively represented.

andrewguenther 10y ago
I do what I can, but any opinion that contradicts the HN hivemind makes me a corporate shill. At this point, Amazon could save a truckload of puppies and HN would find a way to make it evil.
user5994461 10y ago
Agree. I'd like to see more spam in favor of Amazon if that's your experience.
- andrewguenther 10y ago
  But that's not the content that the HN echo chamber wants to see. Amazon is a terrible place to work, so we can only upvote stories that support that opinion. The last time I saw a positive Amazon article on the front page, the comments were filled with absolute vitriol. Amazon could cure cancer and HN would bemoan how terrible the on-call must be for whoever ran the protein folding servers.
  - linkregister 10y ago
    You have a positive upvote balance (so far) for your comments. I believe you are victimizing Amazon employees and taking comments personally. Anyone on HN who hasn't worked at Amazon has to rely on the experiences of those who have. And there is a large amount of negative accounts, especially compared to other companies. Whining about a hive-mind is a self-fulfilling prophesy. Sustaining an opposing view when people generalize about employment at Amazon is a good way to change minds. HN is about entrepreneurial activity and technology, not fatalism.

delegate 10y ago

Don't worry, this is good for Amazon and you. If Amazon has the wisdom to hear all this criticism, then the company culture should improve and you will all be happier as employees. If it doesn't, then you'll eventually see it yourself and it will be easier for you to quit. Note that we actually work for our bosses - and they work for theirs. We don't do company work, we do what our bosses decide we should do. So a corporation is a group of people working on goals set by others. If you follow the recursion, you'll notice that these changes need to come from the very top, so that's where you need to knock if you want to improve your company's image.

andrewguenther 10y ago
Criticism of Amazon the company is good, I'm fine with that. What bothers me is the insults toward the engineers who work there.

ex_amazon_sde 10y ago

Ex-Amazon here. The good technical skills of my peers was the highlight of being there. Many had offers from the usual Google/Facebook/Twitter & co. No, they weren't desperate. People here are criticizing the management, not the engineers.

andrewguenther 10y ago
> People here are criticizing the management, not the engineers. They are though. I have seen Amazon engineers referred to as "desperate", "morons", and "idiots" in multiple threads here on HN. I'm fine with criticizing management. I encourage it. But criticizing the engineers simply for working here is an unfair generalization.
- lerpa 10y ago
  That kind of name calling is way over the top and inapropriate, but to be fair you can be a genius while having a lower bar for what is acceptable during an interview.