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From the inside, it feels as though the machine is breaking down. Some easy to point out problems today: hiring freeze for a large swath of the company; the lo

From the inside, it feels as though the machine is breaking down. Some easy to point out problems today: hiring freeze for a large swath of the company; the loss of the very-controversial feedback system[0]; changing leadership principles to remove 'vocally self-critical'; anti-customer behavior like removing Chromecasts. The biggest change that I see is the bureaucracy taking over. A metrics driven company has become a game of who can lie the best with statistics. The leadership principles aren't nearly as important as making your numbers look good. When problems happen, mechanisms like Cause-Of-Error reports, previously used to solve the root problem, become weapons to use against rivals. Blame is the name of the game, not solving problems. And of course you can't make any change without spending a day writing a request to make the change and getting 5 levels of managers to approve it. I think it will get worse. I think it's what will cause Amazon to eventually fail. A body growing fat and old, losing it's ability to fight off real cancers. [0] It was sometimes misused, but the anytime feedback system and end of year feedback helped me grow as a human. I miss it.

beastcoast 9y ago
Amazon is so decentralized that the anti-patterns you list are probably only under your VP. If anything I think the company is taking action to trim bloated orgs. For example there are internal efforts to prune middle management issues. (For those that don’t know, Amazon has only one middle manager level (L7); L6 is a frontline manager and L8 is a director. The anti-pattern is when you have L6 reporting to L6, L7 reporting to L7, L8 reporting to L8, L10 reporting to L10...)
- throwawayamzn52 9y ago
  Having been within three separate orgs within AMZN within the last three years, it's hard to believe this is a problem specific to individual orgs. Too much growth too fast.
  - perseusprime11 9y ago
    Don't you read Bezos's letters? It is still Day 1...
- amzltway 9y ago
  This issue is definitely not isolated at Amazon. It isn't even a regional problem. The same issues exist in offices at Lab126, UK, NYC. It's not a retail problem either.. Go on Blind(the 'anonymous' corp talk app) and you will quickly realize it's a common theme across the entire company.
- throwawayamzn88 9y ago
  > Amazon is so decentralized that the anti-patterns you list are probably only under your VP. One would think so, yet friends in other orgs tell me stories that make me feel the rot has reached the top. Or, those at the top who are't rotted are too far away from anyone doing anything. Jeff Bezos may believe in the Leadership Principles but that doesn't matter if he's 8 levels of management away from the people actually doing anything, and none of those 7 levels in between give a shit about anything other than hitting their numbers.
throwawayamzn17 9y ago
This is going to seem like a stupid nit-pick, but I think it's symptomatic of your experience. COE actually stands for "Correction of Error", not "Cause". It may seem like a trivial nit, but to me it underscores that the essential purpose of the process is to correct errors, not simply to identify causes and blame them on someone. That you or your org or your partner teams seem to be using it not as a tool for correcting errors but for blame, is probably just one of many symptoms of rot within your corner of the org.
jacksmith21006 9y ago
Will add Amazon pulling Twitch from the Roku as additional anti competitive behavior than just the banning of Chromecast.
amyjess 9y ago
> I think it will get worse. I think it's what will cause Amazon to eventually fail. A body growing fat and old, losing it's ability to fight off real cancers. Even if their retail business collapses, they still have AWS. They could stay in business forever just owning a huge swath of the Internet's infrastructure and collecting rent off it.
baxtr 9y ago
That's exactly what I am hearing from my friends at amazon here in Europe. So far, however, it had no significant effect on the performance
gregdunn 9y ago
I won't comment on everything, but: >changing leadership principles to remove 'vocally self-critical' This wasn't removed, it just got moved under Earn Trust. It's certainly still something we talk about when interviewing and in debriefs, and when discussing LPs day to day when reaching decisions, at least in my org. For the rest... I can't say I agree or that I've seen that behavior, based on my experiences over the years I've worked here. I have my gripes and complaints, but nowhere is perfect, and I honestly believe it's the best company I've worked at, which includes some other industry giants.
amzn-throw 9y ago
It sounds like you're not happy in your org. Which is unfortunate, but a lot of what you said doesn't resonate with me. * The hiring freeze is nothing unusual - ask any yellow (>5 years) or red (>10 years) badge - We grow fast and sometimes too fast and need to slow down. There are times for invention, and there are times for optimization. * You still can and should provide feedback to managers, and ask for feedback on yourself. * Vocally self critical got rolled up into Earn Trust. It's still a huge aspect of it, especially during hiring. * The chromecasts are back on the site! The cold war with Google is thawing * I won't comment about metrics - if your business team is fudging numbers, that's on you. * It's CORRECTION-of-error not cause of error. The entire premise is to figure out how to avoid it in the future, not use it as punishment or to point fingers. What orgs do you know that are abusing this system? Name and shame them, if not here then on Blind.
- portmanteaufu 9y ago
  > The chromecasts are back on the site! The cold war with Google is thawing I got excited and searched Amazon for "Chromecast," but came up empty-handed. Could you share a link to the product page?
  - portmanteaufu 9y ago
    Ah, perhaps you were referring to this[1]? [1] https://www.engadget.com/2017/12/14/amazon-start-selling-apple-tv-chromecast/ https://www.engadget.com/2017/12/14/amazon-start-selling-app...

beastcoast 9y ago

Amazon is so decentralized that the anti-patterns you list are probably only under your VP. If anything I think the company is taking action to trim bloated orgs. For example there are internal efforts to prune middle management issues. (For those that don’t know, Amazon has only one middle manager level (L7); L6 is a frontline manager and L8 is a director. The anti-pattern is when you have L6 reporting to L6, L7 reporting to L7, L8 reporting to L8, L10 reporting to L10...)

throwawayamzn52 9y ago
Having been within three separate orgs within AMZN within the last three years, it's hard to believe this is a problem specific to individual orgs. Too much growth too fast.
- perseusprime11 9y ago
  Don't you read Bezos's letters? It is still Day 1...
amzltway 9y ago
This issue is definitely not isolated at Amazon. It isn't even a regional problem. The same issues exist in offices at Lab126, UK, NYC. It's not a retail problem either.. Go on Blind(the 'anonymous' corp talk app) and you will quickly realize it's a common theme across the entire company.
throwawayamzn88 9y ago
> Amazon is so decentralized that the anti-patterns you list are probably only under your VP. One would think so, yet friends in other orgs tell me stories that make me feel the rot has reached the top. Or, those at the top who are't rotted are too far away from anyone doing anything. Jeff Bezos may believe in the Leadership Principles but that doesn't matter if he's 8 levels of management away from the people actually doing anything, and none of those 7 levels in between give a shit about anything other than hitting their numbers.

throwawayamzn17 9y ago

This is going to seem like a stupid nit-pick, but I think it's symptomatic of your experience. COE actually stands for "Correction of Error", not "Cause". It may seem like a trivial nit, but to me it underscores that the essential purpose of the process is to correct errors, not simply to identify causes and blame them on someone. That you or your org or your partner teams seem to be using it not as a tool for correcting errors but for blame, is probably just one of many symptoms of rot within your corner of the org.

jacksmith21006 9y ago

Will add Amazon pulling Twitch from the Roku as additional anti competitive behavior than just the banning of Chromecast.

amyjess 9y ago

> I think it will get worse. I think it's what will cause Amazon to eventually fail. A body growing fat and old, losing it's ability to fight off real cancers. Even if their retail business collapses, they still have AWS. They could stay in business forever just owning a huge swath of the Internet's infrastructure and collecting rent off it.

baxtr 9y ago

That's exactly what I am hearing from my friends at amazon here in Europe. So far, however, it had no significant effect on the performance

gregdunn 9y ago

I won't comment on everything, but: >changing leadership principles to remove 'vocally self-critical' This wasn't removed, it just got moved under Earn Trust. It's certainly still something we talk about when interviewing and in debriefs, and when discussing LPs day to day when reaching decisions, at least in my org. For the rest... I can't say I agree or that I've seen that behavior, based on my experiences over the years I've worked here. I have my gripes and complaints, but nowhere is perfect, and I honestly believe it's the best company I've worked at, which includes some other industry giants.

amzn-throw 9y ago

It sounds like you're not happy in your org. Which is unfortunate, but a lot of what you said doesn't resonate with me. * The hiring freeze is nothing unusual - ask any yellow (>5 years) or red (>10 years) badge - We grow fast and sometimes too fast and need to slow down. There are times for invention, and there are times for optimization. * You still can and should provide feedback to managers, and ask for feedback on yourself. * Vocally self critical got rolled up into Earn Trust. It's still a huge aspect of it, especially during hiring. * The chromecasts are back on the site! The cold war with Google is thawing * I won't comment about metrics - if your business team is fudging numbers, that's on you. * It's CORRECTION-of-error not cause of error. The entire premise is to figure out how to avoid it in the future, not use it as punishment or to point fingers. What orgs do you know that are abusing this system? Name and shame them, if not here then on Blind.

portmanteaufu 9y ago
> The chromecasts are back on the site! The cold war with Google is thawing I got excited and searched Amazon for "Chromecast," but came up empty-handed. Could you share a link to the product page?
- portmanteaufu 9y ago
  Ah, perhaps you were referring to this[1]? [1] https://www.engadget.com/2017/12/14/amazon-start-selling-apple-tv-chromecast/ https://www.engadget.com/2017/12/14/amazon-start-selling-app...