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From reading answers on Quora I came to the conclusion that Amazon employees aren't given expensive perks (i.e. computers and work place furniture). Are things

From reading answers on Quora I came to the conclusion that Amazon employees aren't given expensive perks (i.e. computers and work place furniture). Are things changing at Amazon?

guacamoleSoda 9y ago
I've worked at some of the FANGs, including Amazon. As far as their standard workspace equipment goes (e.g. computers, desk, monitors, etc...), they seemed to be more or less at parity with the other companies. The workspaces used to be on the drab side, but they've taken to modernizing them with bright colors and lounge furniture in common areas that looks trendy but is damned uncomfortable. They don't really have any perks like high-quality micro-kitchens (except at subsidiaries and sites where those sorts of perks are standard locally), cafes, gyms, etc... EDIT: I should mention that I'm pretty easy when it comes to things like computer hardware and desks. I just need a terminal, chair to sit in, plain old desk, and I'll be happy. I might not notice any differentiating factors other people find important...
- confounded 9y ago
  Amazon are probably the only large monopolistic tech company that make employees pay for their own lunch. EDIT: I am mollycoddled and wrong (see below).
  - jonknee 9y ago
    Which is great for the city. Amazon's big perk is that they're in the city and since they don't feed the staff there are tons of restaurants to walk to.
    - atomical 9y ago
      There are also thousands of other companies in the city as well.
      - jonknee 9y ago
        None nearly as large as Amazon... Amazon has 19% of all prime office space in the whole city [1] and they're concentrated over a fairly small number of blocks. They're bigger than the next 40 largest employers combined. [1] https://www.seattletimes.com/business/amazon/thanks-to-amazon-seattle-is-now-americas-biggest-company-town/ https://www.seattletimes.com/business/amazon/thanks-to-amazo...
  - akhilcacharya 9y ago
    So does Microsoft. Amazon doesn't have free soda though
  - objclxt 9y ago
    Out of the FAANG's neither Apple nor Amazon provide free lunch (although Apple's on-site cafes are very good. You pay $5-10 for an entree, depending on what you get). Going by Glassdoor, Netflix doesn't universally provide free food at all its offices either.
  - CydeWeys 9y ago
    My employer provides free meals, and it's amazing how much of an outsized effect it has on my affection for them, relative to the actual cost to them of the perk. I know there's plenty of other perks that they spend more money on than the free food (office in good location, 401k match, and healthcare for starters), but the free food really sticks out as something I'm appreciative of. I'd definitely miss it once I no longer had it.
    - TheSpiceIsLife 9y ago
      > My employer provides free meals Do you mean most big tech employers in the US? I've never heard of an Australian company providing food for employees. Is it common in the US, or just amongst the big tech companies?
      - thundergolfer 9y ago
        Well Atlassian's Australian and provides food to employees, as does Seek (also Australian). It isn't full-catered hot food everyday but it's still great. I haven't heard of a non-tech Australian company that does though, and would certainly say it's a 'big tech company' thing
      - CydeWeys 9y ago
        It's common in the US, not just at big tech companies, but at any "Silicon-Valley-style" tech company of any size. Companies that aren't big enough to have their own cafeteria might have a daily Seamless order, for example.
      - atomical 9y ago
        It's common at some startups because the startup wants to keep the employee at work. Ordering dinner at 6 so it arrives at 7 and employees stay until 8:PM. It happens.
  - mattnewton 9y ago
    I think it’s just a google-and-people-poaching-googlers thing? (Facebook, Linkedin are the only other two I know of). We did not get free lunch at Apple.
Gargoyle 9y ago
This looks infinitely better than the Facebook industrial-esque spaces, but then this is for a tiny portion of the company's employees.
- akhilcacharya 9y ago
  The workspaces in Amazon buildings are pretty standard (open plans subsectioned off for specific teams, etc) and look pretty similar to the Facebook buildings I've been to at the HQ.
colmmacc 9y ago
10 year Amazonian here. I think we have one of the most expensive perks of all: an active, expansive, downtown campus. That's not cheap, those towers cost billions, and there's a reason many big technology competitors are in more suburban locations (Redmond, Mountain View, Kirkland, etc ...). But it really is something to be able to get to and from work relatively quickly via public transport, to be in the middle of a cool city with great restaurants and food trucks, and to be so easily able to socialize with colleagues and friends. But it's true that we don't have free cafeterias, free sodas, gyms (though we do have free on-campus workouts and yoga classes) and so on. We do have some other unusual perks though: our mailrooms get the "Amazon" shipping rates from USPS/DHL/FedEx, and since Amazon is one of their biggest customers, it's really really cheap to ship personal packages. We have a dog park with awesome puppies that's 17 stories up, with a crazy view of the Puget Sound and Downtown Seattle. There's lots of less tangible things like that, but in general, people aren't here for the perks.
- aaronbrethorst 9y ago
  > get to and from work relatively quickly via public transport I have to lol a little at this, given that it's faster to walk up Denny than take the 8 bus during rush hour.
  - exogen 9y ago
    Doesn't get more "public transport" than using a public sidewalk via free manual transport. ;) (The fact that you can feasibly walk to work is an even bigger benefit.)
- atomical 9y ago
  I have never thought of location and a building as a perk. It is easy for even a moderately funded company to have an office in the downtown of any major city.
  - discoursism 9y ago
    A perk is not a perk because of the ease of providing it or its cost. It's a perk because it's a benefit not part of core compensation. And it is true, none of the other tech giants have downtown HQs (although plenty of Google satellite offices are in urban centers, at least).
CydeWeys 9y ago
How are computers are a perk? They're required to do your job. And yes, Amazon does provide them. I haven't ever heard of a developer job where you're expected to buy a work computer with your own money, and I've worked at places that had fewer perks than Amazon. I'd flat out refuse to buy my own. Requiring that might even be illegal.
- __float 9y ago
  Err, I think OP just meant the computers were not the best, you might not get 2 monitors, or something like that. Not that you don't get a computer at all.
  - bbgm 9y ago
    You get a 34” curved monitor or 2 * 27” ones these days. Not uncommon to see engineers with 3 monitors either.
    - CydeWeys 9y ago
      I keep going back and forth on multiple monitors. I'm using one big one right now, which felt better than my previous setup of two displays at first, but now I'm thinking I might want another smaller one off to the side to monitor running terminal output ... ugh. I will say that two monitors has the significant drawback that there isn't a single central display, so you're always either tilted to the left or to the right relative to your desk. That's not good ergonomics.
- hugs 9y ago
  I would rather give a developer a $2K signing bonus and tell them to go buy whatever laptop they want... and they own it. That way, if/when their employment ends, we don't have to go through the awkward process of taking the equipment back.
- atomical 9y ago
  If you get good hardware it's a perk. If you get a hard disk and 8 gigs of ram you won't be as productive.
gdulli 9y ago
Last I checked they don't even get free Prime accounts, the Amazon discount is capped ridiculously low, and the stock vesting schedule is terrible, especially considering how short the tenure is likely to be given how they treat employees. The vibe I get is that you're supposed to think working there is the perk. But you can do so much better elsewhere.

From reading answers on Quora I came to the conclusion that Amazon employees aren't given expensive perks (i.e. computers and work place furniture). Are things changing at Amazon?

guacamoleSoda 9y ago

I've worked at some of the FANGs, including Amazon. As far as their standard workspace equipment goes (e.g. computers, desk, monitors, etc...), they seemed to be more or less at parity with the other companies. The workspaces used to be on the drab side, but they've taken to modernizing them with bright colors and lounge furniture in common areas that looks trendy but is damned uncomfortable. They don't really have any perks like high-quality micro-kitchens (except at subsidiaries and sites where those sorts of perks are standard locally), cafes, gyms, etc... EDIT: I should mention that I'm pretty easy when it comes to things like computer hardware and desks. I just need a terminal, chair to sit in, plain old desk, and I'll be happy. I might not notice any differentiating factors other people find important...

confounded 9y ago
Amazon are probably the only large monopolistic tech company that make employees pay for their own lunch. EDIT: I am mollycoddled and wrong (see below).
- jonknee 9y ago
  Which is great for the city. Amazon's big perk is that they're in the city and since they don't feed the staff there are tons of restaurants to walk to.
  - atomical 9y ago
    There are also thousands of other companies in the city as well.
    - jonknee 9y ago
      None nearly as large as Amazon... Amazon has 19% of all prime office space in the whole city [1] and they're concentrated over a fairly small number of blocks. They're bigger than the next 40 largest employers combined. [1] https://www.seattletimes.com/business/amazon/thanks-to-amazon-seattle-is-now-americas-biggest-company-town/ https://www.seattletimes.com/business/amazon/thanks-to-amazo...
- akhilcacharya 9y ago
  So does Microsoft. Amazon doesn't have free soda though
- objclxt 9y ago
  Out of the FAANG's neither Apple nor Amazon provide free lunch (although Apple's on-site cafes are very good. You pay $5-10 for an entree, depending on what you get). Going by Glassdoor, Netflix doesn't universally provide free food at all its offices either.
- CydeWeys 9y ago
  My employer provides free meals, and it's amazing how much of an outsized effect it has on my affection for them, relative to the actual cost to them of the perk. I know there's plenty of other perks that they spend more money on than the free food (office in good location, 401k match, and healthcare for starters), but the free food really sticks out as something I'm appreciative of. I'd definitely miss it once I no longer had it.
  - TheSpiceIsLife 9y ago
    > My employer provides free meals Do you mean most big tech employers in the US? I've never heard of an Australian company providing food for employees. Is it common in the US, or just amongst the big tech companies?
    - thundergolfer 9y ago
      Well Atlassian's Australian and provides food to employees, as does Seek (also Australian). It isn't full-catered hot food everyday but it's still great. I haven't heard of a non-tech Australian company that does though, and would certainly say it's a 'big tech company' thing
    - CydeWeys 9y ago
      It's common in the US, not just at big tech companies, but at any "Silicon-Valley-style" tech company of any size. Companies that aren't big enough to have their own cafeteria might have a daily Seamless order, for example.
    - atomical 9y ago
      It's common at some startups because the startup wants to keep the employee at work. Ordering dinner at 6 so it arrives at 7 and employees stay until 8:PM. It happens.
- mattnewton 9y ago
  I think it’s just a google-and-people-poaching-googlers thing? (Facebook, Linkedin are the only other two I know of). We did not get free lunch at Apple.

Gargoyle 9y ago

This looks infinitely better than the Facebook industrial-esque spaces, but then this is for a tiny portion of the company's employees.

akhilcacharya 9y ago
The workspaces in Amazon buildings are pretty standard (open plans subsectioned off for specific teams, etc) and look pretty similar to the Facebook buildings I've been to at the HQ.

colmmacc 9y ago

10 year Amazonian here. I think we have one of the most expensive perks of all: an active, expansive, downtown campus. That's not cheap, those towers cost billions, and there's a reason many big technology competitors are in more suburban locations (Redmond, Mountain View, Kirkland, etc ...). But it really is something to be able to get to and from work relatively quickly via public transport, to be in the middle of a cool city with great restaurants and food trucks, and to be so easily able to socialize with colleagues and friends. But it's true that we don't have free cafeterias, free sodas, gyms (though we do have free on-campus workouts and yoga classes) and so on. We do have some other unusual perks though: our mailrooms get the "Amazon" shipping rates from USPS/DHL/FedEx, and since Amazon is one of their biggest customers, it's really really cheap to ship personal packages. We have a dog park with awesome puppies that's 17 stories up, with a crazy view of the Puget Sound and Downtown Seattle. There's lots of less tangible things like that, but in general, people aren't here for the perks.

aaronbrethorst 9y ago
> get to and from work relatively quickly via public transport I have to lol a little at this, given that it's faster to walk up Denny than take the 8 bus during rush hour.
- exogen 9y ago
  Doesn't get more "public transport" than using a public sidewalk via free manual transport. ;) (The fact that you can feasibly walk to work is an even bigger benefit.)
atomical 9y ago
I have never thought of location and a building as a perk. It is easy for even a moderately funded company to have an office in the downtown of any major city.
- discoursism 9y ago
  A perk is not a perk because of the ease of providing it or its cost. It's a perk because it's a benefit not part of core compensation. And it is true, none of the other tech giants have downtown HQs (although plenty of Google satellite offices are in urban centers, at least).

CydeWeys 9y ago

How are computers are a perk? They're required to do your job. And yes, Amazon does provide them. I haven't ever heard of a developer job where you're expected to buy a work computer with your own money, and I've worked at places that had fewer perks than Amazon. I'd flat out refuse to buy my own. Requiring that might even be illegal.

__float 9y ago
Err, I think OP just meant the computers were not the best, you might not get 2 monitors, or something like that. Not that you don't get a computer at all.
- bbgm 9y ago
  You get a 34” curved monitor or 2 * 27” ones these days. Not uncommon to see engineers with 3 monitors either.
  - CydeWeys 9y ago
    I keep going back and forth on multiple monitors. I'm using one big one right now, which felt better than my previous setup of two displays at first, but now I'm thinking I might want another smaller one off to the side to monitor running terminal output ... ugh. I will say that two monitors has the significant drawback that there isn't a single central display, so you're always either tilted to the left or to the right relative to your desk. That's not good ergonomics.
hugs 9y ago
I would rather give a developer a $2K signing bonus and tell them to go buy whatever laptop they want... and they own it. That way, if/when their employment ends, we don't have to go through the awkward process of taking the equipment back.
atomical 9y ago
If you get good hardware it's a perk. If you get a hard disk and 8 gigs of ram you won't be as productive.

gdulli 9y ago

Last I checked they don't even get free Prime accounts, the Amazon discount is capped ridiculously low, and the stock vesting schedule is terrible, especially considering how short the tenure is likely to be given how they treat employees. The vibe I get is that you're supposed to think working there is the perk. But you can do so much better elsewhere.