4 ms·
I was super happy with Amazon for 6 years or so. Compensated well, worked hard but fairly (and rarely more than 40-45 hours a week), great peers, good managers,
by Pfhreak 8y ago
I was super happy with Amazon for 6 years or so. Compensated well, worked hard but fairly (and rarely more than 40-45 hours a week), great peers, good managers, and plenty of interesting work to do.
I eventually left because Amazon restricted building games in my spare time with my friends. I just wanted to jam on the weekends on something that would never ship as a creative outlet. Turns out they have a policy that says you cannot make games (even in your spare time) with people who are not Amazon employees and you have to be willing to give up a license (or ownership) of all games related IP you develop while employed.
The policy was separate from the open source policy, and applied specifically to games. I tried everything I could think of to change it, and ultimately made the choice to walk away.
Reading through this post, I see some stuff that I agree with from my six years, and some things I disagree with (or were likely just the result of landing on a bad team). But I'd still be there if I could make some stupid games side projects.
- nicolashahn 8y agoI don't understand why Amazon would call out games specifically - is there some rationale behind it?
- hackcasual 8y agoProbably because they're in the game business now.
- newnewpdro 8y agoWhere was this? I ask because what you're describing sounds illegal in California.
- jonny_eh 8y agoWhich part? Companies can claim ownership of any work an employee does, related to their employer's line of work. Amazon publishes video games, they're free to claim ownership of any game their employees work on.
- newnewpdro 8y agoHaving looked again at the specific CA law [1], you appear to be correct. CA is better than most states in this regard, but when there's overlap with the employer's business you're still screwed. I misremembered it as requiring the employee's specific role at the employer to overlap with the independent creation. [1] https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=LAB§ionNum=2870 https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySectio...
- jijji 8y agono one owns your time outside of work except you, unless they want to pay you for it.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]