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Amazon employee here, speaking for myself, not the company. When I was hired, every senior employee (IC and manager, regardless of role) had to go work in a ful
by efitz 6y ago
Amazon employee here, speaking for myself, not the company. When I was hired, every senior employee (IC and manager, regardless of role) had to go work in a fulfillment center for a week sometime during your first year, learning and then performing all the jobs.
I’m a computer guy, but there I was loading trucks, packing boxes, etc.
It was a fantastic experience and connected you viscerally to the business. I believe it is still required. This is the culture that Jeff shaped for the company.
- quesera 6y agoI've long thought this was an interesting model, and I've known that Amazon follows it, or at least did at one time. I wouldn't overstate it though -- the ability to tolerate a week of something does not necessarily extrapolate to a month or a year. A week in the rainforest is an adventure. A life in the rainforest is difficult and short. But I don't intend any criticism of Bezos. He has done the math on warehouse employee satisfaction as a contributor to corporate goals, and made his decision. The scrappy days of packing his own shipments are long past, and that experience gives him not-much insight into the working conditions for the people in his warehouses. That's fine, but it's not a basis for deification.
- meowster 6y agoI think it depends on the attitude of the employee. For the people who have good attitudes where working there fulltime is character-building, they are over-qualified. For the people who aren't qualified to have a better job, their attitudes about things suck. For you, I imagine it was a week-long challenge where you knew that you would have a better job afterwards and make a lot more money.