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Amazon is a strange company. After having spent 4 years there I am convinced that they hate their employees. They want you to burnout. Just look at the stock v

Amazon is a strange company. After having spent 4 years there I am convinced that they hate their employees. They want you to burnout. Just look at the stock vesting schedule, its 5, 15, 40, 40. First two years you barely get any stock, and I believe the average time someone stays at amazon is around 1.5 years (I don't have latest data so maybe this is wrong) On top of that, you have the pathetic 401k match (50% upto 2% of paycheck). Amazon's contribution to 401k vests after 3 years in the job, so you leave within the first 2 and you don't get anything. Not to mention the base salary cap of $160k. Add to that the horrible WLB, I knew teams who'd get 40 high severity tickets in a week (And there are teams with much worse WLB). You are constantly waking up at 2-3AM in the night, and fixing fires for no extra pay. Many times, Upper Management would dictate a timeline for your project, doesn't matter if it takes 4 months, we need it in 2 so get it done. This obviously leads to bad code. But there is no incentive within the company to fix/improve codebase, every thing is taped together, and On Call is there to tape things up some more so that they stay fixed. Even if you take the time and fix some of the tech debt, the company is not going to care and its not going to reward you. Speaking of rewards, if the company stock grows (which it has for the past several years), and because of this growth you stand to make more than your Amazon decided Target Compensation, then you won't get any base salary increase even if you were the best employee Amazon has ever seen. You might get additional stocks, but those will vest 2 year later. So basically, you did great work for the company in 2021, as a result the company stock grows enough that you are not out of range for your role's compensation, so they don't increase your salary, and they give you stocks that vest in 2024, 3 years after the you did the work. More often than not, I felt that most amazon employees (current and past) hate amazon. I have never seen a company being hated by its own workers with such fervor.

debug-desperado 5y ago
Wow, that 401k match is pathetically low. I'm surprised more number-crunching types don't put an employee group together to advocate for improvement.
- hbosch 5y ago
  >I'm surprised more number-crunching types don't put an employee group together to advocate for improvement. A union? At Amazon?
hbosch 5y ago
> Speaking of rewards, if the company stock grows (which it has for the past several years), and because of this growth you stand to make more than your Amazon decided Target Compensation, then you won't get any base salary increase even if you were the best employee Amazon has ever seen. In my experience, this is justification used by many big tech companies. I have worked at a couple now that couched 1% raises with the script about stock gains and, my, look at your RSUs! Don't tell anyone, but you actually have more RSUs than most people at your level. Wink. Just because you didn't get a big raise doesn't mean we don't value you, and it doesn't mean the company is doing poorly either! Everything is great. And look at that, yeah, it's about time for my next one on one. KEep up the good work!
DevoidSimo 5y ago
I find this vesting schedule being brought up strange (I see this somewhat frequently). On hiring you get a signing bonus, in my case the value of this bonus made my comp almost flat for those 4 years if the share price remained constant. If anything, this additional cash, which was given each month, was a positive when starting out. Vesting is inherently lumpy, and makes managing cash flow a bit more tricky. I also received base increases despite a very large stock price increase. On 401k, I'm not in the US so cannot comment. Your other points around timelines and pages don't match my experience, but I assume that in such a large company they do exist. I have certainly heard of a team where the high sev counts were similar to the numbers you give. Perhaps I am lucky to have missed them, or others are unlucky to have experienced them.
- ToxicMegacolon 5y ago
  > On hiring you get a signing bonus, in my case the value of this bonus made my comp almost flat for those 4 years if the share price remained constant. Signing bonus is not unique to Amazon. You can get a signing bonus anywhere in the industry, along with a sane vesting schedule of 25% each year or a front loaded schedule to prevent 4 year cliffs. > Vesting is inherently lumpy, and makes managing cash flow a bit more tricky. It doesn't have to be lumpy. Google stocks vest monthly here in US. Also, how is it tricky to manage?

debug-desperado 5y ago

Wow, that 401k match is pathetically low. I'm surprised more number-crunching types don't put an employee group together to advocate for improvement.

hbosch 5y ago
>I'm surprised more number-crunching types don't put an employee group together to advocate for improvement. A union? At Amazon?

hbosch 5y ago

> Speaking of rewards, if the company stock grows (which it has for the past several years), and because of this growth you stand to make more than your Amazon decided Target Compensation, then you won't get any base salary increase even if you were the best employee Amazon has ever seen. In my experience, this is justification used by many big tech companies. I have worked at a couple now that couched 1% raises with the script about stock gains and, my, look at your RSUs! Don't tell anyone, but you actually have more RSUs than most people at your level. Wink. Just because you didn't get a big raise doesn't mean we don't value you, and it doesn't mean the company is doing poorly either! Everything is great. And look at that, yeah, it's about time for my next one on one. KEep up the good work!

DevoidSimo 5y ago

I find this vesting schedule being brought up strange (I see this somewhat frequently). On hiring you get a signing bonus, in my case the value of this bonus made my comp almost flat for those 4 years if the share price remained constant. If anything, this additional cash, which was given each month, was a positive when starting out. Vesting is inherently lumpy, and makes managing cash flow a bit more tricky. I also received base increases despite a very large stock price increase. On 401k, I'm not in the US so cannot comment. Your other points around timelines and pages don't match my experience, but I assume that in such a large company they do exist. I have certainly heard of a team where the high sev counts were similar to the numbers you give. Perhaps I am lucky to have missed them, or others are unlucky to have experienced them.

ToxicMegacolon 5y ago
> On hiring you get a signing bonus, in my case the value of this bonus made my comp almost flat for those 4 years if the share price remained constant. Signing bonus is not unique to Amazon. You can get a signing bonus anywhere in the industry, along with a sane vesting schedule of 25% each year or a front loaded schedule to prevent 4 year cliffs. > Vesting is inherently lumpy, and makes managing cash flow a bit more tricky. It doesn't have to be lumpy. Google stocks vest monthly here in US. Also, how is it tricky to manage?