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> I heard them planning their political moves and their plans to screw partners. I heard them slagging coworkers ... until that coworker showed up, and without

> I heard them planning their political moves and their plans to screw partners. I heard them slagging coworkers ... until that coworker showed up, and without missing a beat everyone started slagging the other coworker who just left. I heard what the male Amazonians said about their female colleagues. Overall it seemed very exploitative, hyper-competitive, and exhaustingly bro-ish. Just like Jeff Bezos - imagine that. You heard all of this at restaurants?

notacoward 5y ago
It's not my only source of information (see also: ex-Amazon coworkers) but yes. It's pretty common to hear a lot of such chatter at bars and restaurants near large companies' offices. Back when DEC was a thing, there were quite a few journalists who basically made their living by eavesdropping on DEC employees at the local watering holes. Competitors were known to do the same. The company tried and tried to impress on employees the importance of not having sensitive conversations in public places, but it never took. Also: how did I know they were Amazon employees? Well, mostly it was the badges, which they tended to wear even outside the office. Terrible idea actually (at FB we were explicitly told not to do that) but still common. Even without that, it doesn't take too many product/facility names or bits of internal jargon to figure out what company someone works for. I could probably pass as an Amazon or Google employee in many contexts based only on those markers, even though I never worked at either.
- ozzythecat 5y ago
  Thanks for the response, but this comment > I heard them planning their political moves and their plans to screw partners. Which you said are restaurant conversations, sounds like pure fiction.
  - notacoward 5y ago
    Since you're being more than a bit insulting to me, I'll say that it would only sound like pure fiction to someone who doesn't know how the world works. Companies like Amazon are notorious for blurring the lines between work and personal life, encouraging employees to think and talk about work at all hours. Then you have a place that's next door to - sometimes even inside - a company building, always filled with your coworkers. Oh, and alcohol. It's easy to forget what kind of space it is and what kind of conversations maybe shouldn't occur there. Or would you prefer to believe that people at Amazon never have those kind of conversations anywhere? Because if they have them anywhere, they have them in local bars too. This is subject to empirical proof BTW. Try it. Go to Brave Horse (for example) and sit there through happy hour a few times. Unless you're the sort of person who's totally oblivious to their surroundings, you can hardly help but overhear all sorts of inappropriate work conversations. Don't accuse people of fictionalizing just because you personally haven't experienced what they have (or because it conflicts with what you would prefer to believe / have others believe). It's a noxious habit.

notacoward 5y ago

It's not my only source of information (see also: ex-Amazon coworkers) but yes. It's pretty common to hear a lot of such chatter at bars and restaurants near large companies' offices. Back when DEC was a thing, there were quite a few journalists who basically made their living by eavesdropping on DEC employees at the local watering holes. Competitors were known to do the same. The company tried and tried to impress on employees the importance of not having sensitive conversations in public places, but it never took. Also: how did I know they were Amazon employees? Well, mostly it was the badges, which they tended to wear even outside the office. Terrible idea actually (at FB we were explicitly told not to do that) but still common. Even without that, it doesn't take too many product/facility names or bits of internal jargon to figure out what company someone works for. I could probably pass as an Amazon or Google employee in many contexts based only on those markers, even though I never worked at either.

ozzythecat 5y ago
Thanks for the response, but this comment > I heard them planning their political moves and their plans to screw partners. Which you said are restaurant conversations, sounds like pure fiction.
- notacoward 5y ago
  Since you're being more than a bit insulting to me, I'll say that it would only sound like pure fiction to someone who doesn't know how the world works. Companies like Amazon are notorious for blurring the lines between work and personal life, encouraging employees to think and talk about work at all hours. Then you have a place that's next door to - sometimes even inside - a company building, always filled with your coworkers. Oh, and alcohol. It's easy to forget what kind of space it is and what kind of conversations maybe shouldn't occur there. Or would you prefer to believe that people at Amazon never have those kind of conversations anywhere? Because if they have them anywhere, they have them in local bars too. This is subject to empirical proof BTW. Try it. Go to Brave Horse (for example) and sit there through happy hour a few times. Unless you're the sort of person who's totally oblivious to their surroundings, you can hardly help but overhear all sorts of inappropriate work conversations. Don't accuse people of fictionalizing just because you personally haven't experienced what they have (or because it conflicts with what you would prefer to believe / have others believe). It's a noxious habit.