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Amazon is a large company. Experiences are going to vary widely. I work maybe 2 hours a day. Oncall is pretty light when I do have it. Fulfilling team and proj

Amazon is a large company. Experiences are going to vary widely. I work maybe 2 hours a day. Oncall is pretty light when I do have it. Fulfilling team and projects with great career opportunities. I have no meetings Wed-Fri. I have under 3 years of experience and my compensation this year after reviews went from: 164K base -> 218K base Total compensation: 220K for 2021 calendar year -> 305K for 2022 calendar year -> 378K for 2023 calendar year I'm pretty happy as an employee personally though I realize not everyone is. Edit: Some commentators seem to be implying that I'm chasing money and bringing down the culture of Amazon by not working more - that seems ironic to me given Amazon has historically been criticized for its sweatshop reputation. To clarify, I work 2 hours a week because that's all I need to work to deliver my projects on time and I was rated TT this year - so why would I work more?

2OEH8eoCRo0 4y ago
Hello, Amazon recruiter.
weakfish 4y ago
Yeah, I wonder how the warehouse employees are faring.
endisneigh 4y ago
who does all of the actual work if you're only working 2 hours a day?
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- foobarian 4y ago
  He/she is probably a 10x engineer which means they get 20 effective hours of work done per day.
- mk89 4y ago
  The parent commenter, probably :) Jokes aside, ... it's not uncommon in (such) large organizations to be in the lucky team and that's it. With all these people leaving, managers know how much you actually work, but it's a win win. If the guy works 2 hours a day but he is not a troublemaker, keep him. Hiring someone better has become harder.
- tomrod 4y ago
  Paying AWS customers?
reducesuffering 4y ago
Yes, that's why we generally disregard anecdotes and look at data: https://www.teamblind.com/company/Amazon/reviews https://www.teamblind.com/company/Amazon/reviews Amazon has terrible morale overall, with a 2.7 / 5 Work Life Balance rating while most comparable companies, Google, Microsoft, Apple, Twitter, etc. are averaging like 4 / 5.
- strombofulous 4y ago
  I would want to see evidence to show blind is more than just a collection of anecdotes before calling it "data". In my (anecdotal, lol) experience the people who post on blind are a small subset that are way more likely to complain about things, sometimes unreasonably.
  - reducesuffering 4y ago
    How is that "small subset" not normalized across all companies, making an equal comparison? You can make a reasonable case that Blind reviews across all companies are worse than the average inside the companies, but it wouldn't explain why some companies are so much worse than others.
    - strombofulous 4y ago
      Why can you assume it's normalized across all companies?
      - reducesuffering 4y ago
        What feasible reason would cause you to believe two companies' internal morale are the same, even though only one of them has disproportionately negative reviews? Feel free to only visit 2.5 star restaurants on Yelp because clearly that must just be disgruntled people disproportionately for no reason.
        strombofulous 4y ago
Weryj 4y ago
Fair enough, the team I was on is falling apart and even mentors are suggesting members transfer away. I tried to bring up the structural issues of the team, but it took someone from another team to set them straight. I had already left by then.
lvl102 4y ago
Wow congrats on making $300K doing nothing! I realized this is very much the culture in Amazon now. Because they’re the top paying tech company it attracts people who work for money and nothing more. That creates…a certain culture.
- currio 4y ago
  > Because they’re the top paying tech company it attracts people who work for money and nothing more Thats most (big) tech companies
  - lvl102 4y ago
    Amazon is going to rot from the inside by the MBAs they hired to run the company instead of engineers.
    - jjtheblunt 4y ago
      having worked there for shy of a year (not in AWS, by random placement), i think your verb tense is true but misses the fact it long has been rotting. but they exact a huge "tax" on items sold on the site, so they can survive incompetence for quite some time.
- nawgz 4y ago
  People who pan individuals in a capitalist society for taking high-paying jobs make no sense to me. You assume people that like to have financial security have what culture about them exactly? Pragmatism? Realism?
- mataug 4y ago
  > Because they’re the top paying tech company it attracts people who work for money and nothing more. That creates…a certain culture. Are you suggesting that because the pay is high the culture of Amazon is bad ? Why is working for money a bad thing ? Everyone is selling their time in exchange for money. The primary reason for Amazon's bad culture is the management, and their insistance on firing 6% of workers each year[1]. This creates a culture where the people who understand this system well will actively sabotage newbies and naive devs to avoid getting canned. A lucky few with good VPs and directors may have a good experience overall, but at some point the Amazon culture catches up to everyone, except the executives who don't face the same pressures. [1]https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-performance-review-6-percent-of-office-workers-2021-6 https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-performance-review-6-...
jerglingu 4y ago
This is a sentiment and self indulgent bragpost straight out of the Blind app. To others on the outside looking in: while there are corners of Amazon where it's possible to coast, a huge amount of people are grinded to pieces and operate at such a level of anxiety that they feel it's necessary to commit code and manage tickets during nights and weekends to keep pace.
- Kranar 4y ago
  I am happy to hear the other side of it. It feels like only the people who have an axe to grind are allowed to vent on HN about their anecdotal experiences, and it's considered taboo to share successes.
  - ignoramous 4y ago
    Won't be surprised if it's satire.
  - ensan 4y ago
    This unusually rosy anecdote (claiming to work 2 hours per week???) is from an anonymous account created a few hours ago just to comment on this story. Let’s not take it more seriously than we have to.
- ceeplusplus 4y ago
  Perhaps those people just aren't performing at the level that the posters like GP are at. If you feel the need to work nights and weekends to keep pace then unless your entire division is working that pace, you're the problem. And clearly we have anecdotes that this isn't true universally.
jjulius 4y ago
>I'm pretty lucky* as an employee personally though I realize not everyone is. FTFY.
pinkmuffinere 4y ago
Wow, can you say what team/area you're in? Legitimately would love to transfer over if i have the right skills -- I'm a sys dev engineer at Amazon, but am working long hours, getting burned out, and paid way less.
- deskamess 4y ago
  Not the poster but no way am I outing my self. This is a sacred team you do not talk about.
dredmorbius 4y ago
In a company in which abuses (e.g., forcing warehouse workers to remain on site during an active tornado watch (funnel sighted), resulting in multiple deaths), it is precisely this FYIGM attitude which is the problem. It's why we don't judge companies, or organisations, or individuals, no their best, but on their worst. It's why we look for groups that look out for each other, which are concerned with how the least among them --- least powerful, least privileged, least protected --- are treated. Your situation may be a windfall for you. It only further illustrate's what's wrong with Amazon, and rotten to the core.
- jvanderbot 4y ago
  I have never worked in a place that sent people home during tornadoes. Shelter-in-place is literally the best advice for tornadoes. I can remember sitting in central hallways while working in various factories back in the day whenever tornado warnings / watches were issued.
  - dredmorbius 4y ago
    Sounds as if you worked at places similar in philosophy to Amazon. The Edwardsville, IL, facilty lacked safe rooms. Amazon workers were prohibited from carrying personal phones on them through which they might have received warnings or summoned help. Amazon workers requesting permission to leave, or questining whether they should work shifts after the tornado warnings were announced were told that they could not leave or must work under penalty of losing their jobs. Many workers, all of whom requested anonymity to protect their jobs, said they had never had a tornado or even a fire drill over the course of their careers at Amazon, dating back up to six years. Several expressed that they would be unsure of what to do in an emergency. In one case, an Amazon contractor, fearing Hurricane Ida, asked to go home early but was told that leaving would adversely affect their performance quota. ... Amazon has not responded to The Intercept’s requests for comment about why employees were not instructed to stay home amid the tornado warnings. The company took an additional step yesterday by encrypting internal help ticket messages about the Illinois facility, making them inaccessible to most workers, according to an employee who provided screenshots before and after the messages were encrypted. Amazon did not respond to a request for comment on why the records had been encrypted. https://theintercept.com/2021/12/13/amazon-illinois-tornado-safety-protocols/ https://theintercept.com/2021/12/13/amazon-illinois-tornado-... Felton said most of the 46 people in the warehouse known as a “delivery station” headed to a shelter on the north side, which ended up “nearly undamaged” and a smaller group to the harder-hit south end. The company said those are not separate safe rooms, but generally places away from windows considered safer than other parts of the plant. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/dec/13/amazon-warehouse-collapse-safety-illinois https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/dec/13/amazon-wa... “If you decide to return with your packages, it will be viewed as you refusing your route, which will ultimately end with you not having a job come tomorrow morning,” the dispatcher said. “I’m literally stuck in this damn van without a safe place to go with a tornado on the ground,” the driver messaged back before being told to shelter in place. https://www.engadget.com/amazon-dispatcher-screenshots-edwardsville-illinois-010215086.html https://www.engadget.com/amazon-dispatcher-screenshots-edwar... OSHA report summary/ response: https://www.theverge.com/2022/4/27/23043685/osha-safety-amazon-warehouse-collapse-illinois-tornado-report https://www.theverge.com/2022/4/27/23043685/osha-safety-amaz...
parhamn 4y ago
> sweatshop reputation I always assumed those comments were talking about the warehouse/shipping/packing/etc employees @ amazon?
chris___75 4y ago
"I work maybe 2 hours a day." "To clarify, I work 2 hours a week" https://thoughtcatalog.com/rania-naim/2016/06/12-subtle-signs-to-know-if-someone-is-lying-to-you/ https://thoughtcatalog.com/rania-naim/2016/06/12-subtle-sign... 1. Stuttering & inconsistencies. When someone is lying, they usually have a hard time coming up with coherent answers and their lies will be full of contradictions
winterplace 4y ago
Which department is it?

2OEH8eoCRo0 4y ago

Hello, Amazon recruiter.

weakfish 4y ago

Yeah, I wonder how the warehouse employees are faring.

endisneigh 4y ago

who does all of the actual work if you're only working 2 hours a day?

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
foobarian 4y ago
He/she is probably a 10x engineer which means they get 20 effective hours of work done per day.
mk89 4y ago
The parent commenter, probably :) Jokes aside, ... it's not uncommon in (such) large organizations to be in the lucky team and that's it. With all these people leaving, managers know how much you actually work, but it's a win win. If the guy works 2 hours a day but he is not a troublemaker, keep him. Hiring someone better has become harder.
tomrod 4y ago
Paying AWS customers?

reducesuffering 4y ago

Yes, that's why we generally disregard anecdotes and look at data: https://www.teamblind.com/company/Amazon/reviews https://www.teamblind.com/company/Amazon/reviews Amazon has terrible morale overall, with a 2.7 / 5 Work Life Balance rating while most comparable companies, Google, Microsoft, Apple, Twitter, etc. are averaging like 4 / 5.

strombofulous 4y ago
I would want to see evidence to show blind is more than just a collection of anecdotes before calling it "data". In my (anecdotal, lol) experience the people who post on blind are a small subset that are way more likely to complain about things, sometimes unreasonably.
- reducesuffering 4y ago
  How is that "small subset" not normalized across all companies, making an equal comparison? You can make a reasonable case that Blind reviews across all companies are worse than the average inside the companies, but it wouldn't explain why some companies are so much worse than others.
  - strombofulous 4y ago
    Why can you assume it's normalized across all companies?
    - reducesuffering 4y ago
      What feasible reason would cause you to believe two companies' internal morale are the same, even though only one of them has disproportionately negative reviews? Feel free to only visit 2.5 star restaurants on Yelp because clearly that must just be disgruntled people disproportionately for no reason.
      - strombofulous 4y ago

Weryj 4y ago

Fair enough, the team I was on is falling apart and even mentors are suggesting members transfer away. I tried to bring up the structural issues of the team, but it took someone from another team to set them straight. I had already left by then.

lvl102 4y ago

Wow congrats on making $300K doing nothing! I realized this is very much the culture in Amazon now. Because they’re the top paying tech company it attracts people who work for money and nothing more. That creates…a certain culture.

currio 4y ago
> Because they’re the top paying tech company it attracts people who work for money and nothing more Thats most (big) tech companies
- lvl102 4y ago
  Amazon is going to rot from the inside by the MBAs they hired to run the company instead of engineers.
  - jjtheblunt 4y ago
    having worked there for shy of a year (not in AWS, by random placement), i think your verb tense is true but misses the fact it long has been rotting. but they exact a huge "tax" on items sold on the site, so they can survive incompetence for quite some time.
nawgz 4y ago
People who pan individuals in a capitalist society for taking high-paying jobs make no sense to me. You assume people that like to have financial security have what culture about them exactly? Pragmatism? Realism?
mataug 4y ago
> Because they’re the top paying tech company it attracts people who work for money and nothing more. That creates…a certain culture. Are you suggesting that because the pay is high the culture of Amazon is bad ? Why is working for money a bad thing ? Everyone is selling their time in exchange for money. The primary reason for Amazon's bad culture is the management, and their insistance on firing 6% of workers each year[1]. This creates a culture where the people who understand this system well will actively sabotage newbies and naive devs to avoid getting canned. A lucky few with good VPs and directors may have a good experience overall, but at some point the Amazon culture catches up to everyone, except the executives who don't face the same pressures. [1]https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-performance-review-6-percent-of-office-workers-2021-6 https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-performance-review-6-...

jerglingu 4y ago

This is a sentiment and self indulgent bragpost straight out of the Blind app. To others on the outside looking in: while there are corners of Amazon where it's possible to coast, a huge amount of people are grinded to pieces and operate at such a level of anxiety that they feel it's necessary to commit code and manage tickets during nights and weekends to keep pace.

Kranar 4y ago
I am happy to hear the other side of it. It feels like only the people who have an axe to grind are allowed to vent on HN about their anecdotal experiences, and it's considered taboo to share successes.
- ignoramous 4y ago
  Won't be surprised if it's satire.
- ensan 4y ago
  This unusually rosy anecdote (claiming to work 2 hours per week???) is from an anonymous account created a few hours ago just to comment on this story. Let’s not take it more seriously than we have to.
ceeplusplus 4y ago
Perhaps those people just aren't performing at the level that the posters like GP are at. If you feel the need to work nights and weekends to keep pace then unless your entire division is working that pace, you're the problem. And clearly we have anecdotes that this isn't true universally.

jjulius 4y ago

>I'm pretty lucky* as an employee personally though I realize not everyone is. FTFY.

pinkmuffinere 4y ago

Wow, can you say what team/area you're in? Legitimately would love to transfer over if i have the right skills -- I'm a sys dev engineer at Amazon, but am working long hours, getting burned out, and paid way less.

deskamess 4y ago
Not the poster but no way am I outing my self. This is a sacred team you do not talk about.

dredmorbius 4y ago

In a company in which abuses (e.g., forcing warehouse workers to remain on site during an active tornado watch (funnel sighted), resulting in multiple deaths), it is precisely this FYIGM attitude which is the problem. It's why we don't judge companies, or organisations, or individuals, no their best, but on their worst. It's why we look for groups that look out for each other, which are concerned with how the least among them --- least powerful, least privileged, least protected --- are treated. Your situation may be a windfall for you. It only further illustrate's what's wrong with Amazon, and rotten to the core.

jvanderbot 4y ago
I have never worked in a place that sent people home during tornadoes. Shelter-in-place is literally the best advice for tornadoes. I can remember sitting in central hallways while working in various factories back in the day whenever tornado warnings / watches were issued.
- dredmorbius 4y ago
  Sounds as if you worked at places similar in philosophy to Amazon. The Edwardsville, IL, facilty lacked safe rooms. Amazon workers were prohibited from carrying personal phones on them through which they might have received warnings or summoned help. Amazon workers requesting permission to leave, or questining whether they should work shifts after the tornado warnings were announced were told that they could not leave or must work under penalty of losing their jobs. Many workers, all of whom requested anonymity to protect their jobs, said they had never had a tornado or even a fire drill over the course of their careers at Amazon, dating back up to six years. Several expressed that they would be unsure of what to do in an emergency. In one case, an Amazon contractor, fearing Hurricane Ida, asked to go home early but was told that leaving would adversely affect their performance quota. ... Amazon has not responded to The Intercept’s requests for comment about why employees were not instructed to stay home amid the tornado warnings. The company took an additional step yesterday by encrypting internal help ticket messages about the Illinois facility, making them inaccessible to most workers, according to an employee who provided screenshots before and after the messages were encrypted. Amazon did not respond to a request for comment on why the records had been encrypted. https://theintercept.com/2021/12/13/amazon-illinois-tornado-safety-protocols/ https://theintercept.com/2021/12/13/amazon-illinois-tornado-... Felton said most of the 46 people in the warehouse known as a “delivery station” headed to a shelter on the north side, which ended up “nearly undamaged” and a smaller group to the harder-hit south end. The company said those are not separate safe rooms, but generally places away from windows considered safer than other parts of the plant. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/dec/13/amazon-warehouse-collapse-safety-illinois https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/dec/13/amazon-wa... “If you decide to return with your packages, it will be viewed as you refusing your route, which will ultimately end with you not having a job come tomorrow morning,” the dispatcher said. “I’m literally stuck in this damn van without a safe place to go with a tornado on the ground,” the driver messaged back before being told to shelter in place. https://www.engadget.com/amazon-dispatcher-screenshots-edwardsville-illinois-010215086.html https://www.engadget.com/amazon-dispatcher-screenshots-edwar... OSHA report summary/ response: https://www.theverge.com/2022/4/27/23043685/osha-safety-amazon-warehouse-collapse-illinois-tornado-report https://www.theverge.com/2022/4/27/23043685/osha-safety-amaz...

parhamn 4y ago

> sweatshop reputation I always assumed those comments were talking about the warehouse/shipping/packing/etc employees @ amazon?

chris___75 4y ago

"I work maybe 2 hours a day." "To clarify, I work 2 hours a week" https://thoughtcatalog.com/rania-naim/2016/06/12-subtle-signs-to-know-if-someone-is-lying-to-you/ https://thoughtcatalog.com/rania-naim/2016/06/12-subtle-sign... 1. Stuttering & inconsistencies. When someone is lying, they usually have a hard time coming up with coherent answers and their lies will be full of contradictions

winterplace 4y ago

Which department is it?