4 ms·

Working at Amazon became detrimental to my mental health

50 points by mgh2 4y ago

bckr 4y ago
Maybe the best thing to do is play the game of diagonals and never get comfortable anywhere.
scorpioxy 4y ago
> I confronted my manager, they accepted their mistake, took full responsibility and apologized for what had happened. They stated that my current performance was strong and I had nothing to worry about. In my opinion, that wasn't a mistake. The manager was telling the employee that he was doing great for a long time and then suddenly told him that he wasn't. What does "took full responsibility" mean in this case? The manager will face no consequences at all and the apology sounds a lot like a politician's apology.
danbmil99 4y ago
Shoot me now. I will never put myself through the humiliation of belonging to an organization that has that little respect or understanding of humanity
lastangryman 4y ago
I have sympathy with the author of course but they come across as very naive. Of course this is how large corps work, they demean their employees, intentionally instilling fear and doubt through these ridiculous performance appraisal systems. That fear creates a feeling of dependence on the employer, so you then work harder, longer hours desperate to keep your job and survive. Just don't work at these places.
- acadapter 4y ago
  This aspect of professional life isn't taught at schools and universities (or at least I never heard anything like it).
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
rk06 4y ago
Each time I see a recruiter’s message for Amazon, I recall that it is not a place I want to be.
nojito 4y ago
I’ll never get this sentiment. I used to work for FANG and most of my coworkers were godawful and just barely scraping by. This is part of the reason I decline a management role there and only transitioned to one after I left. The pip process isn’t great but there really isn’t another tool out there to get similar results out of workers.
- jjtheblunt 4y ago
  > isn't another tool how about when the work is so interesting folks just are innately enthused? it can happen, but arranging it to happen is super tricky
  - nojito 4y ago
    Your job isn't going to be interesting 24/7. The fact of the matter is so many people work at FANG just because it's FANG. Which makes managing them extraordinarily difficult.
d4rkp4ttern 4y ago
I feel like at least some of these types of issues would be mitigated if (experienced) people work as (part time) contractors for one or more companies?
jeffwask 4y ago
There such a massive logic failure in these orgs that implement complex and arduous interview and screening processes then assume 10% of those people are trash and need to be regularly culled. The words PIP Quota make me gag. As an on again of again people leader, I dread the thought of the only way to prove my value as a leader being to arbitrarily assign one of my people a PIP.
potamic 4y ago
Unfortunately there's not much that can be done with the situation. An entity that pays well can get away with insolence. No matter how poorly they treat their employees, there will always be a long list of people willing to put up with it. They hold a lot of power in this interplay. Now this becomes a problem when the entity is also big, because the effects spill over into the rest of the ecosystem. Thousands upon thousands going through this place pick up bad habits and spread it elsewhere. Worse yet, these habits are looked up to because they are coming from a powerful place. I think the lesson at the end of the day is we should not let any entity grow that big and powerful. It's a huge imbalance in society and as individuals it's in our best interest to prevent these structures in the first place.
b20000 4y ago
i don’t understand the naivity - i cannot imagine these companies to promote you regularly or when you deserve it. it’s always “if you do well this year maybe next year”. people need to negotiate.
valdiorn 4y ago
How are companies like Blizzard being discussed in congressional hearings for having too much laddish culture, while Amazon is literally driving it's staff to suicide, and everyone in power is like "yeah whatcha gonna do, it's amazon after all".

50 points by mgh2 4y ago

bckr 4y ago

Maybe the best thing to do is play the game of diagonals and never get comfortable anywhere.

> I confronted my manager, they accepted their mistake, took full responsibility and apologized for what had happened. They stated that my current performance was strong and I had nothing to worry about. In my opinion, that wasn't a mistake. The manager was telling the employee that he was doing great for a long time and then suddenly told him that he wasn't. What does "took full responsibility" mean in this case? The manager will face no consequences at all and the apology sounds a lot like a politician's apology.

danbmil99 4y ago

Shoot me now. I will never put myself through the humiliation of belonging to an organization that has that little respect or understanding of humanity

lastangryman 4y ago

I have sympathy with the author of course but they come across as very naive. Of course this is how large corps work, they demean their employees, intentionally instilling fear and doubt through these ridiculous performance appraisal systems. That fear creates a feeling of dependence on the employer, so you then work harder, longer hours desperate to keep your job and survive. Just don't work at these places.

acadapter 4y ago
This aspect of professional life isn't taught at schools and universities (or at least I never heard anything like it).
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

rk06 4y ago

Each time I see a recruiter’s message for Amazon, I recall that it is not a place I want to be.

nojito 4y ago

I’ll never get this sentiment. I used to work for FANG and most of my coworkers were godawful and just barely scraping by. This is part of the reason I decline a management role there and only transitioned to one after I left. The pip process isn’t great but there really isn’t another tool out there to get similar results out of workers.

jjtheblunt 4y ago
> isn't another tool how about when the work is so interesting folks just are innately enthused? it can happen, but arranging it to happen is super tricky
- nojito 4y ago
  Your job isn't going to be interesting 24/7. The fact of the matter is so many people work at FANG just because it's FANG. Which makes managing them extraordinarily difficult.

d4rkp4ttern 4y ago

I feel like at least some of these types of issues would be mitigated if (experienced) people work as (part time) contractors for one or more companies?

jeffwask 4y ago

There such a massive logic failure in these orgs that implement complex and arduous interview and screening processes then assume 10% of those people are trash and need to be regularly culled. The words PIP Quota make me gag. As an on again of again people leader, I dread the thought of the only way to prove my value as a leader being to arbitrarily assign one of my people a PIP.

potamic 4y ago

Unfortunately there's not much that can be done with the situation. An entity that pays well can get away with insolence. No matter how poorly they treat their employees, there will always be a long list of people willing to put up with it. They hold a lot of power in this interplay. Now this becomes a problem when the entity is also big, because the effects spill over into the rest of the ecosystem. Thousands upon thousands going through this place pick up bad habits and spread it elsewhere. Worse yet, these habits are looked up to because they are coming from a powerful place. I think the lesson at the end of the day is we should not let any entity grow that big and powerful. It's a huge imbalance in society and as individuals it's in our best interest to prevent these structures in the first place.

b20000 4y ago

i don’t understand the naivity - i cannot imagine these companies to promote you regularly or when you deserve it. it’s always “if you do well this year maybe next year”. people need to negotiate.

valdiorn 4y ago

How are companies like Blizzard being discussed in congressional hearings for having too much laddish culture, while Amazon is literally driving it's staff to suicide, and everyone in power is like "yeah whatcha gonna do, it's amazon after all".