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[Everything that follows is my personal opinion. I do not speak for my company.] Seven years and counting for me, and likewise proud. I have found it a good ex

[Everything that follows is my personal opinion. I do not speak for my company.] Seven years and counting for me, and likewise proud. I have found it a good experience, on balance. I have witnessed -- and been subjected to -- behavior by individuals that people would reasonably consider "toxic", and I've been fortunate to have avoided long-term impact. I do what I can to fight it where I find it. To the point of remote work, I've been primarily remote the whole time, and it's worked out well. If enforced RTO ever does happen (I don't expect it to), I'll have a decision to make, is all.

bamboozled 4y ago
Do both of you just “not see” all the bad things your company does ? Your proud of what ? Worker exploitation ? The people in fulfilment centres are also employed by Amazon. They’re your peers. If I worked for a company where my peers are treated like dirt, I wouldn’t be proud of it. I’d quit.
- throwaway9191aa 4y ago
  Certainly not speaking for the folks above. While I am critical of many things Amazon does, what I see in the media about AWS is usually laughably false. We aren't all in broken marriages due to on-call duty. The stories I read about drivers urinating in their pants because they have too many deliveries scheduled simply does not reflect the behavior I've seen from drivers in my area (I ride a bike everywhere, Amazon drivers are noticeably bike friendly in a way that makes me think they aren't under pants-urinating pressure). So when I see stories about the FCs, I assume the same. I guess I am biased towards thinking the media focuses on the negative and totally ignores anything good. So... yea I guess I "don't see" all the bad things. Still pro union... but treated like dirt is probably a little far. [edit, have worked for aws for about 5.5 years]
  - bamboozled 4y ago
    You riding your bike around waving at drivers disproves nothing. I often read warehouse workers are treated badly, threatening to strike, discouraged from unionizing and paid terribly.Are you telling me the news just makes this up? You're obviously seeing what you want to see, and that's OK, just don't try push it onto others. The context I made my comment was in regards to people saying "Amazon is awesome, I've worked there for 14 years.". I don't really see why warehouse workers shouldn't feel awesome too. If it's really a great company, they should feel pretty awesome. tl;dr I don't believe Amazon is an awesome company based on how I see it treat lower skill workers, people who think it's awesome probably only feel like that because they're needed, as soon as you can be replaced by someone cheaper, you will be.
    - scarface74 4y ago
      Do you think the blue collar workers who work at your company or probably outsource somewhere feel just as “awesome” as you do? News alert: I bet your company would replace you with someone cheaper also.
      - bamboozled 4y ago
        I run my own company so I don't need to be / work for assholes. I won't be firing myself anytime soon.
        scarface74 4y ago
        Do you have outside investors? If so, founders get pushed out all of the time.
- hotpotamus 4y ago
  It's a cliche at this point - "It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it." I would say compared to Bezos (or any oligarch with penis rocket money) we're all peers in the sense that we work for a living, but I doubt most Amazon devs would say that about the soldiers working the warehouses or driving the trucks.
  - scarface74 4y ago
    Does your company employ anyone outside of tech? Do they outsource manufacturing to a developing nation?
    - hotpotamus 4y ago
      No and No. We don't employ anyone outside the US including support.
      - scarface74 4y ago
        Do you know how any large company like Amazon operates? This isn’t meant to be a demeaning comment. I spent 24 years bumping around at mostly small companies you’ve never heard of before 2020.
        hotpotamus 4y ago
        > Do you know how any large company like Amazon operates? Does anyone really know how a large company like Amazon operates? I've certainly worked for multinational companies before. One of our C levels even palled around with Jeffery Epstein.
        scarface74 4y ago
        And nowhere in that company’s supply chain are that not workers who aren’t treated like the “elite” software developers? How many people toil away in factories “working” for Apple creating iPhones or “working” for Google creating their servers and phones. Or is it morally better since they are outsourced?
- scarface74 4y ago
  So is your company feeding starving children in Africa. It kills me to see people clutching their pearls when it wouldn’t take much to find something bad about every company.

bamboozled 4y ago

Do both of you just “not see” all the bad things your company does ? Your proud of what ? Worker exploitation ? The people in fulfilment centres are also employed by Amazon. They’re your peers. If I worked for a company where my peers are treated like dirt, I wouldn’t be proud of it. I’d quit.

throwaway9191aa 4y ago
Certainly not speaking for the folks above. While I am critical of many things Amazon does, what I see in the media about AWS is usually laughably false. We aren't all in broken marriages due to on-call duty. The stories I read about drivers urinating in their pants because they have too many deliveries scheduled simply does not reflect the behavior I've seen from drivers in my area (I ride a bike everywhere, Amazon drivers are noticeably bike friendly in a way that makes me think they aren't under pants-urinating pressure). So when I see stories about the FCs, I assume the same. I guess I am biased towards thinking the media focuses on the negative and totally ignores anything good. So... yea I guess I "don't see" all the bad things. Still pro union... but treated like dirt is probably a little far. [edit, have worked for aws for about 5.5 years]
- bamboozled 4y ago
  You riding your bike around waving at drivers disproves nothing. I often read warehouse workers are treated badly, threatening to strike, discouraged from unionizing and paid terribly.Are you telling me the news just makes this up? You're obviously seeing what you want to see, and that's OK, just don't try push it onto others. The context I made my comment was in regards to people saying "Amazon is awesome, I've worked there for 14 years.". I don't really see why warehouse workers shouldn't feel awesome too. If it's really a great company, they should feel pretty awesome. tl;dr I don't believe Amazon is an awesome company based on how I see it treat lower skill workers, people who think it's awesome probably only feel like that because they're needed, as soon as you can be replaced by someone cheaper, you will be.
  - scarface74 4y ago
    Do you think the blue collar workers who work at your company or probably outsource somewhere feel just as “awesome” as you do? News alert: I bet your company would replace you with someone cheaper also.
    - bamboozled 4y ago
      I run my own company so I don't need to be / work for assholes. I won't be firing myself anytime soon.
      - scarface74 4y ago
        Do you have outside investors? If so, founders get pushed out all of the time.
hotpotamus 4y ago
It's a cliche at this point - "It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it." I would say compared to Bezos (or any oligarch with penis rocket money) we're all peers in the sense that we work for a living, but I doubt most Amazon devs would say that about the soldiers working the warehouses or driving the trucks.
- scarface74 4y ago
  Does your company employ anyone outside of tech? Do they outsource manufacturing to a developing nation?
  - hotpotamus 4y ago
    No and No. We don't employ anyone outside the US including support.
    - scarface74 4y ago
      Do you know how any large company like Amazon operates? This isn’t meant to be a demeaning comment. I spent 24 years bumping around at mostly small companies you’ve never heard of before 2020.
      - hotpotamus 4y ago
        > Do you know how any large company like Amazon operates? Does anyone really know how a large company like Amazon operates? I've certainly worked for multinational companies before. One of our C levels even palled around with Jeffery Epstein.
        scarface74 4y ago
        And nowhere in that company’s supply chain are that not workers who aren’t treated like the “elite” software developers? How many people toil away in factories “working” for Apple creating iPhones or “working” for Google creating their servers and phones. Or is it morally better since they are outsourced?
scarface74 4y ago
So is your company feeding starving children in Africa. It kills me to see people clutching their pearls when it wouldn’t take much to find something bad about every company.