Terrible places to work - Amazon

Work in the same building as their main office in Dublin, anyone I've spoken to says the same thing, long hours and impossible deadlines and workloads.

Im glad i dont work in a place with such a bad culture and conditions for employees. My job is a cake walk compared to some places. Im in a multi national but the longer Im here, the more I learn that almost all, if not all, of HR policies are complete fabrication and exist only to cover themselves legally. Ive seen good workers pushed out of their jobs because they work for a bully who thrives on power trips and ego massages. Ive seen bullies in the office allowed free reign because they play soccer with the boss and are therefore untouchable. Ive seen people harassed, ignored, ideas robbed and policies falsified on a daily basis, all in the name of keeping a united front.

If you make a company money then sadly it doesnt matter what kind of a person you are or how you make your employees feel.

conorhal wrote: »

This is a product of the hideous libertarian capitalist culture practiced by MNCs and increasingly adopted by business across the globe.
The model is minimal management under huge pressure to deliver growth targets that bare no relation to market demand because they are often set up for failure to ensure target bonuses aren't paid.
People are mere corporate assets to be measured by metrics that rarely relate to an individuals actual job.

This is combined with a corporate culture that really puts the 'cult' in corporate cult-ure. Google encourage employees to work, rest and play... at their desk, with all night tech crunch pizza parties and all night 'innovation jam's'.
That of course doesn't leave much room for going home to feed the kids and read them a bedtime story, but then Google would rather you freeze your eggs on the company and not have any. Some applauded the offer of Google to give employees access to freeze eggs but most recognised this 'generous employee benefit' for what it was, a stunt that implicitly warned female employees to think twice about their prospects if they took maternity leave

Ultimately it's corporate culture that is designed to dehumanize employees and has no consideration for their work life balance because it just sees employees as meat for the grinder.

STRIKE !!!

I think what's missing here though is context, and given that Amazon, Google, Apple, Microsoft employ in the hundreds of thousands of employees, you're no doubt going to get a high percentage who are unsatisfied, unfulfilled and underwhelmed with their conditions of employment. The culture in these companies really is ruthless, because it has to be to compete in today's environment where the consumer or the client is only interested in the end product or service and getting value for their money (Apple are the king of producing shiny turds, but they are unquestionably the market leader in mobile devices because of their business practices and marketing strategy).

Anyone familiar with management systems will have learned about Taylorism and how it has evolved over decades and even now American companies are adopting strategies to compete with the Japanese, from the Japanese.

The rewards though for those who want them are there, and the rewards are fantastic, you can negotiate your own salary and the bonuses if you hit your metrics are impressive. It's a cut-throat and competitive culture, and by no means is it for everyone, but for those people that thrive in that environment, and they are few and far between, you won't hear them complain about their working conditions.

That's not to say that those employees who don't thrive in that environment don't sometimes have valid grievances in those circumstances, but you'll find the same culture is often present in many companies, whether they are a small company with 10 employees, or a large company with 1,000,000 employees.

Zascar wrote: »

Rubbish. That's a terrible generalisation. I've worked for 4 Multinational IT companies. Yes you have to work hard - but absolutely nothing like these stories of Amazon. In all but one I worked 9-5 or thereabouts, maybe stay late once in a while. There was pressure, but nothing that would affect your health or mental state.

I know a number of people who work for Amazon here in Dublin - mostly sales and some developers. Again, they are worked hard and the pressure is on if you are not performing - but that's the same in any of the main IT companies. Google, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin etc.

The one thing you have to remember is that Americans have a totally different work ethic than we do. I had an American boss in my last job and he once said to me "I think it's great how you guys have this 'work life balance' thing - but back home, your life starts when your work is finished'. They don't understand the 9-5, they barely get any holidays or sick leave, and they can be fired for practically no reason. Things are very very different here.

I've not worked for any US firms but know quite a few that have. Yes things are very different, but according those I know, they are actually horribly inefficient. There's a huge amount of time wasted 'looking busy at your desk at ten O' clock at night' but no real increase in productivity. If they worked 9 to 5 they'd get no less work done in the experience of many of my friends that work under such regimes.

Volkswagen actually cut off employee access to their Blackberry e-mail out of hours to put a break on the unproductive corporate culture of the 'last man in the office' nonsense.

conorhal wrote: »

I've not worked for any US firms but know quite a few that have. Yes things are very different, but according those I know, they are actually horribly inefficient. There's a huge amount of time wasted 'looking busy at your desk at ten O' clock at night' but no real increase in productivity. If they worked 9 to 5 they'd get no less work done in the experience of many of my friends that work under such regimes.

Volkswagen actually cut off employee access to their Blackberry e-mail out of hours to put a break on the unproductive corporate culture of the 'last man in the office' nonsense.

I've a college mate working for a law firm in NY. He's finding it incredibly tough, a real sharktank by the sounds of it, all junior associates are expected to work 12 hour days at the minimum and Saturdays, sleeping in the office isn't uncommon either. They dangle the carrot of one day making Partner but whats the point when you drop dead at 50 from stress.