Inside Amazon

NYT writes about the working environment at Amazon. Seems like a super fun place to work.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/16/t...g-big-ideas-in-a-bruising-workplace.html?_r=0

“Amazon is where overachievers go to feel bad about themselves.”

 

Great article. Imagine what they could have done with better access.

 

I'm sure that from a business standpoint there's something to be said about the Hunger Games approach, pitting people against one another creates good competition and a true meritocracy. I bet the shareholders love it.

 

Read it yesterday. This note stuck with me:

Bo Olson was one of them. He lasted less than two years in a book marketing role and said that his enduring image was watching people weep in the office, a sight other workers described as well. “You walk out of a conference room and you’ll see a grown man covering his face,” he said. “Nearly every person I worked with, I saw cry at their desk.”

 

That's what it's all about.

 

Sounds like Amazon should be high on the list of "Next Places Where Someone Will Go Postal."

 

Customers love Amazon.

 

This customer loves Amazon.

But that story is eye-opening. I fear the rest of corporate America will go that route as well...it's all about incentive. What incentive does Amazon (or any other company) have to treat workers better or pay them more, if there's a line around the door of people waiting to work there?

Blue and white-collar life is going to get a lot worse in the US before it gets better.

 

Jeff Bezos is pissed: Full memo: Jeff Bezos responds to brutal NYT story, says it doesn't represent the Amazon he leads - GeekWire

 

He should counter with his own story in the WaPo!

 

My understanding is that conditions are pretty hard for those $10 an hour jobs stocking the warehouses, too.

 

He's just pissed because the Times' Amazon expose was better than the Washington Post's.