Customers First at the Expense of Employees
Pros
Smart Coworkers At Amazon you’re going to work with some really bright individuals. Everyone I work with is very intelligent and very hard working. That’s evident by the clock ticking down to 6:00 and seeing all your coworkers typing still at their door desks. Interesting Work The work you do at Amazon is already quite fun. On the retail side it’s like running your own business. There’s so much to do and you’re never bored with the work. It’s neat to see how everything you do impacts your business and improves it. Casual Work Environment It's also quite nice that you can go to work in jeans and a t-shirt. Bringing your dog to work is great also, but really it's just a wait to keep you there longer.
Cons
Before I go into the cons I’m going to say that this is based upon my personal experience during my 3 positions on the retail side of the company. No Work Life Balance 60 hour work weeks are normal. Meetings at 5:00 happen and people regularly work past 7:00. It feels like I go to work, get home, work some more, go to sleep, and repeat. On the weekends I get a bit of a break, but I still am required to work as I have certain reports and other tasks that have not yet been automated to complete. Amazon work kills all hope I have of an outside life. Always on call Even being on vacation doesn’t matter as you’ll receive high priority emails management wants answered right away. Holidays are no exceptions. I was called once at 6:00 AM on a holiday because of a promotion running at a competitor I had to match. I finished all tasks associated with the promotion at about 8:00 PM. I didn’t have a holiday as a result, but customers were able to get a good deal on the retail products I was in charge of. Single People Preferred Do not expect to see your kids or significant other regularly. If you mention you have to leave early, like 5:00 (which is a normal 8 to 5 day) to pick up your kids or go to a dinner date, expect to be mocked by your boss after you’re gone. I’m regularly late now to almost all after work events because of work that is given and required to be completed after 5:00. Too Much Work This is great as you’re never bored, but it also means you’ll constantly be working. Lunch normally doesn’t happen as you’re in a meeting during that time, completing something for later deadline, or rushing for a fire drill. It’s basically survival of the fittest here. You will need to automate your tasks or risk drowning in a pile of endless work. There are a lot of improvements needed to be made at Amazon and management wants them done now. High Bars Once you’ve automated your work and reached your goals, you’ll be asked to surpass that the next year. Eventually your goals will become impossible to achieve. I’ve mentioned this to management and their answers are normally along the lines of “I’m not sure how you’ll be able to improve, but you need to.” Small Raises I’ve been lucky that I’ve achieved high ratings on my reviews and so my raises have been just above inflation. Even so, they’re laughable. Raises occur only on your base pay and your base pay is relatively a small portion of your compensation. Golden-handcuffs Amazon entices you with a bonus your first two years and stock every year afterwards. If you leave the company before the end of the year in which you received a bonus you’ll have to pay it back. If you leave during one of the years in which your stock vest it’s like you worked for nothing. My stock is almost equal to my base pay for example. This keeps you working for the company. Low Base Pay Living off your base pay is also terrible as the cost of living here in Seattle is rising. You’re income on paper will look like you make a decent amount of money, but only because of your stock/bonuses. If you choose not to cash out of it when it vests you’ll be living by meager means as most of your pay will go to rent and other expenses. Having a low base pay also puts you in a different bracket for loans as they don’t consider your grants and bonuses reliable income. Frugality Only the bus pass is free. Parking is not and parking is expensive. Amazon will reimburse up $160 worth of parking, but at over $25.00 a day it doesn’t go very far. If you can get monthly parking you’ll pay less, but there’s a long wait list. On the bright side most people leave after 2 years so you may get a spot if you stay long enough. There are also no employee perks that I’m aware of, except free coffee and tea in the kitchen. Performance Improvement Plans PIP is very real at Amazon. A certain number of people in your department every year will be put on it. Essentially the weakest link will be eliminated. If you don’t perform better than someone else you’ll be let go. Politics are very real and active as well. Consider it similar to Game of Thrones. Make sure someone owes you a favor and preferably that’s someone at a higher level. Promotions Lateral moves are common, promotions are not. Most people rotate after 1-1/2 years. Getting promoted requires laterally moving to a high job level. Once in that level you will need to perform the job better than coworkers doing the same job at the level you’re trying to get promoted to. This accounts to doing a much harder job with more work at a lower wage than everyone else until you’ve proven yourself. You’re also competing with other coworkers at your level and job for the promotion. This works great for the company, but makes you feel like you’re way underpaid for the job you’re doing. Turnover I’m not sure the exact numbers as Amazon is constantly hiring new people, but it seems high. I’ve seen lots of people leave Amazon that I’ve worked with. The average stay seems to be about 2 years. After that people leave for better opportunities. Consider this place a stepping stone to the next job. Also expect your workload to increase each time someone leaves until they fill that position. You may be moving on before that happens though as Amazon has a really high bar for hiring.
