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Comment by libber | Hacker News Reader

I found this interesting, feels like the most realistic account so far - http://pastebin.com/BjD84BQ3

I just feel bad for amazon people I meet, the 2 year cliff and high pressure oncall simply isn't a thing at the other tech companies. At least for me and ive worked at a few of them (plural of anicdote isn't data but still) Life seems strictly worse at amazon.

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> high pressure oncall simply isn't a thing at the other tech companies. At least for me and ive worked at a few of them

I think you've been pretty lucky. I've never had a job in IT where there wasn't high pressure oncall.

But... I work in ops. I suppose that might be where the difference lies. I don't know anyone that works on the Ops site of IT that hasn't had to deal with on cal responsibilities.

(Actually, the plural of anecdote is data. Or at least it was originally</a>...)

http://blog.revolutionanalytics.com/2011/04/the-plural-of-an...

His account seems much better than what I experienced. I still think he has swallowed too much koolaide-- and this is why Amazon focuses on the young kids they can make an impression on.

I've worked at Amazon and you are absolutely right. The implied "get it done" pressure, basically just socially awkward managers who have no self-value themselves, pushing the new people to work ridiculous hours. Not mentioning hours though, but basically getting unexperienced youth to waste away their lives at their jobs. It's sad.. it's definitely a mental and manipulative tactic. It's really cancerous because these exact kind of mentally defective people who spurry to get things done, usually last-licks from Microsoft, become managers. Then they apply that silly pressure to everyone under them, and elegance fades away. Literally horrible code, with little polymorphism, less elegant frameworks, etc. Just a side affect of "get it done." Anyhow, Amazon isn't rosy. It's a dumping ground, and yeah, the FLP process where people get culled is just a side affect of the value of work-life balance, human empathy there. I would never work at Amazon again.

He had stated that he did drink the koolaid initially...

seems like a matter of fact version..

I totally agree. I can see why he would blame a lot of this on himself, but I think it's a mistake. A good manager would have been keeping an eye on him, helping him set boundaries, reducing schedule pressure, etc. If this guy were the only one to have a problem at Amazon that would be one thing, but the sheer number of stories points to deep problems with culture and management.

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