The cutthroat work culture at Amazon

Jeff Bezos may have created the ultimate "everything store" but some his former employees are less than happy with the work culture he's cultivated. Source: AFP

AMAZON may have rapturous fans all over the world, but some of those won't be its very own employees.

Yesterday, we brought you one Amazon warehouse worker's account of what it's like working for the blue collar side of the operation. Today, we bring you an account of what it's like working on the corporate side. (Hint: "weird.")

We got this email (which we've lightly copy edited for easier reading) from a person who worked in Amazon's corporate offices in Seattle from 2007-2009. It's an interesting look at a rather bizarre and driven corporate culture, with high pressure, high turnover, and a strong devotion to The Cult of Jeff Bezos. Take it for what it's worth:

"Just a very weird experience as a whole. You feel like you won the lottery just getting a call back about your resume. That's by design. Amazon is great at branding and they have branded themselves the place to work in high tech. Makes sense. Probably why they heavily recruit Ivy League campuses now. Smart people, first job — you'd be crazy not to think that's a great opportunity.

So you get an interview, what next? A six-hour ordeal including panel interviews and people coming and going. You'll find out later when asked to participate in one of these that they are designed to agitate the interviewee, let's see what you got!

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos with Amazon Kindle HDX. Source: AP

Then the fun starts. There is not so much the word "train" or any training period whatsoever. There's barely a job description and that will fluctuate. This also is by design. Sink or swim they say. You do get an employee orientation and nifty Amazon backpack they charge you for when you leave the company.

There was a young woman hired to be a control buyer on our team (Amazon retail is broken down by sections on the website. I worked for toys) and her and her entire family relocated from San Francisco, on the company's dime. Nice right? Well she started on Monday and by Friday she was pretty upset. She explained that the position was nothing like the description and she felt she was deceived a bit on the responsibilities. Needless to say when I showed up Monday, her desk was empty. Hopefully they paid to get them back to San Francisco.

The first six months there is pretty exciting. You're trying to swim, meeting new people, going out to lunches with vendors because Amazon is totally okay with receiving gifts of all types from outside interests. Money, food, sports tickets, you name it.

And don't get me started on the booze. My god those people put away some booze. On the clock in the office and it's acceptable!

Just when you feel your new career has started, that's about when the s**t starts getting real. The work/life balance is crap. I was once asked why I turned my BlackBerry off on some random Saturday afternoon. The fact I was in a movie theatre with my family was not okay. Your BlackBerry stays on at all times. Responsibilities grow fast and now you're in deep. Apparently, Jeff said something about 'if you aren't working at least 60 hours a week you aren't working' or something to that affect.

Amazon distribution centre. Source: Supplied

The managers love it and say that crap all the time.

Better not complain though, this is about the time they start reminding you that there's a thousand people out there that would love your job. They will tell you this on a regular basis. So yeah, I'll take conference calls at 1am because our outsourced employees in India can't work overtime/take off-hour calls.

They seem to care more about stressing them out. So the fun is now over. You're a good year in and have noticed teams/employees coming and going like the wind. And so has everybody else because the software engineers there designed a little tool called the "old fart tool" — you put in your employee number and the tool tells you how much of the company was hired after you. By 18 months in, 36% of the company was hired after me with very little increase in actual numbers. I worked from 2007-09.

Growth was slow and there was a hiring freeze during a lot of that time depending on department. The turnover was something I had never seen before. And I've worked a few collection agencies and call centres, real crap jobs with extreme turnover. Amazon's turnover was much worse.

After a year, most employees start looking for a new job elsewhere or new position within the company, again by design. During orientation it's encouraged that you not spend more than two years in the same team. It seemed like an odd statement at the time but I now believe it's to save your a**e.

The company is really good about having its staff explain to management why they should still be there. You literally must reinterview for your position constantly. It comes up at least every three months. And you keep getting those reminders that people outside want your job.

It was a pretty stressful work environment and most people aren't really that happy. Employee morale is for those new employees still thrilled to death to be there. Whenever I see one and they tell me how great Amazon is, I say, tell me that again in two years.

Amazon warehouse employees on strike in Germany over work conditions. Source: AFP

When I was at the 18-month mark on the toys team, I thought I should get the hell out of that team as soon as possible. Unfortunately there was a hiring freeze during that time and transfers were hard to come by. A few months after that, I got a new manager on the toy team. After working with him for a month, he does my review. I remember like it was yesterday. On Friday afternoon, he calls me into his office and it goes something like this:

Him: [name], we decided we don't want you here anymore

Me: Huh? Um, okay?

Him: Yeah it's just not working out

Me: OK well I can find another team and do a lateral move

Him: No that isn't going to work either.

*very long pause*

Me: OK. well my last review was great so I'm not sure why the big difference?

Him: That's just the way it is, so what are you going to do?

Me: What do you mean? Are you firing me?

Him: Nope. But I need you to come in Monday and let me know what your plan is.

Huh? Was he asking me to quit? Yes.

When Monday rolls around, it was the same "What are you going to do" question. By then I'm getting a little pissed.

Spit it out. He doesn't. He calls me into his office everyday for at least 30 minutes asking me what I'm going to do until I finally say "I'm not quitting. if that's what this is about you need to figure out what you're going to do".

Jeff Bezos with some of the goodies you can with just a click of your mouse. Source: AP

I'm left out of team meetings, work is being taken away from me and the vendors I've worked with for almost two years are being told not to interact with me anymore. So I'm left with no option than to do we all know is the nail in the coffin of your job: talk to HR about the situation.

So I did. She and my manger decided to put me on a "performance improvement plan" (PIP). This is Amazon's ace in the hole for termination. The PIP was ridiculous with the stuff on there things I'd never done before or was never a part of my responsibilities and physically impossible to comply with. I busted my a**e for the 90 days the PIP was in place

After that I packed up all my belongings and took them home and waited. I got called into the office, and the HR rep and the manager said: "You didn't make your PIP. We are letting you go. I responded: "I'm being fired"? He said: "No, Amazon doesn't fire people, they let them go." What difference does that make? I was told they would give me stock and a small severance package if I signed an agreement not so sue them for wrongful termination.

You aren't worth anything to that company once you strap on that backpack. Every new employee is better than you and every future employee will do a better job. I blame the success of that company and how few employees they have. Jeff has a special team of managers called the S-team. Those guys are all multi-millionaires from stock alone. Every average Joe-manager at Amazon would crush you like a grape to even get noticed by Jeff. They live, breathe and sleep only to get on that team. And it's only a few levels ahead of them! They can almost reach it ..."

This article originally appeared on Gawker and was reprinted here with permission.

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