Why are there so many Amazon horror stories on Blind?

Apple
🐒codemonk

Go to company page Apple

🐒codemonk
Mar 17, 2021 29 Comments

Seriously. Every a few swipes on Blind (if not every page refresh) I could see at least one Amazon rant/horror story/survival guide/desperation post on Blind.

I have never worked at Amazon but it looks very scary on Blind. Not sure about real world but definitely not as scary as on Blind. What the heck is going on?

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TOP 29 Comments
  • (Note: I don’t work at Amazon or any other FAANG.) Don’t forget that the people who are on Blind are a self-selected subset of people.
    Given the posts I’ve seen, I get the impression that people come to Blind because they’re looking for some sort of change, and that desire for change often comes from being unhappy with their current job. So I’d be quite hesitant to come to the conclusion that “Amazon isn’t a great place to work”; it’s more like “The Amazon employees who post on Blind mostly think Amazon isn’t a great place to work.”
    Mar 17, 2021 7
    • Verizon
      ulyB06

      Go to company page Verizon

      ulyB06
      This logic would apply to all companies though, and often these Amazon (or ex-Amazon) employees compare their negative experiences to other FAANGs they’ve worked at. Obviously Amazon has many more employees but proportion of horror stories is too high to ignore
      Mar 17, 2021
    • Apple
      🐒codemonk

      Go to company page Apple

      🐒codemonk
      OP
      ^^ This. Yes you might be right but it’s only Amazon whose data is extremely “biased”
      Mar 18, 2021
  • Amazon
    Bello674

    Go to company page Amazon

    Bello674
    Let us be straight, Amazon imposes NDA contracts upon their PIP candidates from interview stage until exit which are perpetual. Upon exit their targets must sign Non Disparagement to receive severance.

    The Amazon managers have a mandated URA (UnRegretted Attrition) quota which they are measured upon annually and so are PIP stalking every report from the start to maintain quota. Managers are not here working for the business or to support the team but to advance through kill ratio.
    New manager.. needs to show they "blooded" and have exited reports and more the better since their peers will have reduced pressure due to any other manager in Org who takes more of the Orgs kill (URA) quota each year.

    Venal managers kill off experienced reports who are flight risk, to reduce chance of Regretted Atrittion count, and replace them with boot lickers - preferably unquestioning new Grads or visa chained supplicants to their whim.. even if it means more headcount.

    Now, why do we see this venom against Amazon on Blind? Well, it is because this is an *anonymous* forum in which the abused are not silenced by the Amazon lawyers and can avoid (see NDA above) a lawsuit.

    However, let us consider all of the other tech companies on Blind and is this hate against Amazon just due to the forum... NO-OTHER tech company but Amazon has this Blind rating - data point - .... so forget the forum as no other tech companies talent screams of the malevolent management practices on Blind except those of Amazon.

    Compare this... compare that... Amazon have dug a particular well for themselves in their pursuit of customer obsession and employee abuse..... and leadership profit through crushing staff.

    Current stat is that no experienced local tech talent will touch them with a ten foot pole dipped in disinfectant and they only feed from FANG newbies or new Grads or the remorseful visa chained supplicants to their management whims.

    New hires have fifty percent exit within one year and average tenure in Amazon is only eighteen months - data point.

    Amazon had a phrase (search it) called the "Flywheel effect" but due to their concentration of backstabbing despotic autocratic management middle layers, supported by Leadership Principles (LP) and HR processes which are totally designed to be twisted and weaponized against reports, the whole place seems less like a flywheel and more like something spiralling ever faster to the drain.

    So OP, yeah.. I guess thats why Amazon gets a bad rep on Blind... its because bad news travels - if recounted by many many folks free of lawsuits.

    In all good faith OP, I trust that this answered the question and helped skew the HR and multi dollar funded external consumer PR which is churned out. If there was equality between Amazon and their reports then this news would be EVERYWHERE but that is, unfortunately, how it stands today. We fight our battles where we can.....
    Mar 18, 2021 1
  • Amazon
    kmSQ73

    Go to company page Amazon

    kmSQ73
    It's a dystopian org run by profit-centric machine learning algorithm. Every process, mandate and policy is designed to extract as much production as possible, at the lowest cost. Firing thousands per month and training new meat for the grinder is simply more profitable than nurturing lifelong employees. The machine will continue down the same path until it is no longer profitable, and will most likely be packaged for other mega firms to adopt similar carrot-chassing, back stabbing, always onboarding policies. I told myself it's worth working twice as hard for twice the pay. I was wrong. A few years in and I'm done with the whole industry. I'm ready to herd cats or scrape used gum off theater seats for the rest of my life.
    Mar 17, 2021 0
  • Asurion
    tokkale

    Go to company page Asurion

    tokkale
    Google it, quora, Reddit, everywhere it’s the same story. Not just on blind.
    Mar 17, 2021 1
  • Compass
    ByTS34

    Go to company page Compass

    ByTS34
    Amazon is a mental asylum
    Mar 17, 2021 0