Why are there so many Amazon horror stories on Blind?
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?
comments
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.”
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.....