Who's dream are you building?

[Andy Black]

I find this horrific reading:

http://nytimes.com/2015/08/16/techn...stling-big-ideas-in-a-bruising-workplace.html

 

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[theag]

To be honest I find the article very inspiring (from the employer's viewpoint).. Not a fan of the "wishywashy handholding sweettalking ping pong table work-life balance we-all-love-each-other approach" to employees.

 

[AntEmpire]

I love how many of the commenters on NYT are vowing to never shop again at Amazon. Did it never occur to them that no one is forcing these people to work in such a terrible environment? If these people want to risk their mental and physical health processing orders and making Bezos rich than so be it.

 

[Imgal]

I love how many of the commenters on NYT are vowing to never shop again at Amazon. Did it never occur to them that no one is forcing these people to work in such a terrible environment? If these people want to risk their mental and physical health processing orders and making Bezos rich than so be it.

Very true point. It's equally one that can be used for freelancers. It's all very easy to label people nightmare clients who drive us into the ground with their demands, but the truth is we were the ones saying yes to working with them. There's a equally a responsibility freelancers have to accept that you need to have strong filters to make sure you're not working with the project scope creepers and energy suckers.

 

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[Get Right]

Wow, usually you have to work to find the weak position of your competition....they just told the world how to beat them. Dooh!

 

[Weaponize]

Maybe this is a bit of a hard edge, but to me that article reads more like an employers playbook:

Others who cycled in and out of the company said that what they learned in their brief stints helped their careers take off. And more than a few who fled said they later realized they had become addicted to Amazon’s way of working.

...some said they thrived at Amazon precisely because it pushed them past what they thought were their limits.

I was so addicted to wanting to be successful there. For those of us who went to work there, it was like a drug that we could get self-worth from.

Compensation is considered competitive — successful midlevel managers can collect the equivalent of an extra salary from grants of a stock that has increased more than tenfold since 2008. But workers are expected to embrace “frugality” (No. 9), from the bare-bones desks to the cellphones and travel expenses that they often pay themselves. (No daily free food buffets or regular snack supplies, either.) The focus is on relentless striving to please customers, or “customer obsession” (No. 1), with words like “mission” used to describe lightning-quick delivery of Cocoa Krispies or selfie sticks.

You can work long, hard or smart, but at Amazon.com you can’t choose two out of three

The workplace should be infused with transparency and precision about who is really achieving and who is not. Within Amazon, ideal employees are often described as "athletes" with endurance, speed (No. 8: "bias for action"), performance that can be measured and an ability to defy limits (No. 7: "think big").

Employees often say their co-workers are the sharpest, most committed colleagues they have ever met

Amazon has rules that are part of its daily language and rituals, used in hiring, cited at meetings and quoted in food-truck lines at lunchtime. Some Amazonians say they teach them to their children.

My main job today: I work hard at helping to maintain the culture

 

[RazorCut]

Would you work for Jeff Bezos? I thought not.

 

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[devine]

I love how many of the commenters on NYT are vowing to never shop again at Amazon. Did it never occur to them that no one is forcing these people to work in such a terrible environment? If these people want to risk their mental and physical health processing orders and making Bezos rich than so be it.

Moreover, amazon is just amazing for the end-user, so from a customer point of view they're doing great.
What does it take from them? I don't think I give a single f.

 

[sladdha]

As long as employees are willing to go about the "amazon" way,who's is to be blamed? Its an open marketplace,its your prerogative whether you feel like working in that kinda work culture.Amazon is able to carve out its unique place in the market due to its working policies and they are justifiably right.