MTL-News|Amazonians’ response to "Inside Amazon: Wrestling Big Ideas in a Bruising Workplace"

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几天前我们分享了一篇发表在New York Times上,在码农圈引起广泛关注和讨论的Amazon打脸文 Inside Amazon: Wrestling BigIdeas in a Bruising Workplace. 文章里面Amazon被描述成不讲人性和个人价值的劳动力压榨机。秉承追根问底原则,笔者第一时间发给几位目前就职Amazon的朋友,想看看内部员工是如何评价这篇文章。这几位员工入职时间在两年左右,全部为软件工程师。

他们的第一反应差不多,“天啦噜这文章写的好夸张啊…​”, “这篇报道我觉得蛮严重失实的”。他们说工作环境和强度完全看组的性质和你的Manager,相互之间差别特别大。其中A君所属得AWS组,工作时间 8-10 hours.,也经常会出现工作量达不到计划的情况,但是问题不大。他们每天带着吃喝去轻松愉快地meeting,定期manager 1-1谈话帮你解决眼下的需求;另外一位在bill组,因为和客户支付息息相关,任何服务出了问题他们组都会超级忙,如果再加上on call那连轴转并不稀奇。另外,程序员和PM强度也完全不同。AWS那组的A君的经理工作时间6-7 a.m. 至 4-5 p.m.,回家也仍然随时回邮件和解决线上问题,非常忙。但A君表示他的组是他见过最好的组了(非Amazon内部横向对比)。组里面没有人只说话不做事,相互非常融洽,互相支持,没有出现大牛的强烈鄙视链。甚至manager给他的邮件里面,有任何看法或者意见都是用疑问句。”If they need blah blah, can we do blah blah, and blah blah?”。而他的朋友却在另一个组被manager折磨。

总之,工作环境怎样完全取决于客观条件加运气,让人不愉快的环境并不是Amazon的专利。笔者也听在“著名土豪金产品制造公司”工作的朋友B讲自己组由于每个人都是很聪明的senior,但又不愿意花自己的时间带新人,或者总是把简单的东西讲很复杂越讲越糊涂,导致新人上班生不如死,怀疑自己的智商,怀疑人生。大牛同时拒绝私人化交流,朋友B约同组人一起走去meeting被拒绝,结果那人就走在B君身后1米远。

但是如果不幸遇到了这样的组,也并不是没有化解的手段。B君在工作几个月之后渐渐靠自己赢得同事的尊重,以上情况有所缓解。正如B君的manager所说,“别人尊重我并不是因为我是manager, 而因为我懂很多” 。是不是很励志呐小伙伴们?

再说回Amazon争议很大的Leadership Principle。之前笔者准备面试的时候就听说Amazon招人就是按照这些principle来招,所问的问题非常有针对性。但这principle其实比较经常变,唯一核心的就是 ”Customer Obsession”. 一切为customer解决问题的时候都应该是不计代价的。

Update, August 17th, 8:00AM ET: 一大早Amazon的员工转了CEO Jeff Bezos的内部邮件给笔者,邮件全文附录如下。在邮件中Bezos说 "I strongly believe that anyone working in a company that really is like the one described in the NYT would be crazy to stay. I know I would leave such a company."

邮件全文:

Dear Amazonians,

If you haven’t already, I encourage you to give this (very long) New York Times article a careful read:

I also encourage you to read this very different take by a current Amazonian:

Here’s why I’m writing you. The NYT article prominently features anecdotes describing shockingly callous management practices, including people being treated without empathy while enduring family tragedies and serious health problems. The article doesn’t describe the Amazon I know or the caring Amazonians I work with every day. But if you know of any stories like those reported, I want you to escalate to HR. You can also email me directly at jeff@amazon.com. Even if it’s rare or isolated, our tolerance for any such lack of empathy needs to be zero.

The article goes further than reporting isolated anecdotes. It claims that our intentional approach is to create a soulless, dystopian workplace where no fun is had and no laughter heard. Again, I don’t recognize this Amazon and I very much hope you don’t, either. More broadly, I don’t think any company adopting the approach portrayed could survive, much less thrive, in today’s highly competitive tech hiring market. The people we hire here are the best of the best. You are recruited every day by other world-class companies, and you can work anywhere you want.

I strongly believe that anyone working in a company that really is like the one described in the NYT would be crazy to stay. I know I would leave such a company.

But hopefully, you don’t recognize the company described. Hopefully, you’re having fun working with a bunch of brilliant teammates, helping invent the future, and laughing along the way.

Thank you,

Jeff

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