Amazon.com Inc. staff’ complaints about firm tradition — a frequent sight on nameless and inside boards — turned public this week with a preferred LinkedIn put up that struck a chord with present staff.
The put up, by former Amazon employee Stephanie Ramos, criticized paperwork on the firm. “As a substitute of the thrilling, fast-paced setting I keep in mind, I skilled a spot slowed down in pointless conferences and middling center managers,” wrote Ramos, explaining why she give up her job lower than three months after being rehired by Amazon.
Ramos posted her ideas Monday afternoon. By the top of the week, greater than 100,000 folks had considered it, she mentioned in an interview. Of the greater than 200 individuals who commented on her put up, about 20 are at present employed by Amazon in varied departments around the globe – and lots of have been crucial of the corporate.
Some lambasted Amazon’s course below Andy Jassy, who assumed the chief govt officer function from co-founder Jeff Bezos three years in the past. “Love him or hate him, Bezos had braveness and a imaginative and prescient — he had actual all-hands conferences that weren’t prerecorded with arduous questions,” wrote Todd Leonhardt, whose LinkedIn profile describes him as an Amazon Net Providers software program developer in Virginia.
One other individual, Laura Barry, whose LinkedIn profile says she’s labored at Amazon for practically 20 years, wrote that the corporate at this time reminded her of a financial institution. She pointed to the brand new coverage of requiring staff to be within the workplace 5 days every week.
“I’m ready for a gown code to be applied after 5 days every week begins,” she commented on the put up. “Cover these tattoos!”
Worker complaints are widespread at any firm, however the public discussion board made this week’s outpouring on LinkedIn uncommon.
Amazon spokesperson Margaret Callahan declined to deal with the precise criticisms lobbed by staff. She famous that Amazon ranked second this yr in LinkedIn’s High Firms listing, a rating of the 50 finest massive workplaces compiled utilizing LinkedIn knowledge on things like promotions. JPMorgan Chase & Co. topped the listing.
Jassy’s tenure has been outlined by layoffs and price chopping — strikes that happy Wall Avenue buyers however rankled some workers. The manager additionally brazenly criticized the corporate tradition himself in a memo to staff in September, when he introduced that the five-day coverage would start in January.
Jassy mentioned he supposed to chop administration layers that have been slowing the corporate down and the return-to-office plan would assist Amazon rekindle its defining tradition. The announcement prompted backlash, however a lot of it was contained to nameless boards reminiscent of Blind, the place staff can complain below pseudonyms.
Ramos, the unique poster, beforehand labored for the corporate for six years as a logistics venture supervisor earlier than getting laid off in 2023. This yr, she was rehired, however determined to give up. She didn’t thoughts the return to the workplace, she wrote, however was annoyed by the tradition.
She was initially nervous about posting her ideas, however felt a way of solidarity together with her former colleagues when she noticed the reactions accumulate, Ramos mentioned.
“I’m not alone,” she mentioned.
