Back In The Race: Why People Will Continue To Be Eager To Enter Amazon's Dark Jungle

Why do people strive to work for organizations (including law firms) that these employees know will require fierce competition and brutal hours?

Over the weekend, the New York Times published “Inside Amazon: Wrestling Big Ideas in a Bruising Workplace,” an article by Jodi Kantor and David Streitfeld exposing a dark jungle within the massive online retailer. The article claims Amazon is “conducting a little-known experiment in how far it can push white-collar workers, redrawing the boundaries of what is acceptable.” While this sounds like the mission statement of most law firms, this sounds unusual for a young, progressive company like Amazon. The article sparked a debate about work-life balance at just about every Sunday brunch. And no doubt it will have an adverse effect on Amazon’s future recruiting efforts at least in the short run. But after the dust settles and the public moves on to the next “outrage of the week,” it will be back to business as usual at Amazon.

The article provides a number of detailed and demoralizing case studies:

Multiple employees depicted the company as a place where “overachievers go to feel bad about themselves.”

Amazon encourages its employees to use the Anytime Feedback Tool to evaluate their colleagues as often as needed. But reports indicate that employees have used it to collectively sabotage someone the collective doesn’t like. Or worse, they agree to endorse each other so they can increase their “Ammo rating.” (The latter behavior is a pathetic circle jerk. Thankfully lawyers do not engage in such petty, superficial, and possibly unethical nonsense, amirite?)

Another employee complained about working 85 hours per week plus holidays with rare vacations.

A mother was told by her manager that raising children would most likely prevent her from success at Amazon because of the long hours required.

Employees who took time off to treat various cancers, cope with a stillborn child, or care for family members with serious illnesses were looked down upon by management and were told that they were at risk of being fired.

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Before you cancel your Amazon Prime subscription, the article carries caveats. It concedes that there are many people who love (or loved) working at Amazon and there are others who just see the company as someone who pays the bills but nothing special. The authors interviewed over 100 current and former Amazon employees from various departments about their experiences, but keep in mind that Amazon has employed tens of thousands of people since the company began in 1994. In 2014, Amazon employed 150,000 people.

Finally, the abuse described above is nothing new. It’s been happening at Amazon for years. A company that employed thousands of people over two decades will have a few disgruntled or disillusioned former employees with axes to grind.

Will Amazon weather this storm? I think so. But it made me wonder whether major companies should encourage policies that promote work-life balance. Or are long, unforgiving work days the natural end result of companies hiring primarily the competitive and driven? I am going to assume that Amazon hires and develops the best, as stated in one of its leadership principles.

At most prestigious businesses, the cultural norm is that employees (especially the young or the newbies) are expected to work long hours and make sacrifices with their personal lives. The rationale is to gain experience, get to know and work with key people, and demonstrate commitment. To prevent exploitation, just about every state has detailed employment laws with regards to minimum wage and overtime (although they generally do not apply to professionals). But a lot of times (but not always), these laws are ignored because it looks better professionally to work the extra hours without complaining, instead of filing a lawsuit that will make you unemployable.

Who are the ones who get promoted to management? Generally, those who are the most productive, and these people tend to work the most hours. Some of them have to be pushed by their supervisors, but a lot of them do it on their own because of their driven nature. And these recently promoted managers will try to instill the same work ethic in their subordinates because supposedly that’s what made them who they are.

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So why do people strive to work for organizations like this (including law firms) knowing that there will be fierce competition and brutal hours? One is for brand name bragging rights. Working for BigRetail is more prestigious than working for Solo Amway Distributor. Another reason is the opportunity to work on new or experimental ideas or technologies with potentially endless amounts of money. For example, you can be on the ground floor if Apple one day decides to develop nuclear products for the military. (I hear the project would be tentatively called “iRan.”) The work experience you receive can make you employable at other firms.

While the New York Times article and its aftermath may result in reviews of policies and procedures and some changes at Amazon, it is likely to be short-lived. Because there will be another job applicant. Next summer, a new crop of young, single men and women will graduate and enter the workforce. Families will relocate. Others will leave their existing jobs looking for something bigger and better. They will be eager to join the Amazon Army, willing to work 60- to 80-hour weeks in an effort to outshine each other. Those who make it will prosper. Those who don’t may find a fit elsewhere. Or be the next anonymous case study in a future NYT article.

In lighter news, Amazon’s Supreme Leader Jeff Bezos is understandably displeased because the NYT article stained his image as a kinder, gentler version of Steve Jobs and instead turned him into Lex Luthor. But Bezos wants to set things straight. He sent an e-mail to all Amazonians requesting that they report any “callous behavior” to HR or to him directly. A source indicates that Bezos ordered his HR team to cancel all personal activities and work over 100 hours per week to address every single complaint. Another source states that Bezos will also evaluate managers’ empathy levels and those with the lowest level of humanity will be instantly purged.

P.S. Since we’re discussing Amazon, I might as well plug the prequel (affiliate link) to Supreme Ambitions II: Judgment Day. (I reviewed the book here.)

Inside Amazon: Wrestling Big Ideas in a Bruising Workplace [New York Times]


Shannon Achimalbe was a former solo practitioner for five years before deciding to sell out and get back on the corporate ladder. Shannon can be reached by email at sachimalbe@excite.com and via Twitter: @ShanonAchimalbe.