Employees simply do no come first in this organization. Employees are way down on the priority list. Thus, there is little attention paid to building a healthy culture, feeling like a 'team', recognizing great work through bonuses and raises, etc. There are absolutely no perks to speak of either which I can appreciate due to the money losing business moves we deliberately make to poise Amazon for world domination in the future. However, the lack of resources and basic things to do your job are painful and just plain bad business. Lack of HR support, tech support, etc. is utterly painful and results in a waste of employee time trying to do basic things. This is especially pronounced in non HQ offices which are sadly under resourced in every way.
Internal systems are some of the most hacked together, pathetic systems I have seen in my life. And I have worked for traditional blue chip companies that do not know their ass from their elbows, for lack of a better phrase! Amazon is on the cutting edge in every customer facing thing it does but when it comes to internal systems, everything is arcane, painful to use, poorly built and just plain pathetic.
Amazon hires smart people but not well rounded people. I find the culture to be impacted negatively by the weird, humorless, dry, and oddly aggressive people that flourish here. Communications are shockingly terse and rude. Things just need to get done, you can spare any pleasantries if you know what is good for you. I guess that's the Amazon way? Very few people will want to tolerate this long term, as evidenced by heavy and frequent turn over.
Finally, leadership at Amazon is probably doing a great job in their bubbles inventing crazy things, but they are severely lacking when it comes to communicating, inspiring and exciting employees. In my time here, I have not once heard from Bezos or for that matter anyone who works for him, in a meaningful way. The CEO is simply non-existent to me. Due to this, I do not feel connected to the company and its mission aside from my direct work.
