Horrible, absolutely horrible. Bad management, long hours, toxic workplace
Pros
You can bring your dog to work. Sadly that is the only good thing I can say about this company. You may meet some smart and amazing people, but not at the upper management level.
Cons
Please keep in mind this review comes from the viewpoint of a Brand Specialist. I can't speak for the software developers, those in other segments outside of the Amazon.com retail business (for example Amazon Prime, Amazon Web Services, or company subsidiaries), or those not in the corporate HQ in Seattle (such as fulfillment center associates). - Zero work/life balance. Everyone is expected to take their work home. Management pretends to care and tells you to not overwork, but if you don't work weekends you'll get fired. I've received a phone call at 4 AM from work. Insane infringement on your personal life. - The culture is toxic. On average people quit after just two years. That isn't normal for any company. It's a revolving door. After just one year of employment, half my team was already junior to me. People either quit or get fired. Everyone is afraid of getting fired and discuss it frequently when management isn't around. It's really sad. - The company is incredibly disorganized, the work day is chaotic. There is an appalling lack of training, people don't know how to do their jobs and are being taught by others who have only been with the company for a grand total of 3 months. The tools you need to do your job are poorly developed and often break down or have limited usefulness, leading to unnecessary low productivity which you are blamed for. Systems are constantly changing and no one knows how to use the new versions - some people like this because they want innovation, but the truth is the company is so large now that you really don't have much freedom to innovate. There is a huge clash between a start-up mentality and a bureaucratic corporate culture. - Management is poor quality, and downright nasty. Many are not qualified to do their job, lacking proper experience. For instance, some were on a management rotational program that put them in 3 very different roles over 3 short years, while they had no background in any of those functions. It was a joke working under those types because they knew just as much about their job as you did. I witnessed senior managers being brought into the company and being "trained" by their reports. Upper level management is completely inhumane - they treat people like machines / slaves / farm animals, despite that many of my peers were incredibly bright and talented people from strong backgrounds and with good educations (Ivy leagues and other Top 25 schools). Management never recognized people for their contributions and hard work, leading to low morale. In summary, I'd say that the high employee turnover is evidence enough of the lack of work/life balance and the toxic and chaotic work environment perpetuated by bad management. As I mentioned above, after just one year, I was already more senior than half my team. Everyone I had known was gone, and I was training the newcomers. Think about that.
