I think the only way to change Amazon's behavior is to hit them where it hurts: their bottom line. Right now these practices continue to be profitable - there are no consequences - and even among other giant corporations, Amazon stands out as worshipping profits at all other costs. I'm confident that no amount of internal advocation/culture-shifting will change that. The incentives have to be realigned.
So what to do in your position?
You could quit and encourage others to do so. However, a lot of people would have to quit over this issue for it to start registering on management's radar, so that might not be very effective.
The other major option I think is whistleblowing/bringing attention to the issue/garnering bad press for the company. This is what Tim Bray did, but there are other ways of going about it. You could organize a protest along with your coworkers, for example. However, there's probably nothing you can do that wouldn't expose you to risk. And Amazon has shown how it deals with dissenters.
What I would do personally is start looking for another job, and once I have a contract signed, then do something bridge-burning like organizing a protest or writing a blog post or whatever.
> You could quit and encourage others to do so. However, a lot of people would have to quit over this issue for it to start registering on management's radar, so that might not be very effective.
A few months ago I was invited to an AWS recruiting event. For kicks, I accepted and went to listen to their spiel. There were quite a lot of people there. I'd say that for every software engineer at Amazon who quits in protest, there are 100x that waiting to take their old job. And with the market downturn we're experiencing right now, it'll only get worse. We have less leverage now than we've had in years.
Yes, there are lots of people out there who don't care remotely about the greater good. Maybe even more than there are people who do care.
But there's also a defeatist phenomenon - a Prisoners' Dilemma sort of thing - where people who do care, and could make a small difference at relatively small personal sacrifice, don't do so because their individual drop in the bucket won't matter on its own. I think there are lots of people who find themselves in that mindset, and I think if they all decided to take that extra step then a very real difference could be made. So my personal rule is to always take that extra step when I can afford to, no matter whether it will make a difference on its own, because I think of the other thousand people who might find themselves in the exact same situation, and how if we all took that approach it would start to matter.
So for me: I could afford to turn down an Amazon recruiter on principle, so I did. And I told them why. Maybe I could've made more money, but I don't really need more money, so it wasn't a huge sacrifice. Now, each person's circumstances are different, and the economy right now raises the stakes across the board. If you can't find a job, I don't blame you for taking (or keeping) one at Amazon. But if you don't really need to, consider taking a stand, and maybe the next person will too.
I have thus far managed to turn down Amazon every time one of their recruiters comes calling, but I won't lie, it probably has more to do with their reputed office culture and their views of side projects than the plight of their warehouse workers. I just don't know enough about the warehouse conditions to have a particularly informed (and therefore strong) opinion.
Maybe so, but recruiting, interviewing, and onboarding new employees is expensive. If turnover at AWS suddenly spiked it would inflict some pain on the company.
Yeah there are always people applying, but institutional knowledge would suffer, hr costs would rise, and they may have to spend significant time finding the right person for the job. Especially if more people avoid AWS because of the culture.
Also whistleblowing generally means you have some sort of new information to share.
“Amazon’s warehouse conditions are slightly worse than industry average, says software developer who has never been to a warehouse” is hardly going to hit the news!
Plus the way Amazon is structured, the fulfilment division will be almost entirely separate from AWS. I doubt you leaving will even get mentioned to someone who has influence over FC working conditions.
So what to do in your position?
You could quit and encourage others to do so. However, a lot of people would have to quit over this issue for it to start registering on management's radar, so that might not be very effective.
The other major option I think is whistleblowing/bringing attention to the issue/garnering bad press for the company. This is what Tim Bray did, but there are other ways of going about it. You could organize a protest along with your coworkers, for example. However, there's probably nothing you can do that wouldn't expose you to risk. And Amazon has shown how it deals with dissenters.
What I would do personally is start looking for another job, and once I have a contract signed, then do something bridge-burning like organizing a protest or writing a blog post or whatever.