Crazy Legal Department

I am a former employee in Amazon's legal department. Prior to working there I spent 5 years on Wall Street working for a top law firm - a demanding and challenging workplace by any measure. But even that didn't prepare me for the workplace hell of Amazon's corporate offices.

From day one at Amazon the workflow is overwhelming and employees are constantly undermined by a culture of vicious backstabbing. The designed attrition is real and celebrated, with longer term employees seeing themselves as sitting atop a Darwinian pyramid that chews up and spits out those less willing to sacrifice all other aspects of their lives advancing the Amazon principles. They view their job not so much as trying to help new employees succeed, but as the second phase of a weeding out (the first phase being the hiring process). I'd say that less than half of the lawyers they hire last more than a year there, and virtually all begin planning their exit strategy within months of arrival.

I'd say morale is low if I didn't think that overstated just how unhappy employees are. As an example, a colleague who was 8+ months pregnant talked flatly about how much she looked forward to the birth of her first child because she could then take two weeks off for maternity leave.

As for myself, after a few months at Amazon, going back to working late nights, weekends and holidays for Wall Street clients seemed like not such a bad gig by comparison, and my former firm readily welcomed me back.