Cult culture

I've never worked for the company, but I have had direct B2B dealings with Amazon for more than a decade. My experience has been that Amazon has the oddest, most insular corporate culture I've ever dealt with (and I've done business with scores of large organizations.) 

It is opaque and cultish in its dealing with outsiders. They seem to thrive on sadism pushing the lowest levels of workers and engineers towards unrealistic productivity goals.

I would feel sorry for those working within its confines were it not for the fact that they are free agents in a marketplace. Demand for their talents is widespread. If people vote with their feet instead of being so afraid of being unemployed, Amazon would be forced to change their horrible ways.