Indentured Servitude

As an ex-Amazon employee, I would like to clarify a few things for the rest of the world. Most of us didn't know what the Amazon culture was like before we joined. We drank the Kool-aid and thought that we were joining one of the big 4 tech giants that will treat us well. We simply didn't investigate further. We didn't come across information like the 2015 nytimes article or this site. 

Once we joined we were given a huge sign-on bonus. Uh oh, we are required to pay back if we leave Amazon in less than 2 years? New college grads with heavy student debt need this sign-on bonus to pay off their debts. The result is that most of us silently endure the workplace abuse and mistreatment. 

Given the rampant abuse and mismanagement, most of us don't make it to the 2 year mark and either leave or are pushed out (which can be a mercy to avoid repaying the bonus and relocation). Most of the few of us who do make it to the 2 year mark also immediately leave Amazon once we have a sense of being "free". 

It is not very surprising that the average employee tenure at Amazon is little over a year. If you really think about it, what most of us were going through was nothing but glorified indentured servitude, aka SLAVERY.