Running out of places to recruit

The work environment at Amazon is unpleasant. I saw tons of my fellow developers crammed into open spaces without any consideration for personal space. The SLU buildings are completely devoid of personality. It just row after row of developers sitting or standing at door desks. It is a very noisy place, so it's hard to try to get any work done. There are constant interruptions of pagers going off, cell phones ringing, people gathering just to talk and even dogs barking. There are always lines to use the bathrooms, especially the men's rooms. The company is so frugal (or fru-pid as we say) that they won't replace the paper towels in the emptied dispensers until the next day. 

Some fellow Amazonians like to say that our co-workers are smart. No one is actually stupid, but the intelligence is not at the level of other more attractive companies (or even most startups). Most of the long-term employees are foreign workers with visas trapping them at Amazon. As soon as they get their green card, they immediately bail. There is an amazing amount of attrition across all levels of the company. Even managers and directors leave frequently. It is very rare to meet any employee who has been at Amazon longer then 2-3 years. Amazon continues to grow despite the massive employee churn, but they are running out of places to recruit new employees without having to lower the bar. The organization chart is mostly illogical because the VPs try to grow their empires at the expense of employees and never based on logical technical structures. There are no real senior technical leaders who have the needed deep knowledge of the technology architecture because anyone who gets promoted to that level will use their promotion to immediately go to a better company (all of which offer a better work environment along with increased compensation and benefits.)