Stress-induced stroke

I joined Amazon early 2015 and worked as Operations Manager till I couldn't take anymore towards the end of 2016. My story is most likely not unusual and having read some of the experiences on FACE, there are much worse horror stories but nevertheless, I got hurt and I think it is important that people know.

In the beginning I was proud to join a company with an apparent "progressive" character but that changed rather quickly after I saw some "leaders" (ops, senior ops, and especially site leaders and multi site leaders) portray a certain arrogance that I hadn't seen since High School. Yes, high school, not college, not a bar, but high school with its insecure bullies that have the ever-since nod of the system. Besides the elitist verbal/physical posturing and the hierarchical belittling, leaders were just mean so others would perceive them that way; as it were in self defense. I felt that there must be something wrong with my site as this was so alien to everything I expected from this commercial giant. Certainly this was a fluke and I expected some of the senior leaders would be called out anytime and expected to shape up or ship out. How wrong I was. Soon enough I encountered other sites with the same problems. 

Things got only worse when the senior ops was moved to another site and replaced by a multi site leader (yes more responsibility with less people). This multi site leader by the name of K was as they say "a real piece of work"; let me provide this particular example:

I arrived at the site a bit before 6am. Worked all day and finally left around 9pm. Got home at 10pm only to get a phone call from the site at 11pm about an issue which would delay a truck departure by 45 min. Worked on the problem online and by phone till 1:30am and got the best solution with the given options. Informed all that needed to be informed and fell asleep around 1:45am. At 2:30am I got call from the multi site leader K asking my why the truck was late. I informed him again with all available information (the issue was related to new layout growing pains that no extra manpower could fix in the needed time). He kept pushing that it was my fault and that I should have brought more people in. I was getting frustrated as I knew he understood the logic but refused to accept it. His determination was to find blame, not finding out what the real issue was. At a certain time during the conversation, being tired to exhaustion and frustrated, I told K that I was almost working 24 hours, he just responded that "if you would have worked 24 hours this issue would have never happened." Told you,.. nice guy.

During a morning onsite meeting with my colleague, I was observed being stuck in mid-stutter. I couldn't express myself, I couldn't speak for about 10 minutes. I was taken to the site's medical center and from there to the hospital emergency room. I was diagnosed with a Transient Ischemic Attack (TIA) or better known as a mini-stroke. My physician ordered two months rest to prevent a re-occurrence. Amazon did not take any responsibility. During that time I had to go on disability and the State of California paid my 60% salary; yes the people of California, not Amazon. After returning it was only a matter of time before I left. The chances of stroke re-occurrence were very high if I stayed in a high stress environment. In addition I was considered damaged-goods by Amazon and doors for advancement were shut. I found a position at another company and finally rendered my resignation stating that I had to leave due risk to my health.

So, after 1.5 year at Amazon, finally free and happy to move on with my life. I gave up on a substantial amount of stock options (about $355K) but I walked away with my life. No regrets.

Received a letter from them a few weeks after and being my naive-self thought it might be a letter of well wishing...; they wanted me to pay back the remaining balance of the relocation package. Nice touch Bezos!