The so-called Leadership Principles

One of the biggest problems at Amazon are the so-called "Leadership Principles". These principles are good in theory, but in practice they're used against you to justify whatever rating your boss wants to give you. You can be faulted if you spent more than an arbitrary amount on a team lunch for not being "Frugal" while you actually saved thousands of dollars on your team's hosting costs but that never gets mentioned. You can be claimed to not be "Customer Obsessed" even though you did everything with your customer in mind. You can be faulted for not "Having Backbone" if you said yes to take on additional responsibilities needed to get your team's work done (but you would also be faulted for not having "Ownership" and not thinking of the entire company if you said no.) Most senior managers do not "Dive Deep" and roll up their sleeves. When they rarely do, it's a big thing and you see emails being sent all over the place to take credit for them slumming with us regular workers. 

I do not know many people who have managed to stay beyond 2 years at Amazon due to the stress. You are not allowed to think for yourself because that would take power away from your managers. Amazon is supposed to be a place where the customer comes first, but what about the employees! I believe the people are key to a business succeeding or failing. You have to appreciate them and treat them like human beings if you actually want to build a long-term successful business.