Jeff Bezos Responds to the Amazon NYT Article

Re:Jeff Bezos Responds to the Amazon NYT Article by beachstartup on Monday August 17, 2015 @03:23AM (#10071687)

i'm no expert in this manner, but jeff bezos strikes me as a classic sociopath. that goofy smile, that deliberately saccharine and smarmy facade that he constructs whenever he speaks in public... it all just seems so ridiculous and fake. he doesn't seem like a normal person. to me he seems like a prick trying to imitate what he thinks a nice person would act like.

and through my own professional experience, i know for a fact nobody with a cutesy demeanor like that builds a company like amazon. i don't buy it for a second. i don't buy this little emergency damage control email either.

also, just one little detail from the article that jumped out at me - any company that specifically designs and defines a mechanism for anonymous reporting (snitching) on your coworkers to your manager, knows how it will be used - as a manipulative backstabbing tool. these people aren't naive, they're professional assholes designing their own little lord of the flies workplace.

it's like someone took the gervais principle and optimized for it.

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Re:Jeff Bezos Responds to the Amazon NYT Article by PhantomGremlin on Monday August 17, 2015 @05:35AM (#10072035)

A lot of CEOs are classic sociopaths. E.g. the following has been attributed to Steven Anthony Ballmer:

   "Fucking Eric Schmidt is a fucking pussy.
   I'm going to fucking bury that guy,
   I have done it before, and I will do it again.
   I'm going to fucking kill Google."

But that's bush league. I'm sure that many people would agree that Lawrence Joseph Ellison would easily win any "sociopath contest".

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Re:Jeff Bezos Responds to the Amazon NYT Article by puranjay on Monday August 17, 2015 @07:18AM (#10072344)

I struggled a lot with this in my business. I would look at and hear about other successful businesses who were getting their employees to put in 18 hour work days, assessing them on every single thing, and asking them to work on vacations, birthdays, and other things.

I would feel like a failure because I couldn't push myself or my employees to work that way. I wanted everyone to have a good time, to work, but also to have fun with their work. It felt like I was doing something wrong.

Today, I've given up on that "18 hour workday" dream. I'm not built like that. I don't care about maximizing efficiency or increasing profitability. I want everyone to be happy, and I've realized that that's anti-thetical to the way businesses usually work across the world.

I don't care. I'm happy. My workers are happy. The clients I have are certainly happy. Others can work their 18 hour days and buy six figure cars they can't drive. I'll stick to my 7-8 hours, read my favorite authors and spend time with friends.

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Re:Jeff Bezos Responds to the Amazon NYT Article by beachstartup on Monday August 17, 2015 @09:23AM (#10072754)

i don't know. i think ellison and ballmer are at least extremely honest with themselves and others about their true personalities. they don't have a face they show to the public and a face they show in private.

i.e., when you go to work for microsoft or oracle you pretty much know what you're dealing with. interestingly, i haven't heard nearly as many stories about shitty work environments at those companies.

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