This implies support for Goodreads at Amazon is very thin. It could be read as a critical statement (even though it's pretty clear to everyone that the site very clearly stagnated since the acquisition, focusing almost exclusively on Kindle integration).
Amazon management is famously militaristic in attitude and would likely take action against a low-level employee criticizing the company in public
Although I know that Amazon is hiring intelligence operatives[0] to bust unions, this aspect (militaristic middle management) is news to me. Where can I learn more?
0. https://www.theverge.com/2020/9/1/21417401/amazon-job-listin...
I'm pretty sure it was also reported in the past that Bezos traditionally favored ex-military for manager positions when Amazon was starting, but I cannot find a source atm (seems like yesterday to me but more than 20 years have since passed...).
I don't know about this. Is it documented, or have you "heard it through the grapevine," so-to-speak?
This is the kind of thing companies love their employees to share publicly!
In fact, there's a difference between "we know it is bad," and "we've no interest, either way." How should I know which is strategic to say, publicly?
What reason does this employee have to think Amazon would retaliate against them making public statements about their own working life?
One of my memories: Being pulled into a side office and grilled for a half hour for posting a similarly harmless statement to HN.
So your comment triggered mild PTSD.
It's not your place as an individual employee to post about your employer. You work in a team setting. If the team decides it's appropriate to post to HN, then that's fine. But you alone do not get to decide that.
Yikes, that's rather dramatic! Especially since all you've said is "we're working to fix it. changes soon." That's a pretty harmless statement, I would think.
What gives you the idea that such statements put your employment at risk?