Quiet quitting is long overdue, but it should be the least of worries for many of these companies. I’d say some companies have no reason to exist and are a shit stain on humanity.

Many, many years, I came on as an SDE 1 at Amazon.

Consider the unrealistic timelines. What should be a multi year project needs requirements, design, reviews, implementation, delivery, and operational readiness, but it all had to be done in 6-8 months.

In 2 months, we burned out at least a dozen SDEs who voluntarily resigned or moved to another org.

Let me describe morale. While I’d continue working every night and weekend, my manager would be out of the office. My skip level would be on vacation, traveling to Europe. Meanwhile, the product team would be coming up with additional scope and trying to get me to commit on behalf of my manager.

Best case, I get one or two devs added to my team. They’d be brand new to the company, and now I’m being asked to ramp them up, while also doing my own work, while also responding to emails from partner teams, driving integration work, leading design meetings, and providing feedback on my peers’ performance.

It was miserable hell. I never saw my family. I got out of shape and got diagnosed with diabetes. One morning I woke up and my entire left shoulder was numb. I couldn’t make a fist with my left hand.

When we launched, I remember my skip level becoming a director. One engineer I worked with on another team was promoted. The 5 devs on my team got no promotions, in fact, in compensation review time, we got measly 1% pay bumps and no new equity because the stock had appreciated and the company was factoring in previous equity grants and their present value.

I remember that year I put off getting pregnant so I could focus on work. During the next performance reviews, I received positive but backhanded feedback. On one hand, I was a rockstar for doing so many things well. But man, I should have also done a, b, and c.

It was a never ending rat race.

That was about 8 years ago. In hindsight, quiet quitting should be the least of any company’s worries. Companies that put their profit and their management egos (AMAZON) above people have no reason to exist. Times are changing. These will companies change how they behave, or they will die a slow, agonizing death. Amazon in particular is a place that brainwashes and gaslights their employees.