I think that Amazon is content to let Zappos experiment. If Zappos loses customers, statistically most of them will end up at Amazon anyway. Tony Hsieh is pretty out there, and a lot of his ideas sound kind of crazy, but I think Bezos believes in him and is willing to let him try. Even though everyone says "Oh, that won't work" you don't know until you try.

If Zappos can experiment with a new leadership style, maybe it produces desirable results that can be replicated elsewhere. Maybe it fails miserably. What's likely to happen is that there will be things that work and things that don't, and I guarantee Amazon is interested in that. Because of all the things I've heard about Amazon (many of them good), I've never heard that it's a great place to work. Their turnover is high, so maybe they're looking for ways to reduce it while not losing the culture of urgency (though some would say fear) that makes them so good at executing on things.

Of course, if it's a total failure, Bezos will likely fire Tony and trash the entire idea.

It's a great place to work. There, you can no longer say "you never heard it's a great place to work". Sample size of 1, but I love it.

Are you an AWS employee? They're the only people who ever say good things about working at Amazon in my time reading HN.

Nope not AWS

That's great to hear, but how much did that change for you or others when the holocracy processes were added? I can see where that could totally change how I feel about a job even if I still love my coworkers, the job perks, etc.

Sorry I should have clarified - I meant Amazon is.

That brings the total count of satisfied workers I have heard from to 2.

My spouse worked there, a couple of steps down from Jeff Bezos. At least parts of Amazon are micro-managed misery.

Amazon implemented pay ($2,000 -- $5,000) to quit about a year ago.

For warehouse associates. This doesn't apply to engineers.