Seems pretty cut-throat, but the answer is 2 years old. From Quora:
Sid Kim
Former Principal Program Manager at Amazon
Is being an Amazon employee as bad as some people say it is?
I was hired at L6 and got to L7. I left at Amazon in Jan 2019. I worked there for almost 5 yrs. I do not plan to ever go back.
People join Amazon and stay within Amazon depending on what they are after. Let me explain with some examples:
Money: Amazon will hire you at a higher rate based on the position you applied for, your education and your experience. After evaluation and you have received Top Tier (TT), you will be receive more money/stock. But you have to deliver more than 180%.
Knowledge: In Amazon, I learnt most awesomest things that I thought was not possible. Loved working with people who were from top universities. One of my ex-amazonian co-worker is now Chief Economist (Daryl Fairweather) of Redfin. Another was from Harvard. I got to work with the cream of the crop.
Creativity: Everybody in Amazon is trying to create the next best thing. E.g. Amazon Chime, Amazon Go, Fire Cube, etc.
But all these things comes at a cost. The cost is giving up your personal time & life. There is no “work-life” balance, even the CEO of Amazon hates it. Jeff Bezos doesn’t like the idea of ‘work-life balance’ — here’s what he swears by instead
Let me state few things that is known fact within Amazon, but no one will ever tell you.
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It’s easy to get in Amazon, but hard to stay.
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If you are salaried, you get paid for 40hrs/wk but have to put it in a minimum of 60hrs.
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If you are delivering 100% (that is, you are delivering everything assigned to you), you probably will be fired within 6 months.
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Amazon maintains an attrition rate of 6%-9% per year. In 2017 when the stock price got to almost $2000, the yearly attrition rate was not met. There was a mandate in all departments to fire people. The HR were drawing names out of a hat. They fired many people from all levels.
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High Attrition rate in Amazon allows Amazon to hire new brighter people with better ideas.
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In the new-hire orientation we were told that we are better than 50% of the team we are joining.
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If your manager likes you, you can get everything. But if he hates you, you are out.
All these things leads to solid competition with everybody. In my first week, I met some very cool people and formed a group (around 10 of us). By the end of 1st year, it was down to 7 people and by the end of 2nd year it was only 2 left. I had to compete against my friends to keep my job.
I became the a$$*ole you’re referring to in your question. By the time I realized where I was heading, I lost most of my friends and almost got divorced.
Look at Glassdoor, there is some truth to the comments.