Why I would not work for Amazon

[Flashback]

Four secrets of AWS's low prices - Cloud - Technology - News - CRN Australia

All employees fly economy on the company coin .. pass! :mrgreen:

 

[TomVexille]

I hear that Walmart makes employees share rooms

No idea if it's true

 

[markis10]

From personal experience I can assure you large American multinationals in the IT space do often require you to fly Y and share rooms, not just Amazon etc. The share participation program's and options make up for it.

 

[rioter]

From personal experience I can assure you large American multinationals in the IT space do often require you to fly Y and share rooms, not just Amazon etc. The share participation program's and options make up for it.

It depends on their life cycle. If they are a large company then J is mostly the standard. Think post IPO. Facebook/adobe/google(although googles program is a little strange meaning you could fly first if you regularly fly under your assigned travel budget).

Medium sized companies that have a large injection of cash from funding usually go y+.

Then the smaller ones that usually pay lower salary and substitute it with a large amount of options are all going to throw you in Y.

Amazon is a rare breed, they never really raised their budgets after the dotcom boom. Have a friend who had to purchase his own chair after his supplied one broke.

 

[markis10]

It depends on their life cycle. If they are a large company then J is mostly the standard.

I was working for a very large company ($53B yearly revenue and market cap of $135B) that was also one of the oldest tech companies, and one of the most profitable. Y was standard unless it was over 8 hours so long, no time limit if you were going to a sales meeting (convention) or sales conference.

 

[hossein_au]

Same here; was working at one of the largest and oldest IT companies, and I shared a flight with a rather senior manager (two levels down from VP), and I was surprised to see him in economy (sitting well behind me actually).

 

[rioter]

I was working for a very large company ($53B yearly revenue and market cap of $135B) that was also one of the oldest tech companies, and one of the most profitable. Y was standard unless it was over 8 hours so long, no time limit if you were going to a sales meeting (convention) or sales conference.

Interesting are you sales or R&D? My company sets at 6 hours or y+ otherwise and since most of my travel is out of Australia then no problems there.

 

[markis10]

Interesting are you sales or R&D? My company sets at 6 hours or y+ otherwise and since most of my travel is out of Australia then no problems there.

I was in sales, we had no R&D in Australia at that stage (although there was some in NZ following an acquisition).

 

[Sprucegoose]

Most US coys are fairly standard in that regard, and there will be swings and roundabouts there as well as there is everywhere. I knew a bloke who had to fly Y but he got extra time off.

The global head of IKEA flies Y so then why can't you??

 

[doctau]

I work for a US IT company too (a few billion a year), and to fly J you have to be director level (my boss' boss' boss) AND have more than 15 hours total travel time, or be C-level. Even sales don't get J unless they're director level, although they get pretty much everything else since they're sales.

 

[drron]

Well a fellow I know now retired like me was at the very senior level in IBM.In 2008 all employees including the top brass were told it was Y on the company dime.

 

[JohnK]

I can easily fly economy on the company's time.

I do not share rooms....

 

[Hvr]

I can easily fly economy on the company's time.

I do not share rooms....

Have only flown domestically for work and that was all economy.

Would never share a room unless it was a dire emergency. Once I shared a two bedroom apartment with a colleague for one evening due to exigent circumstances. That was the closest I've ever come and hope that situation never arises again.

 

[cove]

We use 2 bedroom 2 bathroom apartments for sales gatherings and that works.
As an owner I fly on points in Australia so business class fares are just a matter of burning some low cost points.

 

[Clivem]

I recall reading an interview / story about Graham Turner some years ago.
A significant point was made that 'Flight Centre' staff were encouraged to share accommodation when traveling for work at that time.

In a typical Turner style of speaking he said something like he could think of nothing worse than being locked away in a room on your own. Having read a bit about his management style it didn't surprise me when I read it.
It would be interesting to know if that's still the way FC operate - No matter how much 'building the village team sprit' it encourages I'd think it could turn into a HR time bomb these days and maybe it's a thing of the past now.

Point of interest ......In the early VA days Richard Branson nearly always stayed at the Medina Apartments near the Story Bridge in Brisbane when he was in town, that was then the same place VA staff bunked down in Brisbane.

Can neither confirm or deny any knowledge whatsoever of occupancy configurations there.

 

[NM]

Y-only travel is now very common in large tech companies. Margins have squeezed to the point where things business class travel are not going to return. Travel costs have been seen by many tech companies as a way of reducing cost overheads. In many cases, they make the approval process so difficult that people just don't bother trying to get approval and hence the travel budget reduces. I know of one very large US-based (but globally operating) organisation that introduced a requirement for VP plus CFO approval for all travel, and they found the new approval policy resulted in a reduction of over US$1M in the first month. Now I suspect some of that may have just been delaying inevitable travel that will still result in spending, but that's a significant saving (of course that is without knowing the normal monthly spend for the organisation). And that is with a BFOD, Y-only fare policy.

 

[Rebekkap]

Microsoft also require staff to travel Y, even long haul. Personally I think it's ludicrous to expect staff to step off a long haul flight and be productive at work the same day if they've travelled Y. I'm just in the process of rewriting the company travel policies for the organisation I'm working for, and we're going with BFOD for anything under six hours (but excluding Tiger as we want our people to actually get where they're going) and J for six plus. It's not an organisation with a lot of travel (sadly, sniff sniff!) but we like to be reasonable and treat people decently!

 

[rioter]

Microsoft also require staff to travel Y, even long haul. Personally I think it's ludicrous to expect staff to step off a long haul flight and be productive at work the same day if they've travelled Y. I'm just in the process of rewriting the company travel policies for the organisation I'm working for, and we're going with BFOD for anything under six hours (but excluding Tiger as we want our people to actually get where they're going) and J for six plus. It's not an organisation with a lot of travel (sadly, sniff sniff!) but we like to be reasonable and treat people decently!

Microsoft is a strange one. Company policy is 6 hours+ for J travel unless you are departing from Australia. I guess because then every flight would be J for Australia staff. Which is a little mean.

 

[JohnPhelan]

The global head of IKEA flies Y so then why can't you??

Then the global head of IKEA is a fool.

 

[kamchatsky]

Then the global head of IKEA is a fool.

No it is not, especially it is part of his value system:

Frugal life of Mr IKEA: Meet the flatpack billionaire who only flies economy | World | News | Daily Express