I worked at Amazon in Distribution operations management in the very early days(1997-2001).<p>Culture in the distribution centers(now called fulfillment centres) was definitely one of no excuses performance.<p>I take responsibility for my role in how the culture evolved.<p>In the early days, we were hiring like crazy, trying to “average up” with every single early hire, while trying to keep the customer happy with orders backing up with exponential growth.<p>We worked nutty hours, often packing a bag to stay overnight or for a few days.<p>Hourly associates and temps were often compelled to work 50+ hours per week.<p>Terminations were very quick and cold as we didn’t feel we had the time to do it properly with customers orders clogging up.<p>Something had to give. So we were all pretty ruthless. Perform or leave.<p>I’m proud of what we achieved, but it came at a significant personal cost to many people.<p>I burned out after 3+ years.<p>I believe it’s a fair bit better now, but still a challenging environment that requires good performance or risk of termination.<p>It’s not a place to “coast” or “Be a grey man/woman”.<p>20 years ago we had scanners than could measure productivity.<p>Nowadays, everything is measured.<p>You can’t hide from your productivity data.