Life update
May. 23rd, 2026 09:40 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pearwaldorf*blows off dust*
I found a job! It's not a great job, but I think those are few and far between in this market. I am working for a company that does corporate security stuff for Amazon. It's mostly routine information-giving and transferring people to where they need to go, with some incident reporting and escalation. I thought it was underpaid for what I thought the position was (it was listed as a senior customer service agent in the posting) and now that I know what it actually is I think it's even more grossly underpaid. I'm sorry, but if you have a fucking style guide and want me to know what the passive voice is and why I shouldn't use it in incident reports, I think that merits at least 60K a year.
Working at the corporate campus is weird. Unsurprisingly, Amazon is a company that's totally up its own butt about its corporate history. The buildings are all named after the code names of important projects (except for the building the ontologists work out of, which is named after a founder's dog). It has signs everywhere designating that the plazas at street level are public space, but of course they're monitored. They have a banana stand where they give out free bananas to everybody on certain days of the week. There's also events open to the public like farmer's market previews and such, but the only people who would probably go to them are Amazonians. It feels like half-assed spackle on the giant pile of shit the company really is.
I've never wanted to work for Amazon in any capacity. I knew that as soon as I interviewed with them after I got laid off from the library software place. But I am at a financial place where a job is a job. It's also shitty because the job has no guarantee of stability. Amazon renegotiates these contracts every year, and it is entirely possible they'll go with another company that does the same thing but cheaper, fuck the employees and all the institutional knowledge that will be lost.
I'm also all up in my feelings and a little grumpy because all my ex-coworkers who ended up at Amazon have been doing okay if not well. Nobody's been laid off to my knowledge (ontology is a very specialized field) and they get to work with cool people. I guess I'm also a little baffled how they made the jump and I didn't (because I have applied to these), because our experience is similar. But that is my bullshit, and will hopefully be addressed when we get together.
It's not all bad. We get a free espresso drink every day (they wanted to eliminate this benefit after RTO and people rioted. Why would you ever take caffeine away from a bunch of techies?) and there are dogs everywhere. The building I work in has a tiny little dog park next to it and I get to see them play and sometimes they come up to the fence and say hello. The people I'll be working with seem like they're trying their best and genuinely want to do good by their customers and stakeholders.
But it is profoundly absurd to have "Boots on the Ground" coming up on the walk to work and knowing you're part of the whole sordid mess whether you want to be or not.
I found a job! It's not a great job, but I think those are few and far between in this market. I am working for a company that does corporate security stuff for Amazon. It's mostly routine information-giving and transferring people to where they need to go, with some incident reporting and escalation. I thought it was underpaid for what I thought the position was (it was listed as a senior customer service agent in the posting) and now that I know what it actually is I think it's even more grossly underpaid. I'm sorry, but if you have a fucking style guide and want me to know what the passive voice is and why I shouldn't use it in incident reports, I think that merits at least 60K a year.
Working at the corporate campus is weird. Unsurprisingly, Amazon is a company that's totally up its own butt about its corporate history. The buildings are all named after the code names of important projects (except for the building the ontologists work out of, which is named after a founder's dog). It has signs everywhere designating that the plazas at street level are public space, but of course they're monitored. They have a banana stand where they give out free bananas to everybody on certain days of the week. There's also events open to the public like farmer's market previews and such, but the only people who would probably go to them are Amazonians. It feels like half-assed spackle on the giant pile of shit the company really is.
I've never wanted to work for Amazon in any capacity. I knew that as soon as I interviewed with them after I got laid off from the library software place. But I am at a financial place where a job is a job. It's also shitty because the job has no guarantee of stability. Amazon renegotiates these contracts every year, and it is entirely possible they'll go with another company that does the same thing but cheaper, fuck the employees and all the institutional knowledge that will be lost.
I'm also all up in my feelings and a little grumpy because all my ex-coworkers who ended up at Amazon have been doing okay if not well. Nobody's been laid off to my knowledge (ontology is a very specialized field) and they get to work with cool people. I guess I'm also a little baffled how they made the jump and I didn't (because I have applied to these), because our experience is similar. But that is my bullshit, and will hopefully be addressed when we get together.
It's not all bad. We get a free espresso drink every day (they wanted to eliminate this benefit after RTO and people rioted. Why would you ever take caffeine away from a bunch of techies?) and there are dogs everywhere. The building I work in has a tiny little dog park next to it and I get to see them play and sometimes they come up to the fence and say hello. The people I'll be working with seem like they're trying their best and genuinely want to do good by their customers and stakeholders.
But it is profoundly absurd to have "Boots on the Ground" coming up on the walk to work and knowing you're part of the whole sordid mess whether you want to be or not.
no subject
Date: 2026-05-24 01:26 am (UTC)Gotta admit, I kind of miss the bananas.
no subject
Date: 2026-05-26 10:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-05-26 11:36 pm (UTC)