Dog Eat Diogenes

A Tech Worker's Descent into Psychosis

Amazon

Things that happened during my time at Amazon

  • The One Who Jumped

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    2 min read

    CW: Discussion of a suicide attempt. Please read with care, or skip ahead to Prelude to The Long Night. I wasn’t the only one crumbling under the weight of workplace abuse at Amazon. Another employee, in another building, attempted suicide by jumping12. Before doing so, he sent an email describing the abuse to a part…

  • Don’t Kill Yourself for a Job That Would Replace You

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    1 min read

    “Don’t kill yourself for a job that would replace you within a week if you dropped dead. Take care of yourself.” Someone wrote that in marker on a desk at Amazon. It was posted anonymously to Blind.I don’t know who wrote it or who it was meant for. Either way, I appreciated it, especially as…

  • Humiliation and Becoming An Office Dog

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    5 min read

    CW: This chapter details workplace emotional abuse and some suicidal ideation. If you’ve gone through something similar it might be triggering. Please read with care. After returning to Amazon on a new team, I had a new co-worker who talked to me like I was a dog. Short, clipped commands in the imperative voice, always…

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  • The Internship

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    2 min read

    I fell in love with Amazon during my college internship. It was my first big tech experience. My mentor and manager were excellent, and I thrived. I worked really hard and loved every second of it. I loved using Python and the Brazil build system. Learning from senior engineers and attending the Principals of Amazon…

  • Why Am I Writing This?


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    3 min read

    
I’m haunted by one of my first Amazon performance reviews: They were right. Why I am writing this I am writing this so you don’t end up like I did: totally mentally broken. That might seem unthinkable to you right now. It did to me too, even after it happened. There’s growing scientific evidence that…