This is why I would never want to work at Amazon. I get requests from their recruiters all the time and based on these stories even though they most it seems are not related to the technology department make me disgusted when I think of working for them. They have great products (which I really enjoy) and software but if they cannot take care of their employees how well can they take care of their customers? It is sad that a company like this does this. It tells me you cannot enjoy your life working for a company like them.
Well, I think now we can all start replying to those recruiters by citing these issues and sending links to these articles. They may not care, because those of us for whom these are horror stories rather than romantic tales of an energizing sink-or-swim environment may just not be their target demographic for employees.
Why not go through the interview process (perhaps as practice for companies you actually care about) and then if you get to an offer stage, politely decline then cite the reasons. Your decline should be much more visible as many more people past the initial recruiter will have met with you, etc. Might make more of a difference.
More importantly, it gives you the chance to have a conversation with real people (and hopefully ones you'd be working with) to get a clearer picture of things with which to make a more balanced decision.
There are always enough talented people who have been on the job market long enough to be desperate for an offer from even shitty employers. I'd imagine the net effect of all this fuss about working conditions, on Amazon's ability to attract talent would be minimal.
This is the bottom line. There is almost always more available, desperate labor out there than job opportunities, and with the advances of automation, this is more and more likely to be the case. Expect even shittier behavior from employers because they will increasingly be able to get away with it.
