Amazon employees complain the company is ‘frugal’ despite Bezos being world’s second richest man 

Thousands of former Amazon employees criticized the billion-dollar tech company for their “stingy” behavior toward employees — because “budget” constraints forced them to split bagels.

Its nearly 2,500 employees have since transitioned to working at Google and weren’t shy about starting an email thread titled “worked_at_amazon” to rant about the company’s cheap way of thinking about basic employee needs—despite that. Jeff Bezos is the second richest man in the world.

In screenshots of the exclusive thread obtained by Insiderworkers revealed the pettiness of the company, calling it “frupidity” and saying they had witnessed managers removing cereal boxes from the company’s pantry in an attempt to create a “thrifty” prospect.

“In the end we were told, ‘Spending a few hundred dollars on breakfast cereal is not frugal. You are free to ask for donations to keep it going,” someone wrote in the thread.

Some workers were told to split bagels because budget restrictions didn’t allow everyone to get their own bagels.

Another person said the company sold cups of noodles for a higher price than a supermarket across the street.

Some former employees now work at Google and weren’t shy about telling their struggles at Amazon in an email thread with 2,500 people

Some former employees complained that the company let them split bagels because of “budget constraints” that prevented everyone from having their own bagels

A former former employee said Amazon’s reputation for being frugal stretched back more than 20 years when managers removed painkillers and drugs from the break room to save money.

While painkillers, bagels, and a cup of noodles are cheaper, a former product manager said she should beg the upper-class to buy her a new Apple MacBook instead of the standard Windows laptop that employees received as standard.

“I thought it was ridiculous because there’s no joy in Windows laptops and if there’s no joy, no creativity happens, and if there’s no creativity, what’s a [project manager] worth?’ wrote the ex-employee.

For those who needed an extra laptop charger, befriending the office supply manager was the way to do that, according to Insider.

Monitors were also difficult for Amazon engineers to come by. One revealed that his team had only been assigned one monitor, but needed a second to successfully complete their duties.

To sneak another one, the tech team would recruit summer interns who would automatically receive a monitor from the company. When the interns left, the monitors were up for grabs.

“Pretty ridiculous to save $200 on something that could boost the productivity of an engineer you paid six figures to,” the former engineer wrote.

Other employees complained that the company removed drugs from the employee’s break room to save money

Bezos has a net worth of more than $145 billion. He was the richest man in the world before Tesla CEO Elon Musk took the place

Ethan Evans, a 15-year former Amazon vice president, called the term “frupidity” the company’s “thrifty” view of saying no to too many purchase approvals.

Evans recalled that his former boss bought his team’s coffee mugs with his own money because of the company’s mindset that the cups “wouldn’t help customers.”

‘A close-knit, successful team wanted coffee mugs to cry out loud’, Evans wrote in a blog post. “This is a small, almost trivial expense. It would have been paid back literally 1000 times over if it had helped to retain or motivate one employee.

Amazon responded to the statement, saying their leadership models are “thrifty” because they encourage employees to be resource conscious.

Amazon responded to the allegations, saying the company’s “thrift” model encourages employees to be resource-conscious.

“Our Leadership Principles describe how Amazon does business, how leaders lead, and how we put customers at the center of our decisions,” said an Amazon spokesperson.

‘One of our Leadership Principles is ‘economy’. These anecdotes do not reflect its intention to encourage employees to be aware of how they use company resources and conflict with our mission to be the most customer-centric company on the planet, the safest workplace and the best employer.”

Many former employees switched to Google under CEO Sundar Pichai

Former employees said working with Google is a ‘real breath of fresh air’

Bezos has a net worth of more than $145 billion, making him the second richest man in the world behind Tesla CEO Elon Musk Forbes.

Despite Bezos’ wealth, the former Amazon employees who turned to Google — led by CEO Sundar Pichai — saw their job change as a “culture shock” and “real breath of fresh air.”

Others said they were treated better and had to “unlearn” Amazon’s standards.

While new hires may enjoy their new job at Google, Pinchai, 55, hinted last week that the tech company could lay off some employees due to lower advertising and consumer spending.

Pichai said the company has “slowed down” in productivity after its workforce exploded over the past five years, and that one way to make it more efficient was to merge competing products such as YouTube Music and Google Play Music.

Over the past five years, Google has grown from just under 100,000 full-time employees to over 150,000. In 2017, there were 80,110 full-time employees, 98,771 in 2018, 118,899 in 2019, 135,301 in 2020 and 156,500 in 2021, according to Macro trends.

In total, Google added 76,390 jobs in five years, but Pichai now says the job increase has led to less efficiency.

Pichai added that when the company has fewer resources, it needs to make sure it prioritizes the “right things to work on” and that employees are “more productive.”

While not explicitly mentioning layoffs, the company said in July that it “couldn’t be sure of the economy going forward” but that it “wasn’t currently looking to reduce Google’s overall workforce.”

In the past five years, Google has created more than 76,000 jobs. While Pichai made no explicit mention of layoffs, the company addressed the rumor of potential budget cuts in July, stating that it “couldn’t be sure of the economy going forward” but that it “was not currently looking to reduce Google’s total workforce.”