Patrick McGah, a mechanical engineering PHD who lives in Seattle, had heard the stories about Amazon’s cut throat corporate culture, but wasn’t that worried when he took a job in their drone division in October of 2019.
Sure, he’d seen that widely New York Times article a few years before, where former employees described workers regularly weeping at their desks, where managers said they sought to create “purposeful Darwinism” among the ranks. But Mr McGah had already worked with Amazon’s drone team when he was with a software company that business with them, so he thought he knew what he was in for. Plus, they were offering to double his salary, and with a family, two kids, and a mortgage in one of the most expensive housing markets in the country, it was a tough offer to turn down.
