In a revealing account, a former Amazon employee sheds light on the early days of the tech giant and offers unique insights into Jeff Bezos’s leadership style long before he became a billionaire.
Steve Yegge, 56, from Washington, joined Amazon in 1998 as a technical program manager, just four years after Jeff Bezos launched the company from his garage. Reflecting on his experiences, Steve shared with Business Insider that Bezos was a ‘hands-on leader’ radiating an ‘unmistakable magnetism.’
However, with his intense focus on the company’s mission, Bezos sometimes overlooked various office-related issues. “His commitment to the mission seemed all-consuming,” Steve explained. “It wasn’t whether the toilets were clean, or if engineers were getting paged throughout the night. His priority was only in situations that could slow him down. Perhaps that’s what successful leaders do; they’re relentless and don’t accept ‘no’ for an answer.”
Steve described Amazon’s early work environment as ‘dark and grungy,’ yet noted that the energy inside was electric. “Stepping into the building, you could feel the crackle in the air. Something significant was taking shape, and it all revolved around Jeff,” he reminisced.
Yet, the atmosphere came with its drawbacks. Steve acknowledged the immense ‘pressure’ to perform and the unspoken expectation that everyone should be perpetually working. “People tended to shy away from requesting time off,” he revealed. “There were instances where colleagues would berate each other, and a friend of mine had to work in a closet simply because it was the only space available for a desk.”
Initially, Steve helped coordinate various projects, eventually moving up to lead the engineering team. He climbed the corporate ladder, finding himself collaborating directly with Bezos on an ambitious ‘secret project’ intended to mirror the community-driven platform akin to Reddit. “At the time, I felt the project was beyond my grasp due to my limited knowledge of distributed computing to meet Jeff’s timeline,” he admitted, adding, “Delivering that message felt daunting.”
In 2005, a compelling offer from Google led Steve to make the decision to leave Amazon. Reflecting on his tenure, he candidly shared that he never truly enjoyed working there and disagreed with some of the company’s practices. Yet, he expressed gratitude for the time spent with Bezos. “Compared to other CEOs I’ve worked under, like Google’s Larry Page and Eric Schmidt, who rarely held casual chats with senior employees, Jeff would often gather us for informal discussions,” he noted.
“I respected how he could reset our focus, shifting the company’s mindset with each conversation. He pushed us to think differently every single day, and in my nearly seven years there, I never witnessed him get angry or curse.”
Steve vividly remembered Bezos’s ‘electric presence’ and ‘unmistakable magnetism.’ “Despite the challenges of his high expectations, he was never a difficult person to work alongside,” he concluded.
In response to Steve’s reminiscing, Amazon issued a statement to Business Insider, emphasizing, “An anecdote from one person isn’t representative of what it was like to work at Amazon then or what it is like now.”
Priyam Gera