Much of the burnout I felt at Amazon was not due to an overwhelming amount of work. Rather, an overwhelming amount of frustration.
When I got the job, my wife, my family, people around me were telling me I had made it. Financially I had made it. But inside I was struggling.
My first day at Amazon I remember feeling very isolated. I had a call with my manager but it was very cold, right down to business. I was assigned something like 70 training and onboarding tasks. Right off the bat I felt like my performance was being graded.
I remember having conversations with my manager and being so frustrated because I felt completely voiceless and had very little autonomy in how I operated. There was a feeling of "work harder, not smarter".
So much of the manager training at Amazon revolves around how to be empathetic, yet there was no real empathy that I felt from anyone in leadership. The empathy I did feel felt forced.