When I mention that I work for Amazon, you’ll wonder if I know your friend Louis. You’ll be tempted to ask, but then you’ll remember that Amazon is a big company that locally employs thousands of people. You won’t remember if it’s two thousand or ten thousand; you’ll just know that it’s a large number. You decide not to ask.
But a second later, you’ll second-guess yourself and think: sure, the company is huge, but still, maybe I do know Louis. Everyone knows Louis. That is when you say: “My friend Louis works for Amazon. Do you know him?” I’ll look at you with a quizzical expression, and you’ll say: “Right, silly question. It’s a big company.” But then I’ll say: “Hmm, maybe. For which business line does he work?”
To tell you the truth, my hesitation will be nothing more than a game, a joke, a farce. Of course I know your friend Louis who works for Amazon. I know everyone who works for Amazon!
I’m going to tell you something that most people outside the company don’t know. Even if there are more than 4000 people who work for Amazon here, we all know each other by first name, last name, business line, job title, and sometimes by smell. Hard to believe? Let me explain.
In 2015, the company instituted the “Yes, I Know Your Friend” program, the goal of which is to ensure that all employees know each other, not for any particular internal purpose or pragmatic reason, just so that when non-Amazonians ask if we know their friend, we can all say that magic phrase: yes, I do.
How is this even possible, you wonder? I’ll tell you. All of our 4000-plus employees take part in daily hour-long virtual coffee breaks in which all new team members are introduced. We chat and get to know them. The greater the number of newcomers, the longer the session is. Once, when we opened a new business line, a single session lasted two days!
Obviously, meeting someone online and spending five or 10 minutes listening to them talk about their move from Seattle or their pet hamster Socrates does not guarantee that you’ll remember their name. That is why every Friday afternoon, each team gathers for the weekly match-the-face-to-the-name quiz. Everyone has to get 95 percent correct, or guess what? We don’t go home for the weekend.
Go on, try me. Do I know Pau? Spanish, well, Catalan, of course, works in legal. Van de Velde. Ah, you must be talking about Tess, sure, she’s in human resources. You met a guy from web services, has black hair and plays badminton? That has to be Maximiliano: Max or M-Love, as we like to call him. A woman with blonde hair who smells like strawberries and vapes? Obviously you mean Gemma.
You see? I do know your friend who works for Amazon. We all do.
Agnieszka K. works for Amazon and knows your friend
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Originally published by RTL Today
