Amhole (Amazon.com employee nickname)
Amazon.com is an Internet commerce company with headquarters in Seattle, Washington. Amazon’s employees received the derogatory nickname of “Am-hole” (Amazon + asshole) in January 2012, when some Seattle residents passed out “The Am-hole Quiz” of grievances:
1. Think the neighborhood started with your arrival?
2. Do you walk 6 people wide on the sidewalk chatting about Amazon crap and not letting others pass?
3. Can you barely resist snapping your fingers at service people in the area? (yeah, they notice)
4. Do you think sexy is contrived casual attire, arrogance, and talking/smelling like a used car salesman?
5. Do you not realize that you are working for an updated version of Sears and Roebuck so you should check yourself?
6. Do you believe for a second that you are not a highly expendale cog on the corporate Amazon machine?
A New York (NY) Times story about Amazon.com in August 2015 noted:
“The derisive local nickname for Amazon employees is ‘Amholes’ — pugnacious and work-obsessed.”
Another nickname for an Amazon.com employee is “Amabot.”
Wikipedia: Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. (/ˈæməzɒn/ or /ˈæməzən/) is an American electronic commerce and cloud computing company with headquarters in Seattle, Washington. It is the largest Internet-based retailer in the United States. Amazon.com started as an online bookstore, but soon diversified, selling DVDs, Blu-rays, CDs, video downloads/streaming, MP3 downloads/streaming, software, video games, electronics, apparel, furniture, food, toys and jewelry. The company also produces consumer electronics—notably, Amazon Kindle e-book readers, Fire tablets, Fire TV and Fire Phone—and is the world’s largest provider of cloud computing services. Amazon also sells certain low-end products like USB cables under its in-house brand AmazonBasics.
MyNorthwest.com
Nasty nickname for Amazon employees
January 11, 2012 @ 2:13 am (Updated: 10:16 am - 1/11/12 )
South Lake Union has changed dramatically in the past year. Until recently, geese around the lakes were the only pests. Now, some long-time workers say Amazon employees are more annoying.
Rogue flyers went up yesterday in the Seattle neighborhood, and have been taken down by this morning, defining the thousands of Amazon employees who now work in South Lake Union as “Am-holes.”
Seattle (WA) PI—The Big Blog
Hey, ‘Am-hole!’ South Lake Union calls out Amazon employees
Posted on January 11, 2012 | By Amy Rolph
Amazon has changed the South Lake Union neighborhood. New office buildings, new restaurants, new Am-holes.
That’s right — Am-holes. That’s the term locals are using to describe neighborhood newbies who aren’t fitting in with the South Lake Union way of life.
And at least anonymous local decided to take those so-called Am-holes to task for their rude behavior. Take a look at this “Am-hole quiz” posted around the neighborhood.
Urban Dictionary
Am-hole
An Amazon.com employee who:
1.) Thinks the neighborhood started with their arrival
2.) Walks 6 people wide on the sidewalk talking about Amazon crap.
3.) Snaps their fingers at service people.
4.) Thinks sexy is contrived casual attire, arrogance, and talking/smelling like a used car salesman.
5.) Does not realize they work for a modern day Sears and Roebuck.
6.) Believes they are not a highly expendable cog in the corporate Amazon machine.
(...)
by Laleph January 12, 2012
Google Groups: rec.arts.sf.written
_Hard_Magic_ by Larry Correia
Mark Zenier
5/16/12
Among the service class in Seattle, the employees there have earned the nickname “Am-holes”.
Google Books
Rethinking Misbehavior and Resistance in Organizations
Edited by Lucy Taska and Alison Barnes
Bingley, England: Emerald Group Publishing
2012
Pg. 71:
Another is the derogatory naming of the thousands of new workers who moved to Seattle’s South Lake Union neighborhood to take up jobs with Amazon as ‘‘Amazoids or Amazonians,’’ by the long-standing workers and residents of the district who posted leaflets on local light poles, which included references to ‘‘Am-holes’’ and which captured the perception of the newcomers as ‘‘uppity snobs’’ (Brill, 2012).
Google Groups: Scrunchbox
Annoying co-workers
joseph.pariseau
3/14/13
I just needed to vent a little bit regarding annoying co-workers:
1. So, I’ve been trapped at amazon, aka “stuck in an amhole”, working through yet another computer issue (9,999th and counting), and I’m staring at the sea manatee (posing as an India expat) of a co-worker I call Vish
New York (NY) Times
Inside Amazon: Wrestling Big Ideas in a Bruising Workplace
The company is conducting an experiment in how far it can push white-collar workers to get them to achieve its ever-expanding ambitions.
By JODI KANTOR and DAVID STREITFELD AUG. 15, 2015
SEATTLE — On Monday mornings, fresh recruits line up for an orientation intended to catapult them into Amazon’s singular way of working.
(...)
MOTIVATING THE ‘AMABOTS’
Company veterans often say the genius of Amazon is the way it drives them to drive themselves. “If you’re a good Amazonian, you become an Amabot,” said one employee, using a term that means you have become at one with the system.
In Amazon warehouses, employees are monitored by sophisticated electronic systems to ensure they are packing enough boxes every hour.
(...)
Recruiters, though, also say that other businesses are sometimes cautious about bringing in Amazon workers, because they have been trained to be so combative. The derisive local nickname for Amazon employees is “Amholes” — pugnacious and work-obsessed.
Twitter
Cristina Nualart
@cnualart
Amholes & amabots. Less bureaucracy and more unfairness - and no life for Amazon workers. Or addiction to work. http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/08/16/technology/inside-amazon-wrestling-big-ideas-in-a-bruising-workplace.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&_r=0&referrer= …
3:11 AM - 16 Aug 2015
