Why I left AWS after 4.5 years as an L7 Senior Engineering Manager

Earlier this year, on 05/30 (this is how Amazon writes dates, 30th May) I walked out of the amazing Amazon Africa headquarters in Cape Town, after spending four years and six months, as a senior engineering leader. I'm writing this post three months after a sabbatical break, and after a week into my new job (started 09/01) in a totally different field of Intelligent Traffic Systems... 

Here's a screenshot from my LinkedIn profile on my time with AWS:

Here's a video of me from 2022:

And here's some memories from my time there. Listen, I did enjoy my time with Kumo/AWS. I met some fantastic, highly intelligent, self-driven, motivated and resilient people from diverse backgrounds, from all over the world. AWS is indeed a special place. Their motto: Work Hard. Have Fun. Make History -- is very real! For anyone considering working in AWS, go for it! But be sure to do your homework first. This is just my story, a single datapoint from 1.5 million Amazonians, and 290000+ AWS employees worldwide - and in a small pond from South Africa (SA), a sample of 1 L7 engineering leader from a pool of ±7-9 managers, servicing 250-300 software engineers across Kumo and EC2 (this alone hints at the opportunity for L8 promo in SA is very small...)

Memorable moments with my teams...

I left AWS in good standing if I decided to boomerang back, here's a goodbye email sent by my manager to 1000+ people:

Why did you leave AWS, you seem to have been on a good trajectory, yes? 

My AWS colleagues, family, friends and now too, my new coworkers asked me why I left AWS. Feelings about exiting AWS started back in Q3 2024 triggered by the events unfolding in the middle east, causing me to reflect deeply on my personal and professional aspirations critically assessing my value system, borne from my RAGE model which has been my north star for over a decade.  

It turned out that the key metric is Return on Investment (ROI) across these three dimensions: 1/ Spirituality; 2/ Professional Growth and 3/ Work-Life balance. 

Amazon is a top paying company in South Africa, why you left money on the table?

Income and money was not strictly the deciding factor to leave AWS. I'd already developed the habit of walking away from financial incentives as my "leave it all behind" philosophy. When I joined AWS in 2021, I took a 25% pay cut in base pay, choosing to value learning and new work experience, new industry knowledge and to satisfy my curiosity of what happens behind the scenes of a great company like Amazon. I'd walked away from a very good role at Multichoice and incentives comparable to AWS, and on at least three occasions before, had walked away from money to satisfy my curiosity of learning. Looking back however, my advice to people joining Amazon for less base pay, is to not do that - you should negotiate and be firm on your meeting your current take home pay (I say this now, since I've hired people and experienced the salary negotiation process - but it will still be challenging especially if your current base exceeds Amazon's max range for the bands at the said level, in my case L7 band, which was less than my previous company). Whilst it can be very enticing when seeing the Amazon offer structured with a mix of cash sign-on bonus which pays out over two years, and accompanying RSUs (Restricted Stock Units), the reality of the two-year cliff and four-year cliff is quite real. After two years, you fall back to a starting base pay and you get the benefit of cashing out RSUs to supplement your income. It all looks great, provided the share price grows well ahead of inflation and your annual performance is on the high side of meeting Amazon's high bar of performance expectations. Yearly salary increases are not guaranteed either, with base pay increases usually a paltry single digit increase of 1-3% unless you're promoted, and if the share price does well, additional RSUs are not always guaranteed unless you're a highly value high performer (HV3/TT). When I did my own calculations back in 2020, it looked pretty decent and the trajectory was going to surpass my previous total package by at least 10% annually. I also figured I'd exceed expectations year-on-year and get promoted within four years, avoiding the cliffs altogether. 

Now there is still a very good story behind Amazon's compensation philosophy, and strangely enough I actually support the model! The company values long term owners, employees must think long term and act like owners of the business. Amazon’s compensation philosophy is anchored in ownership: base cash plus equity that appreciates with the company’s value. This model aligns employees with shareholders, rewarding those who stay the course. Consider the period from Jan 2021 to May 2025: Amazon’s stock rose from around $159 to $205 (≈30% USD gain), while South African employees benefited further from rand depreciation, lifting their rand-denominated gains to nearly 50%. That differential illustrates how equity-based pay compounds wealth in ways cash salary alone cannot.

This is a good, sound principle that is laudable - but it also depends on personal and country circumstances. For the South African culture, monthly cash at hand is the preferred option for the majority - where cashing out RSUs as a method of income to supplement their running expenses. Cashing out often however prevents the benefit of long term growth - as many people would love to keep money aside, the reality for most middle-to-upper class South Africans is quite different. Besides, as an ex-Amazon leader, every year the topic of salaries are raised as reasons for lack of job satisfaction for South African employees.

For people in good financial health, just keeping the RSUs and letting them grow as an investment, leads to positive wealth creation (although some people advise to sell on vest and redirect investments elsewhere). In the past 5 years alone, Amazon stock increased +48%, coincidentally exceeding my 2020 calculations of 10% annual increases (actual 16%. Between my Amazon entry (Jan 2021) and exit (May 2025), my shares rose +28.7% in USD. After SA capital gains tax, that nets ~23.5%. But because the rand weakened significantly, my rand-denominated return after CGT is closer to +48% (~9.8% per year compounded) - effectively equating on an increase in salary, exceeding annual inflation, and generally better than switching to a new job/new company where the target is usually 20% increase. 

The problem is that when negotiating a new job for another company in South Africa, companies look at your base pay package as your current salary and nothing else - and companies outside of Amazon have a different pay-for-performance/incentives structure. South African banks also don't take into account RSUs as your salary when it comes to home loan applications for that matter.

However, looking back, when I did the math, in real terms even as I went into 2025, my base pay only just caught up with my 2020 base pay (5 years behind the curve) - so the incentive to remain with Amazon and sustain higher performance levels (with increasing responsibility, uncertain organizational changes, changes in leadership, etc.) and the resulting impact on my time, was simply not going to be worth my while - the return on investment did not make sense monetarily, spirituality, professionally and personally - as I'll outline below. To Amazon, employees are a utility resource to be maximized for output. As an employee, it therefore makes sense to rationalize your capacity usage (time, energy, well-being, etc.) and return on utilization and resulting personal rewards. Employees are resources, to be redeployed as needed...resistance is futile, you will be assimilated!

Here's a snapshot of the RSUs I left on the table, having exited in May 2025:

1/ Reason for leaving > Spirituality | Conscience | #notechforapartheid | #rightsideofhistory |#freepalestine

I don't have any issue with Israel as a recognized state and independent autonomous country. Israel has a right to exist and defend itself according to international law, and generally accepted moral and ethical principles of just warfare. What happened on October 7th 2023, the killing of innocent Israeli civilians and hostages by Hamas - must be condemned. Just as Israel must be condemned for the 75+ years of brutal oppression, imprisoning thousands of innocent children and women (subjected to unimaginable tolls of torture), housing thousands of hostages themselves and ruthlessly violating international principles of ceasefire and just warfare. Yes, the issue started long before 10/07, injustice, occupation and apartheid ongoing for 75 years and the powers that rule the world turns a blind eye and deaf ear...Indeed, historically wars were fought, territories are claimed, land is annexed, countries are colonized and colonizers messed up the place - this is all part of the history of civilization... I support the two-state solution, Palestine must be freed, the genocide must end! Ideally a one state solution where everyone has rights to be free (like in South Africa), but that looks like a pipe dream :-( 

Look, this post isn't meant to be about politics or debating history, so I won't go on - since many people reading this piece are bound to have different opinions. My intent with sharing my mental model is to show how these events impacted my psyche in a profound way that influenced my decision to ultimately depart from AWS (arguably the best tech company in the world)...and also question my career in tech...

I spent a third of my career working for an Israeli company which led to my growth as an engineer that set the trajectory for my professional career. I formed good relationships with my Israeli colleagues, I still am friends with them, some colleagues have publicly endorsed me on LinkedIn. I broke bread with them and worked on some fantastic projects together, benefitting professionally and personally. I reached out to them to check on their safety and offered my support and prayed for them, just as I pray for the end to the oppression of Palestinians. Israel has produced, and continues to produce - some of the most impactful technologies the world has benefitted from. So no issues with the Israeli people, Israeli tech companies, just an issue with the government policy that is barbaric, unjust and morally unacceptable. 

Given my mental model, I was comfortable working for AWS, supporting its wide customer base, which includes private dedicated clouds (ADCs) for governments, including military and defense. I signed a contract as an employee, and as a practicing Muslim, must uphold to my contract to the highest standards of commitment. If I don't like the conditions, I'm free to leave - an individual has the right to choose, but shouldn't oblige their employer to cater to their personal preferences and belief systems - it is a matter of doing business, if you don't like it, then leave. That is my view of the world.

I got my first taste of the sensitivity of the issues when some engineers in my team refused to work on a project that involved the military (IDF). Given our principle of striving to be earth's best employer and focus on being an inclusive and diverse workplace, I approved alternative projects for engineers to work on, without impacting committed delivery timelines. This was a short-term intervention that I knew couldn't be sustainable longer term because it is next to impossible to choose to build cloud services only for commercial regions. These engineers would have to make a choice - either stay or find another path within Amazon, or exit the company. 

Yet, this situation sparked something in me that forced me to question my own value system, ruthlessly diving deep to inspect with a critical eye: what is my stance on contributing directly or indirectly to customers using our technology that results in harming humanity? When a company has a principle like "Success and scale bring broad responsibility", to what degree should we take this? Of course, Amazonians will tell you the LPs (leadership principles) were intentionally designed to be in tension with others, sometimes conflicting, that there is always nuance, more of a spectrum than simply binary outcome, aiming for balance with some LPs indexing higher than others, weighing in stronger on the decision-making. This all well and good, but what about the heart? What about gut feelings? What about conscience? What about instinct? The seeds of doubt were starting to sprout...

Movements like #notechforapartheid started to gain further momentum in 2024. I started to pay more attention. Engineers from Google and Microsoft were protesting, some getting fired, some choosing to leave their respective companies altogether. How can these people take such a bold stance, and they're not even Muslim! Last month (August 25), Microsoft announced it will open a review into the concerns raised. What was my position? What am I doing? I had already signed up with the internal affinity groups within Amazon, put my signature on the letter (which called for a review of AWS fair use policy) to the S-Team. Could I be doing more? 

I've experienced the tail end of apartheid in South Africa. My parents and grandparents experienced the most of it. I grew up listening to their stories. I experienced the segregation as a child. I lived through the inequity. I spent the last 14 years witnessing the slow transformational progress in SA corporates. What is happening in that region is several orders of magnitude far greater than what happened in South Africa! How can this be allowed in our century!? How can I sit by idly, watching atrocities live streamed day-in and day-out? Am I being complicit in the devastation happening, whether directly or indirectly by association? How am I going to answer to Allah in the next life? What actions did I take? Am I just going to be happy with charitable contributions paid with income derived from technology companies potentially linked as an enabler to this human catastrophe? What side of history am I standing on? What example am I setting for my children? If Islam, being an 'abd Allah is a driving force behind my RAGE model value system, am I truly living up to it? How am I showing up as person? And the critical question: Was my income still considered Halal?

An explosive news article by +972 Magazine jolted me into action. I reviewed AWS Fair Use Policy (Checkout my transcript with ChatGPT from today). Very complex, nuanced - logical and legal assessment, not an easy answer. My heart wasn't at ease. I wished Amazon would take a position on this. It was clear as day to me there was a great injustice taking place right in front of the world's eyes. I went as far as engaging with AWS Trust & Safety business, an internal customer that my team supported. As expected, the issue was nuanced and complex. I shared my concerns with my manager - whilst empathetic to my situation, they naturally offered their opinions and logic (being Amazonians of course) - that basically affirmed we're in the business of supplying lego block widgets, what the end application does, what customers do, is outside our control. It is true that cloud service providers have thousands of customers, some doing great work in providing solutions that benefit and uplift humanity. Other industries like online gambling, porn industry, casino and streaming platforms (businesses considered haraam) use cloud services...where should cloud companies draw a line? Should there be a line? These arguments are indeed logical and can be used to rationalize the situation, but by that time, my heart, conscience and overall spiritual health was considered more important than the logical arguments. I believe companies should indeed take a moral stance and choose not to business with...I recalled the parable of the three bricklayers...what was my position going to be?

I sought counsel from experts in Islamic jurisprudence and spiritual masters. This process unfolded over August 2024 to November 2024 - whilst striving to keep my commitments as a professional employee without them impacting my ability to do my job. Summarizing the guidance I received:

• When faced with two evils, it is better to choose the lesser one, if no alternative path exists
• Don't settle for the lesser evil indefinitely, but strive to find an alternate path or opening
• If something is ultimately haraam, then all parts involved in the supply chain, is by association doubtful or most likely haraam (say, if one farms grapes, sells grapes to wine producer - since wine is haraam, the act of supplying the grapes is also haraam so find other customers. Or if one knowingly sells shoe laces for military boots that are worn by soldiers that commit atrocities like killing innocent children which is haraam, then the sale is unlawful)
• Validate if your work directly enables the concerned entity (A couple of weeks later, I shadowed a customer call, and lo and behold, I got a clear sign - i.e. we were using tools built by my teams to support ...!)
• Do not make any decisions that puts you and your family in an unhealthy position (basically don't quit your job without securing another one, if you're going to end up with more stress, problems and financial burdens) - be patient, all the while exploring new opportunities
• If you can find an alternative area within your company that creates distance from the concern, then it is better for you
• It is better for you to work in a haraam industry as gainful employment, providing for your family - where no alternative halal jobs are available, than to take to poverty or be a burden on other family or friends. In this case, the job is Halaal for you
• It is best to avoid things that a doubtful or your is not aligned with your conscience, follow your heart in a responsible manner without adding new difficulty to your life

With all this, I prayed for guidance, and came to the following conclusion in October '24: I will strive to fulfill my existing commitments and in the background find another opportunity within Amazon, exiting my current role and organization, creating distance from ADC projects - and limited to opportunities within South Africa (SA) commercial entity only. I will ensure there is a good handover with a succession plan in place before I exit. I also had unfinished goal of promoting one of my directs to L7 (it's a big thing in Amazon). If I can't find another role within Amazon SA, I will leave at a reasonable time that does not put me into severe financial distress. I also owe it to my employer to be fully engaged and committed - and if I'm unable to do so, will do the right thing by transitioning out sooner than later (but only after promoting my manager to L7). Deep down, my heart directed me to find a new path...and I was prepared to start something new, in different area, new company, with lower pay and kiss the future RSU vesting goodbye. My next job must satisfy these conditions: 1/ Local South African company; 2/ Local timezone work hours; 3/ Work only with customers and partners aligned with my value system. 

Having put the sleepless nights to rest, I gained a sense of peace with my plan and continued with my work. I told my manager I was good. Between October and the end of 2024, I worked with my team to end up producing one of our best annual operational plans (OP2 narrative). I took time off over the December break, looking forward to start 2025 anew, hoping to seeing at least one more year through to claim my five year badge of honour...but little did I know, I was in for quite a surprise as we kicked off 2025...

2/ Reason for leaving > Lack of Professional Growth 

We kicked off 2025 in mid-January with reviewing our OP2 plans again. Across the board Amazon decided to prioritize projects in GenAI and revenue-generating initiatives, growing investments in those areas whilst cutting investment in others. A new business VP was now fully in charge (our VP reported to the new VP), reviewing everything across the board. Incidentally this new VP was asking the same questions I asked when I started: Why are we building so many tools in-house, can we not use off-the-shelf products? We were asked to remodel our business plan forecasting an impact of 25-30% reduction in headcount. We disagreed and committed, providing the scenarios - which got locked in. This implied a significant reduction in scope and span-of-control for me. Being an L7 leader with 4 L7 senior managers (product and engineering) as direct reports, each with a span-of-control less than 34, was going to raise concerns down the line. Amazon was already in the process of flattening organizations, getting rid of management layers, pushing for leaner teams. It was only a matter of time this inspection would reach our business.  An L7 manager would not only have to be a manager of managers, but also quite likely be responsible for managing 2-Pizza development teams directly. There was also talk of moving product management to a different line altogether, further reducing my scope. To me, this looked like 2021 all over again - small scope, being an SDM was not something I was prepared to do again. It didn't feel right in 2021 when I joined, and it didn't feel right now in 2025.

In a previous post I shared my thoughts about executives transitioning to an L7 role from a South African perspective. Around October 2024, I reached out to an ex-Amazon VP who provides executive coaching, for some advice. I was candidly responded with "...if you have options to get back on your old career path, you should...unless you want to invest in coming to the US...get out". Moving to the US was not an option (not interested in leaving South Africa again). With US not being an option, this limited opportunities to work on GenAI projects as I was also not prepared to sacrifice my evening time for working US time zone hours.

I discussed my options with my manager. At the time he had limited information to guide me on future growth opportunities because the organization was still in flux. The new VP's transformation program was still in motion expected to carry on through the year. What became clear is that scope for the next level, L8 director level - expected a span-of-control of at least 160 headcount, aligned to the future initiatives (I reached out to other L8s in my network who confirmed the same). With new senior leaders joining, it would take significant effort on my part to build new relationships, have impact and also change some of the perceptions of me and my organisation overall. Feedback was I wasn't demonstrating Amazon LPs as an L8 leader - on ownership with two callouts on my time availability boundaries and slow hiring as I over indexed on SA's unique EE hiring constraints, and momentary lack of energy (disagree and commit). 

I imagined what life would look like for me in 2025: 1/ Owning yet another big enterprise migration program (2021 all over again - but with new players, so possibly 2x impact on time impact, more frequent trips to US, learning nothing new as I've led many migration program in my past);  2/ Delivering new region builds expanding ADC regions (which I decided to distance myself from to ease my conscience);  3/ Navigating the messy organizational changes impact on people (which impacts the psyche, 2024 was spent performance managing senior leaders, not a great experience);  4/ Stuck in the L7 role for another 4 years or indefinitely, doing rinse-and-repeat operational management (L7 became a glorified middle manager role with tons of admin, escalations and reporting follows a playbook, and more URA stress);  5/ Adjusting to new leaders (no appetite to invest significant time and energy to change impressions and mindsets of existing L8+ leaders or new ones);  6/ Working in a product space with limited strategic impact (that I was losing interest in, contact centers is well-known, AI optimisations next big thing to reduce costs, building internal enterprise tooling specific to AWS business processes is not marketable. I'm not prepared to spend another 4 years building and maintaining internal tooling, with a diminishing user base);  7/ Being boxed in and constrained to an engineering management role (heavy on operations impacting my time and restricting my skills/value-add);  8/ Being calibrated to the same role guidelines as my direct reports (in performance reviews which I feel comes with nuance bordering on unfairness), without a growth path in sight (taking my career trajectory in the wrong direction, it is never a good sign to be managing direct reports on the same level as you for longer than 12 months with no clear path to promo. The way I operate with my own directs on a growth path is to outline a vision to get to next level in 1-2 years, I did this with all my L6 managers, so they understood my plan and had a clear view of the gaps to close). 

So in February 2025, I announced my intention to leave Kumo. By then I had a strong succession plan in place, and had secured the L7 promotion for my direct report. I was still keen to work in AWS, but not in Kumo (or EC2 for that matter). We agreed to allow time for the rest of the organizational changes to take effect whilst also giving me a chance to find other roles more aligned to my interests. If I couldn't find a role by May '25, I would resign and exit AWS by June '25. I could be criticized for announcing my exit too early, because:  1/ I didn't benefit from annual salary increase in April and RSU allocation (if a boss learns their employee is leaving, why would they be included in compensation budgets, it's better to redirect some budget to retain others);  2/ Between March and May '25, further major organizational changes would unfold: Our Kumo VP exited, other L8 directors left and principal engineers exited as well, so by June '25, Kumo looked completely different and the earlier headcount reduction targets were apparently paused(!). By then, I was already serving my notice period and there was no turning back, I was committed to find something more aligned with the path I sought. This was the right call to make, even as I look back now at the time of this writing.

Over March and April, I searched for other opportunities within AWS South Africa. Given my previous experience as an AWS enterprise customer (as an IT executive with a multi-billion rand budget) and armed my new AWS knowledge, I believed I could add value to South African enterprise customers with their cloud strategy, a partner to the C-suite. The ideal role would be in CTO-Advisory, a "Field CTO", attached to major accounts, being responsible for customer solutions delivery. Unfortunately, business owners responsible for sales, account management and professional services - were also subject to the same headcount constraints (i.e. all new hiring being strictly review, mostly on pause). None of their business plans were approved as yet, even through some senior leaders shared their strategy which included ideas like a "field CTO" role, agreeing my skills would help them and our customers, but they just couldn't commit even with a secondment (this is where I feel the company is failing to act like a start-up). 

Moreover, hiring an L7 leader, reporting to another L7 just wasn't going to work in light of the inspections on flattening the hierarchies. The only open roles were L4 and L5 account management roles. The one role that looked like I could transfer my skills and add value in managing customer solutions, was an L6 role, reporting to an L6 manager. There was only one L7 role, that I discussed with the hiring manager, who preferred someone with a vast network and history and track record of managing enterprise accounts in their targeted sectors. Having already sacrificed my salary since joining AWS in 2021, I was not prepared to do yet another salary sacrifice and bide my two years on remaining RSU vesting, whilst being grandfathered on the salary band, and still have to contend with US timezone hours. 

There were gaps I needed to close as well, like lack of AWS certifications, so I completed training courses over that period. With limited opportunities in South Africa, and my constraint on not relocating - it became clear there was no alternate path left in AWS South Africa. The sabbatical I'd been putting off for a while, was my next best action. I steered clear from opportunities in Amazon Retail because the scope wasn't available and I didn't see myself working in e-commerce low-margin, highly-paced operational business. So I resigned on 1st May, exited Amazon on 30th May, at least banking one last RSU vest, and looked forward to a sabbatical, having faith that I'd find something new in time...

3/ Reason for leaving > Time Impact | Work Life Balance | Negative ROI

I shared my time tracking for 2024 in this post. 2024 was by far the heaviest year in terms of increase in work hours (aligned to my increase in responsibilities). 2023 was my best year (by that time, my small L7 scope of 4 2-Pizza teams was stabilized and running smoothly). Look at this heat map:

Across my overall dimensions, here's how the picture looks (whilst I did gain on family time, the increase in work hours impacted my other streams in 2024 compared to 2023):

Looking at how my work hours trended during my tenure from 2021-2024:

Tracking percentiles together:

• P50 = typical day, typical workday. Half of my workdays are ≤ this many hours

• P90 = occasional long day, 1 in 10 workdays is longer than this.

• P95 = bad-but-not-rare tail, 1 in 20 workdays is longer.

2021 → 2024, the tail gets heavier. P50 rises modestly into 2024, but P90 and P95 climb faster—signalling more frequent long days and a fatter right tail. 2024 stands out: P50 ≈ 10.3h, P95 ≈ 15.3h — the “bad-but-not-rare” days got notably longer. Higher average per workday and more weekend bleed in 2024). 2021 P95 = 12.60h → ~12 days over that level (5% of 240 workdays). 2024 P95 = 15.33h → ~12 days over that level (5% of 239 workdays). The tail got heavier in 2024 (higher P95).

2024 was a challenging year indeed. My team absorbed a few organizational changes in response to new priorities, whilst maintaining commitments to key deliveries, amidst high attrition rates. Workload increased for everyone. On top of that I had 50% of my management team on a coaching plan (putting experienced managers on coaching plans comes with its own stresses, Amazon "meeting high bar" high performance expectations can cause significant impact to one's mental health for a manager on the receiving end of a coaching plan). Long work hours impacts everyone, to be in Amazon, this is the culture - the typical response is "So what, everyone works long hours here!", so my situation isn't unique. But work hours is a metric that matters to me personally, it is an important signal about how I manage my time, my attention and my overall priorities. With 2025 being yet another year of more change and instability, could I afford to sink more time into my work? Especially when the payoff wasn't guaranteed? More than 60% of my work done in 2024 could be considered as waste and not even sunk costs (whilst my impacted managers successfully completed coaching, they would end up leaving anyway. Projects with significant investment in energy for last 2 years, were stopped in Q125. A business strategy which was worked on for year of toiling, pivoted in a completely opposite direction by the new group VP, new business mechanisms introduced in '24 that consumed hours of time and effort stopped in 2025, team charters changed without consultation...)

Here's a table showing my work hours compared to the typical average US and SA stats. Finishing work late, after 7PM daily is the norm. After 4.5 years, one would think I'd settled into a routine by now - which I did, but it came with consequences: no family time sitting together over dinner, no time to to masjid for evening prayers, messed up sleep patterns... 2025 needed to be different.

Against US norms, consistently ran well above average, with a sharp step-up in 2024 (extra ~+710 h, ≈ +40% above the US average).  Against SA norms, were close to typical in 2021, lighter in 2022–2023, and heavier in 2024 (+293 h). Weekend work exploded in 2024 (quadruple 2023), and late days stayed structurally high (≥~60% of workdays ending after 7pm each year, by count). That’s classic right-tail inflation—bad for ROI per hour and sustainability.

Let's add some monetary impact. Back in 2017/8, I was consulting, billed at a rate of ~R1500 per hour (between 2015-2016 I worked 4-days/week). Accounting for inflation, lost "revenue" due to free utilization of my time by my company, my rates would have been: 2021 Rate R1,685.62/h, 2022 Rate R1,801.92/h, 2023 Rate R1,910.04/h, 2024 Rate R1,994.08/h,  2025 Rate R2,053.90/h. Compared to my effective Amazon annual rate: effective hourly under Amazon (base + RSU) landed ~R2200/h in 2024, fairing much better than inflationary consulting rates.

Being brutally honest apples-to-apples comparison, I can't fault Amazon at all. Amazon's compensation scheme works, it's a matter of a fundamental mindset change. They compensated me well enough given the RSU vests, more than made up for my 25% loss in base pay in 2021, with base pay only catching up to my 2020 levels in 2025. So from the company side, you are rewarded for the effort/time put in. Amazon pays well (provided the share price is healthy)!

The negative ROI is more on my time sinks in areas related to general well-being: Family Time, Sleep, Spirituality and Personal Me time. These quality-of-life intangibles can't be quantified at a monetary level. Since I went in with eyes wide open, taking a hit to base pay and being optimistic the RSU vests will compensate monetary losses - what I wasn't prepared for was the significant lifestyle adjustment incurred by working long hours, evenings and weekends. Even though I adapted and made it work, as shown in 2023 - if 2024 trend was likely to continue into 2025 and beyond, the trend was going in the wrong direction for me. (During my sabbatical my kids highlighted how good it was to finally have Dad joining them for dinner and eating as a family again. "You're always in the office working"). 

For me personally, this ROI was no longer worth my while, coupled with lack of professional growth opportunities, spirituality and declining work-life balance with forecasted increased work hours in 2025, I decided to walk away, leaving 568 unvested RSUs on the table and a base pay from 2020. I could live with the same base pay for a local SA company with a traditional bonus incentive of 60%, steering clear from the US time zone impact, long workdays compromising my evening time and weekends. 

I don't regret my decision to join AWS, I learnt alot, worked with wonderful people, having satisfied my curiosity in understanding what makes Amazon/AWS tick. Whatever I've learnt will no doubt stand me well in my future endeavours.  

Sorry Jeff/Andy, but I decided not to comply with your "You can work long, hard, or smart, but at Amazon, you can't choose two out of three" directive, and yes, I believe one can indeed strive for work-life balance, there is more to life than relentless pursuit of riches. 

Nobody writes on their tombstone "What a great role model Amazonian"...but thanks for the ride, I learnt alot! It's always Day One!