Ex-Amazon VP shares tips for all professionals to sail through life – Times of India

In a rather explosive post, a former Amazon Vice President named Ethan Evans took to social media wherein he revealed that he once tried to push back and win over a dishonest boss. However, his boss took revenge on him by seducing his wife, which ultimately led to his divorce and him quitting the job. Not just this, the retired Amazon VP also shared five tips for professionals to survive the corporate life, which could become “political snake pits” at times.
Ethan Evans shared these details in a lengthy post he shared on his LinkedIn profile, and within a few days it went viral on the internet. In his sensational post, Evans wrote, “A CEO that I worked for seduced my wife in direct retaliation for my pushback on him at work. He won. I got divorced and left the company. When I say I truly understand how some executive teams can be political snake pits, I trust you will believe me.”

Sharing his tips for professionals to sail through corporate life, based on his personal work experience, Evans further gave five tips to people. Number one being: “When you have a good manager, lean in and take advantage of it.” Elaborating this, Evans said that most of his own career growth happened when he worked with good and honest managers. And in periods where one doesn’t have a good manager, one just needs to hang in there. He also says that when one has a good manager, they should take advantage of the situation, collaborate and grow with them instead of taking advantage of the situation and being dishonest for one’s own sake.

His second tip is: “Spot the snakes.” Elaborating this he further wrote, “Generally, it doesn’t take long to figure out who is a good person and who is only looking out for themselves. There are so many ways to see through the dishonest people: See if their actions match their words; talk to others who have been there longer – they know!; and investigate their pasts – talk to someone who used to work for them but is now safely away.” Talking about his own experience where his former boss seduced his wife, Evans said, “With the CEO I talk about, I had “spotted the snake” – my mistake was staying too long and getting bitten.”
He also says that one should do good work even if their boss is nasty. The reason being, no matter how a leader is, he or she still needs to get the work done. And so, if you do excellent work, you’ll continue to be important at the workplace which would safeguard your job and career.
He then goes on to say “Don’t confront the snakes directly” as this could backfire on the person. Instead, a logical approach would be to look out for a better job in such a situation.
And lastly, “Don’t become a snake,” says Evans.
His post garnered much attention on social media, and people were quick to not only comment and share but also try to speculate who the initial CEO was in Evans’ post. Meanwhile, Evans took to the comments of his post where he further wrote, “As a PS, I want to acknowledge that what this CEO did would not have worked if my then wife had not been open to his proposition. This in turn reflects that our marriage had problems. While she was not looking for a liaison at the start, in the end she made her own independent adult choices.”
What are your views on Ethan Evans’ tips for corporate professionals? Do they resonate with you? Tell us in the comments below.