Exit Interview: The Life and Death of My Ambitious Career

Coulter (Nothing Good Can Come from This) writes about her experience working at Amazon’s corporate office in Seattle. Hired in 2006, Coulter describes a culture that involved managers working under constant duress and teams frequently at cross-purposes with one another. The author, one of a few women in the upper ranks at the time, finds herself dealing with double standards. Her men colleagues are characterized as entitled, mediocre, and perfunctory. The stress of her job, the functions somewhat opaque, cause her to drink heavily on a daily basis. However, Amazon’s stock options, which supplement her pay, are considerable and make it hard to walk away from the company. Coulter ultimately stays at Amazon for 12 years, despite feeling marginalized and subjected to toxic workplace behavior. Her observations constitute a damning portrait of a company that seems to abuse staff at all levels, from the boardrooms to the warehouses. The book portrays Jeff Bezos (now executive chair of Amazon, but CEO at the time Coulter worked there) as someone blithely unaware of the dysfunction cascading beneath him.