Ex-Amazon VP Says Working For A Bad Manager Is Worse Than Worrying About Moving Up The Career Ladder: 'One Of My Biggest Regrets…'

Former Amazon AMZN vice-president Ethan Evans says working for a bad boss will wreck your career faster than any missed promotion, arguing that employees should leave managers who fail to mentor or advocate for them.

What Happened: "Do not work for a bad manager! Whether that manager is truly ‘bad,' or simply not a fit for your personality, style, and goals, you need to work for someone who will support you," Evans wrote in a widely shared thread on X.

Evans, who spent 15 years at Amazon before retiring in 2018, said he wasted a decade "worrying obsessively about career growth and moving up," only to realize stress delivered "nothing the hard work, learning, good bosses and growing companies wouldn't have given me anyway."

In his post, he listed four drivers of advancement, which include "doing lots of good work," "growing your skills," "partnering with good bosses," and "finding growing companies," and warned that the last two "may matter even more."

The 54-year-old recalled joining three startups as a vice-president, watching each boom, shrink and eventually lay him off. "I lost everything I put into the company stock and got let go in the layoffs," he wrote, noting his hair turned gray from the strain before he dyed it “to look promotable.”

Those experiences convinced him that obsessing over titles while tolerating poor leadership "won't get you there faster and it WILL give you gray hair."

Why It Matters: Evans said his fortunes reversed only after he joined Amazon under mentors who "sponsored my growth." Five promotions later, he ran Prime Video and Twitch commerce. "Find the right company and boss, then do the work," he wrote. Otherwise, "move if you do not have an advocate."

Career coaches echo the advice. Research by The Conversation shows that toxic bosses can destroy confidence, reduce commitment, and damage an employee's sense of belonging. Evans now coaches tech professionals and says his biggest regret is "how stressful I allowed my career to be," a mistake he hopes others can avoid by prioritizing supportive leadership over prestige.

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