Do many aws/amazon engineers even have regular working hours? I'd imagine there is no 9-12,1-6 at Amazon.

I do. I'm a 2-year-in-a-row top tier rated senior SDE. I work 8:30 to 5:30 every day. If I work later it's because I'm working on something interesting to me personally and it's my choice.

I'll admit I have good management. That makes a huge difference. I also give reasonable estimates for project timelines up front.

Tell that to the non-senior SDEs whom either (1) don't have the clout with management yet, (2) don't know any better, or (3) have drunk the the lines of "work hard, have fun, make history" a little too deeply.

Enjoy your seniority; you're harder to replace. But don't apply that experience liberally to the rest of Amazon SDEs.

do you choose that time by choice? or if you didn't have a meeting at 8:30 or until 5:30 would you have to really work that hour? That's more what I mean. Not that the hours can't be reasonable. On my team sometimes I work till 4, others I work till 5 kind of thing.

A lucky few do have regular hours, but that could change anytime with a change in manager, skip-level, or even few senior engineers.

Perhaps this is what Bezos meant when he said that rather than talking about work-life balance, he’d rather think of things as a circle.

Bezos is quoted frequently using the term "Work Life harmony"[1].

Having previously worked at Amazon, I learned that "harmony" meant, if I'm not working, I should be preparing my mind and body to work better the next day.

Bezos also believes that workers are inherently lazy[2].

[1]https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/09/what-jeff-bezos-does-instead...

[2]https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-polices-based-jeff-be...