Most interestingly, Jassy is described in glowing, almost fatherly terms by employees, as “authentic, genuine, empathetic,” and “as down to earth as a CEO as you’re going to meet.” “Nice,” as it turns out, is one of Jassy’s catchphrases, even in emails where the word is typically followed by several exclamation points. Another of his catchphrases is the hokey-but-endearing, “Giddy up, let’s get this going,” which he dispenses during meetings when he’s satisfied with results, as Business Insider recalls. These meetings are referred to as “Chop” meetings, thanks to the name of the conference room (the other room is unironically called “Rothschild”).

At the same time, Jassy is ruthlessly detail-oriented and “doesn’t suffer foolishness,” according to Scott Chancellor, a former AWS director. He insists that nearly every single AWS-related decision goes through him directly, down to blog posts. “People who don’t do their best in those meetings won’t get a second shot,” Chancellor continued, “at least not for a long time.” Another former senior-level employee noted that Jassy can “smell a drop of blood from 100 miles away if you’re not ready” for a meeting.

Jassy often has up to seven such “Chops” a day, where he, per Amazon’s usual policy, dispenses memos and everyone reads silently for half an hour before speaking up. Jassy goes last. The entire process, per one anonymous employee, is “a very inefficient hub-spoke model.” Some employees said that transitioning out of AWS is difficult because they can’t find Jassy’s extreme attentiveness to detail anywhere else.