Last weekend, a long report was published by the New York Times (NYT) describing the unfriendly working environment and difficult situations that employees of Amazon are dealing with. Entitled "Inside Amazon: Wrestling Big Ideas in a Bruising Workplace," the article has accused the company of pushing their workers too far via its cruel management practices and lack of empathy for their families and their health concerns.
Amazon's Founder and Chief Executive, Jeff Bezos, denies such allegations and claims that the article did not "describe the Amazon I know or the caring Amazonians I work with."
Among the accusations hurled against the retail giant were: (1) the low performance rating given to a woman afflicted with thyroid cancer upon her return to work, and with her supervisors even allegedly claiming that the company was more productive without her; (2) a female employee was asked to go on a business trip the next day after she had a miscarriage with her twins; (3) another woman with breast cancer was placed on a "performance improvement plan," which insiders disclose as the company's code for "you're in danger of being fired"; and, (4) employees are expected to respond to e-mails even if they were sent after midnight.
In a memo e-mailed by Bezos to the employees, he wrote that "The article goes further than reporting isolated anecdotes. It claims that our intentional approach is to create a soulless, dystopian workplace where no fun is had and no laughter heard."
Bezos, in the same memo, also praised the employees and even acknowledged their potential of being able to work in other companies. "The people we hire here are the best of the best. You are recruited every day by other world-class companies, and you can work anywhere you want," Bezos wrote.
Bezos added that he does not think "any company adopting the approach portrayed could survive, much less thrive, in today's highly competitive tech hiring market."
He went on to encourage his workers that should they know stories similar to the ones reported, they should raise it to the HR or e-mail it to him directly.
For the particular article, the NYT interviewed more than 100 present and past employees using a system called "Anytime Feedback Tool." The tool works in a way that employees can secretly praise and criticise colleagues, as well as quantify and track all areas of professional life.
