Amazon workplace environment exposed by NY Times, Jeff Bezos responds

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos found himself on the defensive this weekend after the New York Times published an expose on the largest online retailer’s workplace environment. Bezos defended his company, insisting that it did not paint a proper portrait of the company.

The Times piece, which was published on Saturday and written by Jodi Kantor and David Streitfeld, shows Amazon as a brutal place to work, even for office staff in Seattle. According to the report, some workers who were dealing with crises like cancer diagnosis or miscarriages were “evaluated unfairly or edged out rather than given time to recover.”

One former staffer even told the Times, “You walk out of a conference room and you’ll see a grown man covering his face. Nearly every person I worked with, I saw cry at their desk.”

The Times said it spoke with over 100 current and former “Amazonians,” the members of the leadership team and other executives and engineers, who all talked about how punishing the work environment can be.

Bezos sent a memo to staff, which was obtained by CNBC, insisting that these may be isolated incidents and “doesn’t describe the Amazon I know or the caring Amazonians I work with every day.” He wrote that he can be contacted directly via jeff@amazon.com.

“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 wrote. “Again, I don't recognize this Amazon and I very much hope you don't, either. More broadly, I don't think any company adopting the approach portrayed could survive, much less thrive, in today's highly competitive tech hiring market. 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.”

This isn’t the first time Amazon’s workplace environment has come under scrutiny. Last year, Simon Head’s Mindless looked at how tough it is to work in Amazon’s wharehouses.

image courtesy of Walter McBride/INFphoto.com

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