A couple of days ago, a damning article came out about online retailer Amazon. Some employees and former employees called their Amazon experience soul crushing. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos quickly fought back, claiming he wouldn’t even work for the company the NY Times described.
Reading the New York Times article, you’d think Amazon was running a sweatshop or coal mine in 1915 than a technological retail powerhouse in 2015. One man in marketing says he often saw people cry at their desks. One lady who worked on projects hinted Amazon used mind control to keep employees in line, saying, “I was so addicted to wanting to be successful there. For those of us who went to work there, it was like a drug that we could get self-worth from.” There’s been allegations of cancer patients getting low performance write-ups as soon as they came back from treatment. There was another disturbing allegation claiming a woman recovering from losing a baby to stillbirth was put on ‘low performance warning’. And Amazon is said to have a very high turnover rate.
Bezos didn’t take long to fight back against such allegations. ?He wrote to his employees, virtually condemning these allegations of a soulless, oppressive, unemphatic company. Bezos claims he doesn’t even recognize the Amazon the NY Times portrayed. He addresses the talk of ill employees being treated badly as ‘shocking’ and ‘callous’. Bezos insists Amazon doesn’t tolerate such lack of empathy. The Amazon CEO closes the letter hoping their employees are having fun at Amazon.
Let me be clear. Computer Geeks isn’t taking sides or accusing anybody of anything. This is why both sides of the story are needed. In fact, I don’t know who to believe. This isn’t the first time Jeff Bezos is called out for being a mean, uncaring, or unfeeling boss. Then again, what’s the motive of these former employees who harshly criticized Amazon? Maybe they formed an alliance to publicly bash their former employer for disgruntle reasons. How can we prove what they’re saying is true? What we have here is a case of his word against theirs. Who do you believe?