Report claims Amazon's a brutal workplace, Jeff Bezos says it isn't the company he leads

Lately, Amazon was at the receiving end when a The New York Times story broke out revealing the harrowing experiences about working at Amazon. Jodi Kantor and David Streitfeld interviewed more than 100 former and current Amazon employees to conclude how bad it can get to work at Amazon. New recruits are asked to forget their earlier ‘poor habits’ and employees even went on describe how there is a system that quantifies and analysis every aspect of your work. The ‘Anytime feedback Tool’ allows criticizing or praising co-workers discreetly. This feedback is accessed by the upper management and used during performance reviews. While it is good to know how the employees are performing, the report adds that the ways at Amazon for doing so are ludicrous. The company reportedly tries to get as much work out of an employee as possible. Managers want immediate responses to emails sent even after midnight, and often complain when employees have bad internet connections when on vacation. [caption id=“attachment_225568” align=“aligncenter” width=“640”]  Image: Reuters[/caption] What could get worse? The report alleged that employees are treated really badly when they need help. For instance, a woman who had a miscarriage was asked to travel immediately the next day on a business trip, while another woman suffering from breast cancer was rated really low for her performance and warned about losing her job. The report hasn’t gone down well with the company chief Jeff Bezos, for obvious reasons. He has released a memo, obtained by GeekWire, claiming he simply doesn’t recognise the company that has been described in the article.“The article doesn’t describe the Amazon I know or the caring Amazonians I work with every day,” Bezos writes. He has asked employees seeing or facing any such issues should immediately report it to the human resource department. He also urges employees to directly report the matter to him at jeff@amazon.com. “I strongly believe that anyone working in a company that really is like the one described in the NYT would be crazy to stay. I know I would leave such a company," he adds. “It is rare for Bezos to respond so directly to a news report. Faced with criticism throughout its history — whether dealing with book publishers or diversity issues — Amazon’s approach has been to stay quiet,” Geekwire report points out. The complete the memo obtained by Geekwire is as follows: Dear Amazonians, If you haven’t already, I encourage you to give this (very long) New York Times article a careful read: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/16/technology/inside-amazon-wrestling-big-ideas-in-a-bruising-workplace.html I also encourage you to read this very different take by a current Amazonian: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/amazonians-response-inside-amazon-wrestling-big-ideas-nick-ciubotariu Here’s why I’m writing you. The NYT article prominently features anecdotes describing shockingly callous management practices, including people being treated without empathy while enduring family tragedies and serious health problems. The article doesn’t describe the Amazon I know or the caring Amazonians I work with every day. But if you know of any stories like those reported, I want you to escalate to HR. You can also email me directly at jeff@amazon.com. Even if it’s rare or isolated, our tolerance for any such lack of empathy needs to be zero. 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. 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. I strongly believe that anyone working in a company that really is like the one described in the NYT would be crazy to stay. I know I would leave such a company. But hopefully, you don’t recognize the company described. Hopefully, you’re having fun working with a bunch of brilliant teammates, helping invent the future, and laughing along the way. Thank you, Jeff