Amazon CEO: Zero tolerance for dystopian workplace

[tailfins]

He adds later, “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.”


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.

http://www.geekwire.com/2015/full-memo-jeff-bezos-responds-to-cutting-nyt-expose-says-tolerance-for-lack-of-empathy-needs-to-be-zero/

[Perianne]

I read the NYT article about Amazon. Does anyone really think the NYT is going to be fair about a highly successful capitalistic enterprise?

[Kathianne]

I read the NYT article about Amazon. Does anyone really think the NYT is going to be fair about a highly successful capitalistic enterprise?

LOL! Considering Bezos and Washington Post ownership? Nah, a hit piece:

http://freebeacon.com/blog/amazon-could-run-on-unicorn-blood-and-i-wouldnt-care-at-all/


<header class="entry-header" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(62, 61, 61); font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14px; background-color: rgb(247, 247, 247);">The New York Times Versus Amazon</header>BY: Sonny Bunch (http://freebeacon.com/author/sonny/)


August 17, 2015 10:07 am

In August of 2013, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos agreed to buy the Washington Post. Since then, the New York Times has published a great number of pieces that are highly critical of the Internet retailer that is now worth more than Walmart (http://money.cnn.com/2015/07/24/investing/amazon-worth-more-than-walmart/). The latest salvo in the Old Grey Lady’s war against Amazon dropped this weekend: It is an almost-6,000 word reported feature that reveals Amazon employees work hard (http://freebeacon.com/blog/amazon-could-be-powered-by-orphan-tears-and-i-would-not-care/) and that some of their former employees who didn’t want to work hard quit.


That’s literally it. That’s the entirety of the story: Amazon expects people to work a lot and some people don’t want to work that much. There are no accusations of illegality. There is no evidence of discrimination. There are simply a string of anecdotes from people who are sad they couldn’t hack it at the world’s best online store.


I felt like I’d read a lot of anti-Amazon pieces in the Times lately, so I fired up Nexis and took a stroll through the archives. I wasn’t wrong! It seems that the Times isn’t terribly fond of the Post‘s new source of funding.* My favorite bit of trolling came in December of 2014:
...

[tailfins]

LOL! Considering Bezos and Washington Post ownership? Nah, a hit piece:

http://freebeacon.com/blog/amazon-could-run-on-unicorn-blood-and-i-wouldnt-care-at-all/

Whenever I see the term "work hard", I think "simple minded". Putting in gobs of hours doesn't mean productivity. You reach productivity by reaching a state called "flow". Protestants need to develop the concept of monastery like the Catholics and Buddhists. A silent monastery-like environment is when the REAL work gets done.

[sundaydriver]

A local newspaper, The Morning Call has been documenting conditions at a local Amazon warehouse for several years and the working atmosphere is the same as described in the NY Post. The stories of summer heat in the warehouse are accurately described and confirmed by an Allentown, Pa. TV newscasts showing ambulances waiting for people to drop. Other articles include the over expectations placed on workers and the managements attitude towards employees. No place I would have wanted to work.

http://www.mcall.com/news/local/amazon/mc-allentown-amazon-complaints-20110917-story.html

[Abbey Marie]

I read the NYT article about Amazon. Does anyone really think the NYT is going to be fair about a highly successful capitalistic enterprise?


I was thinking the same, Peri.