The Times piece, based on interviews with past and present employees, describes a Darwinian workplace where around-the-clock hours are table stakes and ratting out colleagues is encouraged.
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Perhaps the most damning part of the article listed stories of staff who, having suffered miscarriages or illnesses such as cancer, were still required to work and given negative feedback when it affected their performance.
“Amazon wouldn’t be the success it is if it were the company that The New York Times wrote about”, Carney, who was once President Obama’s spokesman, said.
Many corporations, including those in tech, are often portrayed as tough, fiercely competitive and even back-stabbing places to work.
But as close as Carney came to disputing facts in the story is when he noted that high turnover is common at other tech companies and not just Amazon. How close these allegations are to the truth is hard to say.
Bezos has now responded to the report with a company-wide memo, which we saw over on GeeekWire.
A New York Times report over the weekend described a demanding and degrading environment at Amazon.
Ciubotariu has been with Amazon for 18 months, and said the company is very data-driven but not soulless.
Many workers are pressured to work well past midnight every day, says the Times.
The Times piece elaborated on specific cases, such as a former member of the Kindle team who chose to leave Amazon to take care of her ill father. Not even Bezos.
Bezos is not standing for this, and told Amazon worker bees in the memo that he does not recognise the company described in the article, and that he would not work at such an institution.
However, Amazon’s Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos, an influential techie, is not seen defending or supporting his company against such abuses made in the report. “You know, we share some the same kind of challenges that other companies in our sector share, and we are committed to making the situation better”.
But in an email sent to staff Mr Bezos rejected the claims.
The Times’ portrayal of Amazon isn’t all bad.
Speaking to The Sunday Telegraph newspaper the Amazon founder said the three former Top Gear stars are “worth a lot of money and they know it”. No one tells me to work nights.
“Here’s why I’m writing you”.
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Bezos goes on to invite any staff who “know of any stories like those reported” to escalate the complaints to HR or to email him directly.
