Nearly 3,000 people had weighed in on the comments section of an article about Amazon’s tough working conditions by Sunday afternoon – and the issue was not about the company’s warehouse workers. An article in Sunday’s New York Times says Amazon is conducting an experiment in how far it can push white-collar workers to get them to achieve its ever-expanding ambitions.
Some readers were so outraged at the experiences described by current and former employees that they vowed in the comments section to stop shopping there. But not everyone agreed that the company was a “sweatshop.”
According to the article, workers are driven to toil long hours and are held to unreasonably high standards, and some feel the culture rewards employees for sabotaging their peers.
Not only that, the newspaper wrote, “Some workers who suffered from cancer, miscarriages and other personal crises said they had been evaluated unfairly or edged out rather than given time to recover.”
Plenty of people who claimed to be former Amazon employees participated in the comments – one who said she was forced out wrote, “I will still defend the culture by the mere fact they are so transparent. Bezo’s tells you from day 1 what he expects, and his leadership Spartan principals (sic) practically etched in stone.” She also said that “the lurid stories of people forced out for family or health reasons were never my experience.”
The newspaper itself also quoted people who defended the company’s working conditions. Susan Harker, Amazon’s top recruiter, said, “When you’re shooting for the moon, the nature of the work is really challenging. For some people it doesn’t work.”
While others told the Times they thrived at Amazon precisely because it pushed them past what they thought were their limits.
“Many employees are motivated by “thinking big and knowing that we haven’t scratched the surface on what’s out there to invent,” said Elisabeth Rommel, a retail executive who was one of those permitted to speak.”
The New York Times article provides some interesting perspective to those Amazon merchants who have complained that they are held to unreasonable standards by the company.
Update: Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos defends company in response to New York Times article, according to GeekWire.
Comment on the EcommerceBytes Blog.
Update 10/19/15: Amazon responded to the New York Times story in this post today on Medium.com.
