Amazon staff ‘chewed up and spat out by a brutal culture’

The New York Times’ article quoted current and former Amazon workers who described a competitive, backstabbing culture. This, she told The New York Times, was “to make sure my focus stayed on my job”. “And we’re vocal about our employee happiness”. Sick employees had to bring in doctor’s notes and request medical waivers if they didn’t want to get points. Some former workers told the Times they were penalized when they were dealing with personal crises. Nakao said he’s been in the industry for 15 years and has worked for large companies like whitepages.com. That’s not to say they all kept quiet.

“I don’t have the data to discuss the past-so I won’t”, wrote Ciubotariu, the company’s head of infrastructure development for search. “If you wanted to go home, they’d send you home”. And Kantor and Streitfeld, who interviewed more than 100 employees, say Ciubotariu gets some facts wrong (paywall).

“You walk out of a conference room and you’ll see a grown man covering his face”, Mr Olson said. It seems anti-Amazon activists in Seattle prefer simply, “sociopaths”.

Dina Vaccari, who joined Amazon in 2008 to sell gift cards, said: “One time I didn’t sleep for four days straight”.

Everyone thinks their job is the worst or, indeed, that they’re hard and able to deal with anything. These are people who for the most part do have options and alternatives, and many of them choose to leave. “It’s a awful feeling”. “The Amazon described in this article may have existed, in the past”, he writes.

“They never could have done what they’ve accomplished without that”, she said.

An employee in the company is pushing back against the article.

Previously an Amazon executive had said the company “used to burn a lot of people to the ground”, but he added such practices had since been reformed.

Amazon has faced complaints in the UK for using zero-hour contracts and tagging staff to monitor their performance. The alternative to working in a warehouse is, quite possibly, unemployment. Disciplining workers for getting cancer is awful.

In 2013 Channel 4 News found Global Positioning System tags were fitted to staff and talking to colleagues could lead to dismissal. After a federal investigation into conditions, the company started keeping an emergency vehicle with paramedics outside the warehouse to handle cases of heatstroke.

“During one memorable meeting, a female employee pointedly asked Bezos when Amazon was going to establish a better work- life balance”.