Amazon boss Bezos hits back at ‘soulless and dystopian’ workplace claims

Amazon boss Jeff Bezos has hit back at a scathing article on “soulless, dystopian” working practices at the multibillion-dollar company. A New York Times article claimed workers are routinely crying at their desks, encouraged to use a secret feedback tool to report on colleagues, hounded outside of work and left fearful by annual staff culls. The damning portrait of life at the tech giant’s US base came from interviews with former and current employees. But - in an email sent to his “Amazonians” and published on many technology sites - Mr Bezos rejected the claims. "The article doesn’t describe the Amazon I know or the caring Amazonians I work with every day,“ said the multi-billionaire.

Even if it’s rare or isolated, our tolerance for any such lack of empathy needs to be zero.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos

Among the Times’ claims is that workers who "suffered from cancer, miscarriages and other personal crises” had not been given time to recover and found themselves “edged out”. One former employee, whose child was stillborn, was reportedly put on a “performance improvement plan” to ensure she stayed focused. However, Mr Bezos - thought to be worth $47bn (£30bn) - said “shockingly callous management practices” were not part of his company and told employees to personally email him if they were treated badly. Amazon has become one of the internet’s great success stories since it began as a bookseller in 1994.

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.

Jeff Bezos

Technology Jeff Bezos