For the record – I’m treating the information provided in the NYT materials as “allegations”, rather than proven facts. Many of these matters could have legal ramifications, and a lot of the materials are anecdotal. “Trial by Internet” is definitely not an appropriate perspective in these cases.
The NYT article provided a lot of stories, all negative, of some truly lousy experiences of some Amazon employees. This article attracted a huge amount of attention, and a lot of acrimonious debate/abuse/skepticism. If nothing else, the vitriolic commentary online proved how much Americans distrust management culture.
Bezos, to his credit, wrote his letter to his 180,000 employees in a very polite, friendly way. The substance of the letter, however, included a clear, if very tactful, indication of his position – “I don’t like this.”
His position is understandable. Amazon is very much his baby, and proud parents don’t like people who bring their star child in to disrepute. Nor do competent CEOs like people providing them with a true PR disaster. Many of the issues described were management issues, and the look was definitely not good.
In his letter, he also referred to an article written by an Amazon employee on LinkedIn, which basically rebutted the NYT article point by point. The writer, Nick Ciubotariu, is described on LinkedIn as “Head of Infrastructure Development, Amazon.com Search Experience (SX)”. He got as much flak as the original NYT article. Many people simply didn’t believe him. They accused him of being paid to write his article, brown-nosing, etc., pretty much what you’d expect, although by LinkedIn standards it was pretty savage commentary. The skepticism, disdain, and hostility were relentless.
The New York Times has added a bit to its own materials on this subject since, notably a coverage of the response and further contradictions of Amazon’s position. In one part of this coverage, the NYT refers to Ciubotariu’s article:
…His points contradicted the accounts of many former and current colleagues, and some of his assertions were incorrect, including a statement that the company does not cull employees on an annual basis. An Amazon spokesman previously confirmed that the company sought to manage out a certain percentage of its work force annually. The number varies from year to year.
No citation of the source for the contradiction is made. Further revelations from disgruntled Amazon employees, however, are cited. I’ll give NYT due respect for its usually high standard of journalism and fact-checking, but anything all negative has a bit of explaining of its own to do. No positive information or contradictions? Balanced, or not balanced? Were there other, less saintly, issues regarding employee performance? Were these people sacked or did they quit, and in both cases, why? Sorry, NYT, I don’t quite buy the idea that all this happened and nobody sued, or took any action. A few boxes need ticking here.
Legal issues? What legal issues?
There’s one side to this story which is getting almost no public attention, although it’s unlikely to have escaped Amazon’s notice – If true or even half true, some of these stories may have potentially serious legal possibilities.
Even in America’s staggeringly laissez-faire “employment at will” legal environment, employers aren’t immune to liabilities for their workplace practices. I remember reading some years ago that according to employment industry sources, many American employees sue their employers at some time during their careers and 70% of them win.
In other countries with different legal environments, notably my own, Australia, many of these stories could lead to possible legal action and various issues related to breaches of employment laws. There’s absolutely nothing remotely humorous about this part of the equation. The potential fallout could be catastrophically expensive, even for a big company.
Should Amazon and Jeff Bezos be worried? Hard to say without more evidence, but in theory, there are some very hot potatoes in this dog’s breakfast of anecdotal materials.
Exposing the blind spots in management culture
This whole issue, including its handling, is a very relevant study in American corporate management culture in many ways. American management culture is sincerely and genuinely hated by many people. I’ve spent many years in the employment sector working on forums where an almost endless vista of complaints about management is the norm.
There’s also another, much less obvious, issue – Management vulnerabilities. At senior level, you don’t tell the Big Mega Ultra Boss that there’s a collection of idiots creating problems for him. Bezos and Ciubotariu are top of their particular management trees. The information which reaches them is filtered through a lot of people. Exactly how willing those people would be to tell either of them that some nitpicking, performance-review torturing clown’s main occupation is tormenting their staff is highly debatable.
This kind of workplace viciousness is incredibly common, particularly in the US, but information about it usually doesn’t get up to the senior levels at all. It’s quite possible that Bezos and Ciubotariu are simply being fed rainbows, not sewers.
That makes some kind of sense, albeit in a perverse way. Bezos is well known as a hands-on CEO. Even the most negative commentators on LinkedIn said they didn’t believe he was a fool. It’s unlikely he’d react kindly to such information; no competent CEO would.
The trouble, in fact, is that many top managers seem to think that everyone has the same values and vision as they do. This very nasty, arguably psychotic, alleged behavior simply wouldn’t occur to them as even being possible. They are honestly shocked if they hear things like this.
In my not particularly humble opinion, this is likely to be the case with Amazon. The New York Times may have done Amazon a rather gruesome but useful favor in bringing up these issues, because if that sort of culture is prevalent, that’s about the only way it would come to light.
One further comment – There are plenty of ways of finding out the facts in all these cases. Don’t be too surprised to hear if Amazon comes up with some practical solutions, pretty quickly.
