- The Washington Times - Monday, August 17, 2015

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos issued a memo to staff Sunday defending his company’s human resources policy following a New York Times article claiming the retailer’s cutthroat culture gave to little sympathy for workers with illnesses or personal crises.

“The article doesn’t describe the Amazon I know or the caring Amazonians I work with every day,” Mr. Bezos explained in the memo, NBC reported. “But if you know of any stories like those reported, I want you to escalate to HR. You can also email me directly at jeff@amazon.com. Even if it’s rare or isolated, our tolerance for any such lack of empathy needs to be zero.”

The Times article, titled “Inside Amazon: Wrestling Big Ideas in a Bruising Workplace,” gave accounts from current and former staffers who suffered from cancer, miscarriages and other personal crises who said they had been treated unfairly in Amazon’s fast-paced workplace.

“The article goes further than reporting isolated anecdotes. It claims that our intentional approach is to create a soulless, dystopian workplace where no fun is had and no laughter heard,” Mr. Bezos said in the memo. “Again, I don’t recognize this Amazon and I very much hope you don’t, either. More broadly, I don’t think any company adopting the approach portrayed could survive, much less thrive, in today’s highly competitive tech hiring market. The people we hire here are the best of the best. You are recruited every day by other world-class companies, and you can work anywhere you want.”

• Jessica Chasmar can be reached at jchasmar@washingtontimes.com.

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