12 ms·

Bezos says Amazon needs to do better for employees in last letter as CEO

49 points by lsllc 6y ago

aaronbrethorst 6y ago
Talk is cheap, especially when you're no longer in charge. He's had 27 years to do better.
- Matticus_Rex 6y ago
  I mean, Amazon has traditionally been a pretty great place to work, even in fulfillment centers the pay is above industry averages and FT employees have perks they wouldn't get anywhere else. They're having some issues scaling that while maintaining good conditions (esp. when contractors are involved), but we're talking about a company that has nearly doubled its workforce in the last two years. I doubt very much that any company in that size range could do the same without big problems; clients I've worked with and talked to see similar problems scaling from 50 to 100 employees, but no one cares because the company isn't a household name.
  - apocolyps6 6y ago
    Did your clients have their employees pee in bottles as a de-facto company policy? Is that the sort of thing that just tends to happen as companies scale?
  - basedgod 6y ago
    what are you talking about? even swe's here post about Amazon's frequently (though not universal) abusive work culture their employees unethically classified as "contractors" are notoriously poorly treated. their fullfilment center workers have to fight for basic rights and are often not treated like humans. their job security is zero, and meeting 95% of productivity targets is grounds for dismissal I don't understand this websites bootlicking for tech companies. "some issues scaling" is an insulting characterization to the actual depths of their problems. Amazon as a company is not genuinely looking out for the interests of it's lower paid workers, not doing anything near the top of the industry average in addressing them don't defend companies simply because other companies "aren't don't much better". everyone must be held accountable
  - an_opabinia 6y ago
    While you shouldn't be downvoted, > even in fulfillment centers the pay is above industry averages This was debunked, many warehouses pay $18-22+ (see https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/18/business/economy/amazon-wages-alabama-union.html https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/18/business/economy/amazon-w... or I guess just Google it). > but no one cares because the company isn't a household name. While I understand you might mean journalists don't care, small businesses with fewer than 500 employees employ 47.3% of US workers (see https://smallbiztrends.com/small-business-statistics https://smallbiztrends.com/small-business-statistics). So it's really the worst kind of generalization you've made. Half of US workers will care about businesses that operate at small scales because they are employed by one.
    - creddit 6y ago
      That "debunking" is comical. They compared the median wage of a giant metropolitan area to that of a subset of it which is ridiculously impoverished. What's more is the comparison of wages says nothing about other benefits or bonuses. Who else pays for your medical insurance in a no-skill job from day one? Basically no one, especially not in that area. Why do you think the employees voted 2-1 against a union? Because they're idiots and not enlightened like you? Do you think they have 0 ability to reason about their situations and the available opportunities around them? I'm not even morally/ethically/aesthetically/whateverily opposed to unions, but everyone who sits in their comfy armchairs in front of their monitors at their WFH job posting about the need for a union to represent these people when the people who would actually be represented by the theoretical union reject that need have no self awareness of their privilege nor the lack thereof of these workers. The workers know their situations a hell of a lot better than you do, and they didn't want a union! Overwhelmingly! At best you can argue that they were bombarded by anti-union propaganda but do you really think they're too dumb to realize that? Were they not also bombarded by pro-union propaganda??
      - MisterPea 6y ago
        Thank you, reminds me a little too much of Bernie supporters calling black voters "low-information voters" because they didn't vote for Bernie
  - klyrs 6y ago
    I've known several Amazon employees over the years, both developers (going way back) and warehouse workers (more recently). The developers have consistently described it as extremely taxing, but worth the pay. The warehouse workers described it as extremely taxing, but better than going hungry. The funny thing about Amazon is they don't just profit from shill reviews, but they also encourage shilling by their employees to boost their reputation. For that reason, I strongly weight first-hand accounts by people I know over everything else I've read online.
  - xiphias2 6y ago
    Maybe you are right, but for me as an ex-Googler the fact that he used a door as his table turned me off when they wanted to interview me. Ergonomics is really important for my back. In Google I could adjust the desk position with a button.
- pdevr 6y ago
  I respect him for building a company this huge. Luck and privilege played a part for sure, but without laser-focused willpower and endurance, it won't have been possible to get Amazon to what it is today. At the same time, this is almost comical.Amazing, indeed, that he doesn't get called out by major news reporters.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  - yourmom2 6y ago
    > laser-focused willpower and endurance do you ever just.... listen to yourself talk...
  - YourMom3 6y ago
    > laser-focused willpower and endurance do you ever just.... listen to yourself talk...
    - pc86 6y ago
      Maybe when your second shitposting account gets banned for the comments you make, the correct course of action is to look in the mirror and consider what you're spending your time on, rather than... creating a third shitposting account.
dylan604 6y ago
"We, as in not me, should do something that I didn't do. Good luck with that." These kinds of letters always fall flat with me. This is not something that just happend in the last couple of weeks while the existing CEO was already out the door. This is something that has been festering for a long time under the watch of the exiting CEO. This always feels be bit like Pontius Pilate washing his hands type of move.
bloopernova 6y ago
"it's clear to me that we need a better vision for how we create value for employees" It's statements like this that drive me deep into despair. That bland, banal platitude of "value". That non-statement of inaction phrased as "we need a better vision". And, increasingly off-topic and misanthropic: Why has "ask" replaced "request" as a noun? "The ask is that we improve database response times by 25%". Why is that any clearer? My apologies for the grumpiness. A security team has decided to throttle all AWS modification requests and it's breaking all our pipelines through timeouts.
- r00fus 6y ago
  Request is a hugely overloaded term in computing systems. HTTP requests, Customer or Service Requests (which are an object in ERP systems). So corporate speech has moved to using "ask" to model an actual request.
  - pc86 6y ago
    You think a lot of people mistake "I'm asking you to improve database response times by 25%" with an HTTP request?
  - LZ_Khan 6y ago
    Surely executives aren't confusing their administrative requests with computing system concepts. The correct answer is simply that it's become a passive way of telling someone to do something. Instead of "Can you provide us a 25% growth this year" it is now "The ask is 25% growth this year."
- souldeux 6y ago
  This usage of "ask" is quite old, and as is often the case, everything old becomes new again: https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/111597/the-ask-is-this-a-buzzword-or-just-bad-grammar https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/111597/the-ask-i...
- salawat 6y ago
  >It's statements like this that drive me deep into despair. That bland, banal platitude of "value". That non-statement of inaction phrased as "we need a better vision". The sad thing is, it isn't even that hard to do; creating value for workers, I mean; at the risk of intensifying your despair. Keep workloads reasonable. Establish humane feedback loops so that your labor force can actually attempt to actualize themselves. At the end of the day, every human being in a workplace creates value, and the more you can make life simpler and more straightforward for those who work for you without hemming them in or pidgeonholing them, the safer they'll feel taking reasonable risks that may just pay off, and most importantly coming to you first for input, advice, and a courtesy heads up. One of the biggest challenges I've had to face since getting actual reports, is de-programming the tyranny-of-the-manager in the whole lot of them. I need people questioning things, correcting misunderstandings, making me aware of things. It is my job to do what needs to be done to enable my team to succeed. My team's inexplicable or unanticipated sudden failure is my failure. I am the one ultimately responsible for ensuring the reliability and stability of the processes that effect those I am tasked with managing for. As a nuts and bolts person, it's totally new to me. However, I had someone volunteer to take a paycut to stay on with me. I'm... Not sure whether that's ultimately a positive, or what. I wonder sometimes if I'm falling down into the abyss of narcisstic management/business tendencies I've fought against my entire career because the descent is more insidious than I ever imagined... Then I look at all the stuff I have to balance, and re-evaluate what I could do different, and well... It is what it is. Management was never something you should do to others, rather you do it for them to in the end make the entire working unit more productive. It's all work and overhead that has to occur for any task to get done; somebody has to do it. I just try to do for them what I always wished mine would do for me. I have a hunch they may have productivity gains in their personal lives. (At least I hope so.) I figure that's for someone else to judge though. I just don't understand treating people like machines.
warent 6y ago
This strikes me as very similar to an abusive, narcissistic person miraculously having a change of heart and wanting to mend the path of destruction behind them after being diagnosed with a terminal illness. Here we see Bezos hurriedly trying to patch up his horrendous legacy with an empty letter. Too little too late. Hopefully peoples' memories aren't so short to forget that he's been nothing but the encyclopedic example of greed.
- the-dude 6y ago
  The people only care about convenience.
- gruez 6y ago
  >Too little too late. Hopefully peoples' memories aren't so short to forget that he's been nothing but the encyclopedic example of greed. uhh... bill gates?
  - debacle 6y ago
    Plenty of people are aware of Gates' overwhelming greed. I would ignore all of it just to hear him talk for ten minutes about the overwhelming privilege he was born into and how that brought about his success.
  - kennywinker 6y ago
    Interesting - I definitely consider Bill Gates a less harmful example of a billionaire. Mostly because I think of the people employed by microsoft during his tenure as well paid tech workers. That's somewhat different from the exploited amazon warehouse workers and sweatshop workers making the stuff they sell. I've not forgotten the FUD, the anti-linux and anti-apple maneuvering, etc. - but I don't have a strong example of the human cost of Bill Gates' billions - is there one I'm missing?
    - jasonwatkinspdx 6y ago
      See my other comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26824485 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26824485
cyberlab 6y ago
I am more worried about Time Clock Fraud[0] being treated as an actual issue. (It's just a byproduct of any business). Amazon simply increasing the wages[1] is not enough. Wages also need to be adjusted for inflation. [0] https://www.nettimesolutions.com/blog/time-clock-fraud-stealing-seconds-adds-up-to-major-workplace-issues/ https://www.nettimesolutions.com/blog/time-clock-fraud-steal... [1] https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/24/amazon-extends-unpaid-time-off-policy-for-warehouse-workers.html https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/24/amazon-extends-unpaid-time-o... [1] https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/13/amazon-to-end-wage-increases-and-overtime-pay-in-june.html https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/13/amazon-to-end-wage-increases...
- yourmom2 6y ago
  there is no inflation
tristanj 6y ago
The media spin machines are in action. Pick the worst parts of the letter, ignore the good parts, and use it to reinforce the chosen narrative. People think totally differently when primed. Compare how the comments here are totally different compared to the comments in the original thread, where people can read what Jeff Bezos actually said and form their own opinions. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26819523 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26819523
- preinheimer 6y ago
  Alternately don't let a company that forces people to pee in bottles, and astroturfs social media off the hook when issuing a press release?
  - tristanj 6y ago
    I encourage you to read the original source. A letter to shareholders is not a press release. This was legally filed with the SEC.
    - preinheimer 6y ago
      I mean, as far as I can tell letters to investors are optional unless you're doing something to their stock. They published it to their company news site[1], and told the world about it. Could we meet in the middle and say it was a press release they filed with the SEC? :) [1] - https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/company-news/2020-letter-to-shareholders https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/company-news/2020-letter-to...
- Brian_K_White 6y ago
  The apologists are in action. Focus on the part of the story where the murderer is nice to his mom.
LgWoodenBadger 6y ago
they need to do a lot more than that. I cancelled my long-time Prime membership this year because of their anti-union behavior, their workplace conditions, and the shit-show that their marketplace has turned into. I'm also trying to patronize other stores for all of my just-grab-it-from-Amazon purposes.
jariel 6y ago
He could 'do better for his staff' - with a single sentence email he could transform the company, even to this day. Edit: for my disparagers - Bezos is among the most powerful people in the world, and has direct influence and leverage over his former company. A one sentence email to the current CEO detailing in broad strokes the policies that should be in place to 'do better for his staff' is literally all it would take. They'd be implemented immediately.
boredpandas777 6y ago
Clinical Narcissism. There is no cure for this condition. I have some in my own family, and been working on it for 40 years now without seeing any real change.
slt2021 6y ago
how about Bezos hops on one of amazon's delivery trucks for a week and brings a bottle to store his bodily fluids during extended work shifts? after that experiment, if he works another week or two in a warehouse, and only then he can do a little bit of self-reflection and write a letter how Amazon needs to do better. if he didn't talk to drivers, warehouse workers, didn't work with them side by side, how can say anything about the subject?
parenthesis 6y ago
How about voting for politicians who will enact stricter employment laws instead of complaining about someone who exploits their weakness?
tpl 6y ago
Easy to write on the way out unfortunately.
cheaprentalyeti 6y ago
"I weep for you," the Walrus said: "I deeply sympathize." With sobs and tears he sorted out Those of the largest size, Holding his pocket-handkerchief Before his streaming eyes. "0 Oysters," said the Carpenter, "You've had a pleasant run! Shall we be trotting home again?" But answer came there none— And this was scarcely odd, because They'd eaten every one. (Note: I edited to fix the formatting.)
- effingwewt 6y ago
  I honestly think if we lewis carroll as required reading in school we wouldn't be so quick to forget hard learned lessons about greed. These days it feels like society has shifted more towards an ayn rand paradigm.
_hao 6y ago
Yeah, right... Why isn't he the guy that made things better for his employees? This is basically the equivalent of "k thx bye". I've seen comments online say he worked hard for it. So what? I don't care how hard he has worked. A lot of us work hard too, but we never had the opportunities that he had back then and even less so today. People like him (greedy beyond measure) and corporations of that magnitude wielding so much control over our lives will bring nothing good.

49 points by lsllc 6y ago

aaronbrethorst 6y ago

Talk is cheap, especially when you're no longer in charge. He's had 27 years to do better.

Matticus_Rex 6y ago
I mean, Amazon has traditionally been a pretty great place to work, even in fulfillment centers the pay is above industry averages and FT employees have perks they wouldn't get anywhere else. They're having some issues scaling that while maintaining good conditions (esp. when contractors are involved), but we're talking about a company that has nearly doubled its workforce in the last two years. I doubt very much that any company in that size range could do the same without big problems; clients I've worked with and talked to see similar problems scaling from 50 to 100 employees, but no one cares because the company isn't a household name.
- apocolyps6 6y ago
  Did your clients have their employees pee in bottles as a de-facto company policy? Is that the sort of thing that just tends to happen as companies scale?
- basedgod 6y ago
  what are you talking about? even swe's here post about Amazon's frequently (though not universal) abusive work culture their employees unethically classified as "contractors" are notoriously poorly treated. their fullfilment center workers have to fight for basic rights and are often not treated like humans. their job security is zero, and meeting 95% of productivity targets is grounds for dismissal I don't understand this websites bootlicking for tech companies. "some issues scaling" is an insulting characterization to the actual depths of their problems. Amazon as a company is not genuinely looking out for the interests of it's lower paid workers, not doing anything near the top of the industry average in addressing them don't defend companies simply because other companies "aren't don't much better". everyone must be held accountable
- an_opabinia 6y ago
  While you shouldn't be downvoted, > even in fulfillment centers the pay is above industry averages This was debunked, many warehouses pay $18-22+ (see https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/18/business/economy/amazon-wages-alabama-union.html https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/18/business/economy/amazon-w... or I guess just Google it). > but no one cares because the company isn't a household name. While I understand you might mean journalists don't care, small businesses with fewer than 500 employees employ 47.3% of US workers (see https://smallbiztrends.com/small-business-statistics https://smallbiztrends.com/small-business-statistics). So it's really the worst kind of generalization you've made. Half of US workers will care about businesses that operate at small scales because they are employed by one.
  - creddit 6y ago
    That "debunking" is comical. They compared the median wage of a giant metropolitan area to that of a subset of it which is ridiculously impoverished. What's more is the comparison of wages says nothing about other benefits or bonuses. Who else pays for your medical insurance in a no-skill job from day one? Basically no one, especially not in that area. Why do you think the employees voted 2-1 against a union? Because they're idiots and not enlightened like you? Do you think they have 0 ability to reason about their situations and the available opportunities around them? I'm not even morally/ethically/aesthetically/whateverily opposed to unions, but everyone who sits in their comfy armchairs in front of their monitors at their WFH job posting about the need for a union to represent these people when the people who would actually be represented by the theoretical union reject that need have no self awareness of their privilege nor the lack thereof of these workers. The workers know their situations a hell of a lot better than you do, and they didn't want a union! Overwhelmingly! At best you can argue that they were bombarded by anti-union propaganda but do you really think they're too dumb to realize that? Were they not also bombarded by pro-union propaganda??
    - MisterPea 6y ago
      Thank you, reminds me a little too much of Bernie supporters calling black voters "low-information voters" because they didn't vote for Bernie
- klyrs 6y ago
  I've known several Amazon employees over the years, both developers (going way back) and warehouse workers (more recently). The developers have consistently described it as extremely taxing, but worth the pay. The warehouse workers described it as extremely taxing, but better than going hungry. The funny thing about Amazon is they don't just profit from shill reviews, but they also encourage shilling by their employees to boost their reputation. For that reason, I strongly weight first-hand accounts by people I know over everything else I've read online.
- xiphias2 6y ago
  Maybe you are right, but for me as an ex-Googler the fact that he used a door as his table turned me off when they wanted to interview me. Ergonomics is really important for my back. In Google I could adjust the desk position with a button.
pdevr 6y ago
I respect him for building a company this huge. Luck and privilege played a part for sure, but without laser-focused willpower and endurance, it won't have been possible to get Amazon to what it is today. At the same time, this is almost comical.Amazing, indeed, that he doesn't get called out by major news reporters.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- yourmom2 6y ago
  > laser-focused willpower and endurance do you ever just.... listen to yourself talk...
- YourMom3 6y ago
  > laser-focused willpower and endurance do you ever just.... listen to yourself talk...
  - pc86 6y ago
    Maybe when your second shitposting account gets banned for the comments you make, the correct course of action is to look in the mirror and consider what you're spending your time on, rather than... creating a third shitposting account.

dylan604 6y ago

"We, as in not me, should do something that I didn't do. Good luck with that." These kinds of letters always fall flat with me. This is not something that just happend in the last couple of weeks while the existing CEO was already out the door. This is something that has been festering for a long time under the watch of the exiting CEO. This always feels be bit like Pontius Pilate washing his hands type of move.

bloopernova 6y ago

"it's clear to me that we need a better vision for how we create value for employees" It's statements like this that drive me deep into despair. That bland, banal platitude of "value". That non-statement of inaction phrased as "we need a better vision". And, increasingly off-topic and misanthropic: Why has "ask" replaced "request" as a noun? "The ask is that we improve database response times by 25%". Why is that any clearer? My apologies for the grumpiness. A security team has decided to throttle all AWS modification requests and it's breaking all our pipelines through timeouts.

r00fus 6y ago
Request is a hugely overloaded term in computing systems. HTTP requests, Customer or Service Requests (which are an object in ERP systems). So corporate speech has moved to using "ask" to model an actual request.
- pc86 6y ago
  You think a lot of people mistake "I'm asking you to improve database response times by 25%" with an HTTP request?
- LZ_Khan 6y ago
  Surely executives aren't confusing their administrative requests with computing system concepts. The correct answer is simply that it's become a passive way of telling someone to do something. Instead of "Can you provide us a 25% growth this year" it is now "The ask is 25% growth this year."
souldeux 6y ago
This usage of "ask" is quite old, and as is often the case, everything old becomes new again: https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/111597/the-ask-is-this-a-buzzword-or-just-bad-grammar https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/111597/the-ask-i...
salawat 6y ago
>It's statements like this that drive me deep into despair. That bland, banal platitude of "value". That non-statement of inaction phrased as "we need a better vision". The sad thing is, it isn't even that hard to do; creating value for workers, I mean; at the risk of intensifying your despair. Keep workloads reasonable. Establish humane feedback loops so that your labor force can actually attempt to actualize themselves. At the end of the day, every human being in a workplace creates value, and the more you can make life simpler and more straightforward for those who work for you without hemming them in or pidgeonholing them, the safer they'll feel taking reasonable risks that may just pay off, and most importantly coming to you first for input, advice, and a courtesy heads up. One of the biggest challenges I've had to face since getting actual reports, is de-programming the tyranny-of-the-manager in the whole lot of them. I need people questioning things, correcting misunderstandings, making me aware of things. It is my job to do what needs to be done to enable my team to succeed. My team's inexplicable or unanticipated sudden failure is my failure. I am the one ultimately responsible for ensuring the reliability and stability of the processes that effect those I am tasked with managing for. As a nuts and bolts person, it's totally new to me. However, I had someone volunteer to take a paycut to stay on with me. I'm... Not sure whether that's ultimately a positive, or what. I wonder sometimes if I'm falling down into the abyss of narcisstic management/business tendencies I've fought against my entire career because the descent is more insidious than I ever imagined... Then I look at all the stuff I have to balance, and re-evaluate what I could do different, and well... It is what it is. Management was never something you should do to others, rather you do it for them to in the end make the entire working unit more productive. It's all work and overhead that has to occur for any task to get done; somebody has to do it. I just try to do for them what I always wished mine would do for me. I have a hunch they may have productivity gains in their personal lives. (At least I hope so.) I figure that's for someone else to judge though. I just don't understand treating people like machines.

warent 6y ago

This strikes me as very similar to an abusive, narcissistic person miraculously having a change of heart and wanting to mend the path of destruction behind them after being diagnosed with a terminal illness. Here we see Bezos hurriedly trying to patch up his horrendous legacy with an empty letter. Too little too late. Hopefully peoples' memories aren't so short to forget that he's been nothing but the encyclopedic example of greed.

the-dude 6y ago
The people only care about convenience.
gruez 6y ago
>Too little too late. Hopefully peoples' memories aren't so short to forget that he's been nothing but the encyclopedic example of greed. uhh... bill gates?
- debacle 6y ago
  Plenty of people are aware of Gates' overwhelming greed. I would ignore all of it just to hear him talk for ten minutes about the overwhelming privilege he was born into and how that brought about his success.
- kennywinker 6y ago
  Interesting - I definitely consider Bill Gates a less harmful example of a billionaire. Mostly because I think of the people employed by microsoft during his tenure as well paid tech workers. That's somewhat different from the exploited amazon warehouse workers and sweatshop workers making the stuff they sell. I've not forgotten the FUD, the anti-linux and anti-apple maneuvering, etc. - but I don't have a strong example of the human cost of Bill Gates' billions - is there one I'm missing?
  - jasonwatkinspdx 6y ago
    See my other comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26824485 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26824485

cyberlab 6y ago

I am more worried about Time Clock Fraud[0] being treated as an actual issue. (It's just a byproduct of any business). Amazon simply increasing the wages[1] is not enough. Wages also need to be adjusted for inflation. [0] https://www.nettimesolutions.com/blog/time-clock-fraud-stealing-seconds-adds-up-to-major-workplace-issues/ https://www.nettimesolutions.com/blog/time-clock-fraud-steal... [1] https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/24/amazon-extends-unpaid-time-off-policy-for-warehouse-workers.html https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/24/amazon-extends-unpaid-time-o... [1] https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/13/amazon-to-end-wage-increases-and-overtime-pay-in-june.html https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/13/amazon-to-end-wage-increases...

yourmom2 6y ago
there is no inflation

tristanj 6y ago

The media spin machines are in action. Pick the worst parts of the letter, ignore the good parts, and use it to reinforce the chosen narrative. People think totally differently when primed. Compare how the comments here are totally different compared to the comments in the original thread, where people can read what Jeff Bezos actually said and form their own opinions. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26819523 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26819523

preinheimer 6y ago
Alternately don't let a company that forces people to pee in bottles, and astroturfs social media off the hook when issuing a press release?
- tristanj 6y ago
  I encourage you to read the original source. A letter to shareholders is not a press release. This was legally filed with the SEC.
  - preinheimer 6y ago
    I mean, as far as I can tell letters to investors are optional unless you're doing something to their stock. They published it to their company news site[1], and told the world about it. Could we meet in the middle and say it was a press release they filed with the SEC? :) [1] - https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/company-news/2020-letter-to-shareholders https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/company-news/2020-letter-to...
Brian_K_White 6y ago
The apologists are in action. Focus on the part of the story where the murderer is nice to his mom.

LgWoodenBadger 6y ago

they need to do a lot more than that. I cancelled my long-time Prime membership this year because of their anti-union behavior, their workplace conditions, and the shit-show that their marketplace has turned into. I'm also trying to patronize other stores for all of my just-grab-it-from-Amazon purposes.

jariel 6y ago

He could 'do better for his staff' - with a single sentence email he could transform the company, even to this day. Edit: for my disparagers - Bezos is among the most powerful people in the world, and has direct influence and leverage over his former company. A one sentence email to the current CEO detailing in broad strokes the policies that should be in place to 'do better for his staff' is literally all it would take. They'd be implemented immediately.

boredpandas777 6y ago

Clinical Narcissism. There is no cure for this condition. I have some in my own family, and been working on it for 40 years now without seeing any real change.

slt2021 6y ago

how about Bezos hops on one of amazon's delivery trucks for a week and brings a bottle to store his bodily fluids during extended work shifts? after that experiment, if he works another week or two in a warehouse, and only then he can do a little bit of self-reflection and write a letter how Amazon needs to do better. if he didn't talk to drivers, warehouse workers, didn't work with them side by side, how can say anything about the subject?

parenthesis 6y ago

How about voting for politicians who will enact stricter employment laws instead of complaining about someone who exploits their weakness?

tpl 6y ago

Easy to write on the way out unfortunately.

cheaprentalyeti 6y ago

"I weep for you," the Walrus said: "I deeply sympathize." With sobs and tears he sorted out Those of the largest size, Holding his pocket-handkerchief Before his streaming eyes. "0 Oysters," said the Carpenter, "You've had a pleasant run! Shall we be trotting home again?" But answer came there none— And this was scarcely odd, because They'd eaten every one. (Note: I edited to fix the formatting.)

effingwewt 6y ago
I honestly think if we lewis carroll as required reading in school we wouldn't be so quick to forget hard learned lessons about greed. These days it feels like society has shifted more towards an ayn rand paradigm.

_hao 6y ago

Yeah, right... Why isn't he the guy that made things better for his employees? This is basically the equivalent of "k thx bye". I've seen comments online say he worked hard for it. So what? I don't care how hard he has worked. A lot of us work hard too, but we never had the opportunities that he had back then and even less so today. People like him (greedy beyond measure) and corporations of that magnitude wielding so much control over our lives will bring nothing good.