Exposé on Amazon’s workplace ‘really hits close to home’

Amazon? I don’t know about you, but I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve bought something from the online retailer.

Once I needed a copy of Jim Lynch’s “Truth Like the Sun,” a snappy throwback of a novel about Seattle during the 1962 World’s Fair. I had read it, but couldn’t find a new copy in a nearby bookstore for a Christmas gift. I clicked on Amazon, and a couple days later it was on my porch.

It’s convenient, but I don’t shop Amazon much because I don’t want to contribute to the extinction of bookstores and other real-life retailers.

I thought about my almost-never relationship with Amazon while reading a New York Times article published over the weekend. “Inside Amazon: Wrestling Big Ideas in a Bruising Workplace” is the headline on the story by Jodi Kantor and David Streitfeld.

Along with Lynch’s book, I highly recommend the Amazon article. A warning, though. It’s longer than long, and quite dispiriting. My Facebook friends have been posting it, one with the comment: “Ouch. Great read, but it hits really close to home.” It does, and not because most of us have ever worked for Amazon.

The reporters interviewed more than 100 current or former Amazon employees. “Amazonians,” some named and others speaking anonymously, are quoted about work weeks of 80-plus hours; workers reduced to tears by harsh criticism; expectations that email sent after midnight be promptly answered; “marathon conference calls on Easter Sunday and Thanksgiving;” and managers deciding the fates of workers in a process some call “rank and yank.”

The most chilling accounts involve the reported treatment of workers who had experienced tough times in their personal lives: one woman receiving a low performance rating after returning from thyroid cancer treatment; another, who had miscarried twins, traveling for business the day after surgery and being told by a boss “I’m sorry, the work is still going to need to get done.”

Wow, right?

If the story is one-sided, Amazon leadership had a hand in that. According to the article, the company declined requests for interviews with Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s chief executive. Bezos is responding now.

In a memo to Amazon employees, published on the GeekWire website and elsewhere, Bezos wrote that “The article doesn’t describe the Amazon I know.” He said that anyone working for a company as ruthless as the one The Times describes would be “crazy to stay” — easy to say for somebody listed by Forbes as being worth $34.8 billion.

We’re in Snohomish County, so why write about a corporate culture on Seattle’s South Lake Union? I think the article hit home far beyond Amazon because — to a lesser degree, sure — lots of us have work lives no one saw coming a generation ago.

Do you check email on vacation? Do you even have time for a vacation? Are you ever on call, expected to be available during your off time? Have you been called into work on a holiday? By Monday, are you already behind? I’m guessing many of you can say yes, yes and yes.

An official at a local nonprofit told me last week that an annual fund-raising event had been cancelled because no one has time for lunch anymore. Time magazine kicked off June with a cover story titled “Who Killed Summer Vacation?”

Teacher, nurse, tech wizard, whatever your job, work isn’t getting any easier. Technology we once imagined would lighten our burden has given us more to do.

The New York Times talks about Amazon being data-driven, and about performance being measured continuously. Herald news staff members get daily emailed reports of “Most Read Stories,” complete with numbers of online views. It’s a small example of how we have more information about our jobs — but it’s information that brings pressures, at least self-imposed ones, that didn’t exist in the past.

I’m not losing sleep over Amazon workers, but it’s not just their plight. In a way, we’re all becoming Amazonians. Are you happy with your work-life balance? Is anybody?

Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460 or jmuhlstein@heraldnet.com.

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Local News

A firefighter stands in silence before a panel bearing the names of L. John Regelbrugge and Kris Regelbrugge during the ten-year remembrance of the Oso landslide on Friday, March 22, 2024, at the Oso Landslide Memorial in Oso, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
‘Flood of emotions’ as Oso Landslide Memorial opens on 10th anniversary

Friends, family and first responders held a moment of silence at 10:37 a.m. at the new 2-acre memorial off Highway 530.

Julie Petersen poses for a photo with images of her sister Christina Jefferds and Jefferds’ grand daughter Sanoah Violet Huestis next to a memorial for Sanoah at her home on March 20, 2024 in Arlington, Washington. Peterson wears her sister’s favorite color and one of her bangles. (Annie Barker / The Herald)
‘It just all came down’: An oral history of the Oso mudslide

Ten years later, The Daily Herald spoke with dozens of people — first responders, family, survivors — touched by the deadliest slide in U.S. history.

Victims of the Oso mudslide on March 22, 2014. (Courtesy photos)
Remembering the 43 lives lost in the Oso mudslide

The slide wiped out a neighborhood along Highway 530 in 2014. “Even though you feel like you’re alone in your grief, you’re really not.”

Director Lucia Schmit, right, and Deputy Director Dara Salmon inside the Snohomish County Department of Emergency Management on Friday, March 8, 2024, in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
How Oso slide changed local emergency response ‘on virtually every level’

“In a decade, we have just really, really advanced,” through hard-earned lessons applied to the pandemic, floods and opioids.

Ron and Gail Thompson at their home on Monday, March 4, 2024 in Oso, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
In shadow of scarred Oso hillside, mudslide’s wounds still feel fresh

Locals reflected on living with grief and finding meaning in the wake of a catastrophe “nothing like you can ever imagine” in 2014.

Everett mall renderings from Brixton Capital. (Photo provided by the City of Everett)
Topgolf at the Everett Mall? Mayor’s hint still unconfirmed

After Cassie Franklin’s annual address, rumors circled about what “top” entertainment tenant could be landing at Everett Mall.

Everett
Everett man sentenced to 3 years of probation for mutilating animals

In 2022, neighbors reported Blayne Perez, 35, was shooting and torturing wildlife in north Everett.

The Washington State University Snohomish County Extension building at McCollum Park is located in an area Snohomish County is considering for the location of the Farm and Food Center on Thursday, March 28, 2024 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Year-round indoor farmers market inches closer to reality near Mill Creek

The Snohomish County Farm and Food Center received $5 million in federal funding. The county hopes to begin building in 2026.

Dorothy Crossman rides up on her bike to turn in her ballot  on Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2023 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Everett leaders plan to ask voters for property tax increase

City officials will spend weeks hammering out details of a ballot measure, as Everett faces a $12.6 million deficit.

Starbucks employee Zach Gabelein outside of the Mill Creek location where he works on Friday, Feb. 23, 2024 in Mill Creek, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Mill Creek Starbucks votes 21-1 to form union

“We obviously are kind of on the high of that win,” store bargaining delegate Zach Gabelein said.

Lynnwood police respond to a collision on highway 99 at 176 street SW. (Photo provided by Lynnwood Police)
Police: Teen in stolen car flees cops, causes crash in Lynnwood

The crash blocked traffic for over an hour at 176th Street SW. The boy, 16, was arrested on felony warrants.

The view of Mountain Loop Mine out the window of a second floor classroom at Fairmount Elementary on Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2024 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
County: Everett mining yard violated order to halt work next to school

At least 10 reports accused OMA Construction of violating a stop-work order next to Fairmount Elementary. A judge will hear the case.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.