Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos addressed the ongoing controversy regarding the widely reported poor working conditions for Amazon employees and contractors in his final annual shareholder letter.
Bezos denied the allegations that Amazon has no care for its workers and the company is treating them like robots. He also rejected accusations that Amazon workers have “desperate souls.”
The outdoing Amazon CEO said the news reports regarding the company and its employees’ situation were “not accurate.”
He described Amazon workers as “sophisticated and thoughtful people who have options for where to work…Employees are able to take informal breaks throughout their shifts to stretch, get water, use the restroom, or talk to a manager, all without impacting their performance. These informal work breaks are in addition to the 30-minute lunch and 30-minute break built into their normal schedule,” wrote Bezos.
He also explained, “We don’t set unreasonable performance goals. We set achievable performance goals that take into account tenure and actual employee performance data. Performance is evaluated over a long period of time as we know that a variety of things can impact performance in any given week, day, or hour. If employees are on track to miss a performance target over a period of time, their manager talks with them and provides coaching.”
