Amazon vs New York Times – A Different Look On The Battle
This whole week has been nothing but constant chatter, buzz, and posts regarding a heated battle between Amazon and The New York Times. The battle started due to a post by NYT over the weekend, regarding Amazon’s ‘bruising workplace’ for its employees. If you want to read the entire article, click here. In the post, Amazon’s cruel and over-demanding work environment is thoroughly discussed, as the journalists report their findings from first-hand accounts of employees who’ve worked at Amazon. The post seems to paint a horrific picture of Amazon’s work environment, and how it’s a continuous battle ground for its employees. They even go further by interviewing a former employee who quotes:
“You walk out of a conference room and you’ll see a grown man covering his face,” he said. “Nearly every person I worked with, I saw cry at their desk.” – Former Amazon Employee
After the release of the article, Amazon’s Founder and CEO – Jeff Bezos – immediately fired back that started a ripple effect in the tech industry between Amazon and The New York Times article (click here to read Bezos’s rebuttal). In his counter, Jeff states that the environment that the NYT’s article portrays, is not the environment that he knows, or firmly believes Amazon is. Upon the article’s release by the Times, Jeff immediately sent out an email to all his employees, stating that:
“I don’t recognize this Amazon and I very much hope you don’t, either.” – Jeff Bezos, CEO and Founder of Amazon
Since then, there has been a continuous debate over the whole ordeal. Journalists, tech enthusiasts and even VCs alike have been chiming in on the situation. However, for me, I decided to think a little differently. Yes, being a ‘white-collar’ worker may have different circumstances than the rest. Yes, all corporate companies have ‘issues,’ especially if they are continuing to grow and expand. Amazon is no different (Please note: I am not taking anyone’s side in this post). But, besides all the benefits, perks and issues – what about the JOBS Amazon has created since its inception? Let’s put aside our differences, and stop crying for a moment, and think about what I just wrote. JOB growth. That’s what Amazon has been doing in my opinion. I’m a big geek when it comes to research, so I decided to do a little online research to find some stats on Amazon’s employee growth.
Image via Statista.com – Amazon Employee Growth
According to Statista, Amazon’s employee growth from 2007 to 2014 grew from 17,000 to 154,100. That’s a lot of jobs, and I highly doubt they are all ‘corporate white-collar jobs.’ To me, employees mean everyone. Employees are an entity and a group that’s linked together as one. They include everyone, include founders, CEOs, and upper management. This is why I wanted to make a post about this situation – I wanted to view it from a different perspective, which was ’employee growth.’ No matter what the situation, the fact of the matter is this – Amazon continued to grow its employees. Jobs were created because of this growth. For me, a true founder or CEO of a company, is one who believes in employee growth, and helping their employees.
Again, I am not taking anyone’s side here. I am strictly looking at the situation from a job growth perspective. However, a good friend and mentor of mine once told me: “A company doesn’t start with it’s CEO, it starts with its employees and works it’s way up.” I am a firm believer in his principle, and I only hope that both sides – Employees and Amazon’s upper management – can learn from the NYT’s article and becoming a better company as a whole.
Let’s all shake hands together!
Handshake via http://STKR.us
geeky_yang 