A Company; A Staff; A Leader

NYT article causes a small stir. After which the Times prints this, noting Jeff Bezos' response to employees. The followup is also a reminder of one career move—from a position of prestige, to proximity to serious power—

Amazon spokesmen declined to comment further on Monday. Jay Carney, Amazon's chief spokesman, appeared on "CBS This Morning" to defend the company, which is based in Seattle. "This is an incredibly compelling place to work," he said.

Yes, the NYT can offer an exposé, but any news is likely to be just in the details, when we're talking about a corporate behemoth operating under its particular version of messianic capitalism. As usual, we see holy writ; here, called the Leadership Principles. (Never mind how directly that translates into German). There are fourteen bullet points, as these organizations always do aim for exceeding Ten.

It all serves as justification for the company to conduct (in the words of the Times' headline writer) "an experiment in how far it can push white-collar workers." Why, then, should it be surprising if those in positions of authority behave as in the Times' examples—

A woman who had thyroid cancer was given a low performance rating after she returned from treatment. She says her manager explained that while she was out, her peers were accomplishing a great deal. Another employee who miscarried twins left for a business trip the day after she had surgery. "I'm sorry, the work is still going to need to get done" she said her boss told her. "From where you are in life, trying to start a family, I don't know if this is the right place for you."

A woman who had breast cancer was told that she was put on a "performance improvement plan" — Amazon code for "you're in danger of being fired" — because "difficulties" in her "personal life" had interfered with fulfilling her work goals. Their accounts echoed others from workers who had suffered health crises and felt they had also been judged harshly instead of being given time to recover.

A former human resources executive said she was required to put a woman who had recently returned after undergoing serious surgery, and another who had just had a stillborn child, on performance improvement plans, accounts that were corroborated by a co-worker still at Amazon. "What kind of company do we want to be?" the executive recalled asking her bosses.

The mother of the stillborn child soon left Amazon. "I had just experienced the most devastating event in my life," the woman recalled via email, only to be told her performance would be monitored "to make sure my focus stayed on my job."

Or is it surprising that workers would be pitted against each other, with the company's "Anytime Feedback Tool" used to sabotage peers. Or is it surprising if this environment exists—

In interviews, 40-year-old men were convinced Amazon would replace them with 30-year-olds who could put in more hours, and 30-year-olds were sure that the company preferred to hire 20-somethings who would outwork them. After Max Shipley, a father of two young children, left this spring, he wondered if Amazon would "bring in college kids who have fewer commitments, who are single, who have more time to focus on work." Mr. Shipley is 25.

But regard for workers is a trivial distraction from the pursuit of greatness. After all, an eager world of consumers awaits fulfillment of 'really practical need'—

"A customer was able to get an Elsa doll that they could not find in all of New York City, and they had it delivered to their house in 23 minutes," said Ms. Landry, who was authorized by the company to speak, still sounding exhilarated months later about providing "Frozen" dolls in record time.

That becomes possible, she and others said, when everyone follows the dictates of the leadership principles. "We're trying to create those moments for customers where we're solving a really practical need," Ms. Landry said, "n this way that feels really futuristic and magical."

Julian Bond, 1940 - 2015

The loss is of someone who had vision.

[Rep. John] LEWIS: People respected him because of what he stood for. He came out against the war in Vietnam, so - became one of the first leaders to speak up and speak out against the war in Vietnam. And the Georgia legislature challenged his seating, and it went all the way to the United States Supreme Court. But he never gave up, never became bitter or hostile. He kept the faith, and the Supreme Court ordered the state legislature to seat him.

...
...Julian must be remembered as one who inspired another generation of young people to stand up, to speak up and speak out. He traveled all over America, speaking on college campuses, but also to large groups of - for peace, for nonviolence and for protecting the environment. One of his latest - probably the last thing that he wrote - it was about including the gay, lesbian, transgender communities as part of the civil rights legislation of 1964. He supported that effort.

More remembrances here,of his life and most recent work.