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.

Standards

Sam Seder with Harold Myerson, on how the South's rules govern the economy.

Myerson sees recent economic history repeating that of slavery, with "high value work" done elsewhere and America's South as a pool of low-end labor. In relative terms, Chinese labor costs are now actually higher than those in the U.S., where wages continue falling as international corporations locate to southern states. The South's historically anti-union climate combines with such current practices as using temporary workers to depress wages and avoid paying benefits.

"The South remains hard-wired for a low-wage economy," says Myerson, in its ethos of racism and all profit going to one class. And it is Southern labor standards that are winning, as GOP control in northern states replicates southern labor laws and vote suppression.

Then there's the show segment starting after 28:00...

Sam sets the background: the legality of investment advisors having no duty to protect their clients' interest, and a current Senate Committee hearing on proposed reform. Then the hearing clip, in which Elizabeth Warren calmly and expertly demonstrates how a slimy corporate exec can legally bilk teachers and firefighters of their pensions. She accomplishes this by asking some simple questions he won't answer—

Mr. Scheider, I just want to understand your company's advice in these cases. Do you believe that people like these firefighters from Florida who are near retirement and have secure pensions with guaranteed monthly payments should move their money into riskier assets with no guarantees, just before they retire?

More from Susie Madrak—

He never directly answered her very direct question, even though she asked a version of it three times. The closest he came was to argue "each situation is very different," and that his firm offers its risky investment opportunities to people who could benefit from it, like retirees on the brink of death.

"I"m sorry, are you suggesting that these 238 people were weeks away from dying, and that's why they all got this advice?" Warren asked, referring to the number of people Primerica was forced to settle with to the tune of $15.4 million in 2014.

Video of the complete Q and (non-)A here.

The Majority Report clip is followed by extended riffs from host and producers, all getting into character as slimy corporate President ("not the CEO").

Time-wasting: Guaranteed and PatenTED

Spotted on the library book shop's giveaway shelves—

Actually, I spotted it months ago: back when Morning Huddle was held daily, its script cobbled together by someone with all too many dates to fill. At the time, I felt quite relieved to know Patton was unlikely to be among the current crop of management consultants whose wisdom would be cribbed to produce daily scripts.

On the other hand, a mere one-minute sounds much better than the present routine. Now that it's Weekly Huddle, the boss expects a full week's padding to be stuffed into the pointless gathering.

Well, his agenda is what he hinted at last week: Simone Legree's group huddles for an hour, "to exchange information and discuss problems"... Now we must compete with them. Therefore, we were told any kind of presentation will do ("It doesn't have to be about work; it could be something you're interested in...")

After he dropped these hints, his assistant (helped by someone marginally more plugged into management lingo) planned today's festivities: subjecting the group to a TED Talk.

Cruel and unusual huddling, I call it. The session started with ten minutes of impressive technological action: a third person's unsuccessful fumbling with the controls of a giant monitor, until the official organizers decided to give up and project the video by other means. The main event was introduced by the marginally more sophisticated of the two: "Has anyone heard of TED? It's a non-profit that sends around YouTube clips that are ...[pause for grasping] ... educational..."

It also just so happens (as she mentioned) that the faculty's LEAN taskmaster had sent this particular TED to the whole department. (Nothing says streamlining the operation as well as having your entire staff spend time this way.) Of course, this is the process by which my co-workers keep up with the latest: they snap to attention upon learning a superior is gung-ho about some lame cliché that's news to them.

This was the Talk.

The Good Leaders including a couple of Heroic CEOs, but it's mostly military who "make you feel safe."

This earlier military hero seems to have had a bit of a temper problem with some underlings. And it must have really set him off, that his men got their bad ideas from "The Jews."

It would seem he kept his promises.

Leaders do mark their territory; it seems he was, uh, manly about it. A bit different today, at least where I work.

The previous Dear Leader marked his turf this way. And my absolute favorite: instead of keeping to institutional tradition that the space remain discretely unmarked, the toilet across from the Chairman's office suddenly sprouted a sign reading, Executive Rest Room... Below that, a repeat in braille—just to be sure no uppity blind person wander in and take liberties.

The newest Dear Leader's real estate grab.

At my office-in-exile, it appears the ego of our unit's leader was adequately messaged today by TED. The payoff: he let us leave for tomorrow's holiday an hour early.

Sides Of History

A new landmark in civil rights. Unlike such decisions as this, and this, the vote fortunately took place while Anthony Kennedy was in a sane phase.

Kennedy couched his opinion in rhetoric about marriage as "the keystone of our social order." But more importantly, he found "The right to marry is a fundamental right inherent in the liberty of the person, and under the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment..."

It's an historic extension of Loving v. Virginia, also decided on Fourteenth Amendment grounds.

Marriage rights was an issue that Mildred Loving certainly understood, and she endorsed equality before her passing in 2008. Her statement was issued on the fortieth anniversary of her own landmark case, which had been a victory over legal oppression long justified as being ordained by God.

From the NYT editorial—

The humane grandeur of the majority's opinion stands out all the more starkly in contrast to the bitter, mocking small-mindedness of the dissents, one each by Chief Justice John Roberts Jr., and Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito Jr. and Antonin Scalia.

Faced with a simple statement of human equality, the dissenters groped and scratched for a way to reject it.

Which leads to the other side of celebration; Steve M. asks, "What happens when crazy apocalyptics get their apocalypse?"

I know I should just relax and savor the Supreme Court ruling making same-sex marriage legal nationwide. But it's been a devastating week for angry American reactionaries who think civilization as we know it is going to hell in a handbasket -- yesterday's Obamacare ruling, the sudden rethinking of Confederate symbols, and, let's not forget, gruesome terrorist attacks in France, Tunisia, and Kuwait. If you're an American right-winger, all of this is connected. It's a sign that we've mocked God and fallen out of his favor. It's a sign that satanic forces are winning.

I wouldn't give a crap what these people think except for the fact that they vote, they dominate many American states, and they own guns.
...

When I think of the roadblocks to legal abortion devised by the right since Roe v. Wade, what astonishes me is the sheer creativity. Say what you will about conservatives, they have a genius for concocting ways around laws they don't like. I can't believe they won't find ways around this one.

Right-wingers are really, really mad right now, in both senses of the word. I get nervous when they're this mad.

To Market, To Market

It doesn't garner gory headlines; well, it hardly garners headlines at all. But that's exactly the idea behind a done deal. Our betters know that secret corporate governance is too hard and boring for the public to bother its little head about.

And the King v Burwell is decision comes without yanking the rug from under the millions of people covered by ACA. Roberts' opinion lays out Sacred Principle—

"Congress passed the Affordable Care Act to improve health insurance markets, not to destroy them."

Best For Business

Look Away, Dixieland... A bill is introduced into the SC legislature to remove Confederate flag from the state capitol grounds. A bit overdue, seeing as it's over 150 years since they lost the war, and this may or may not be passed. Also a bit slow: Nikki Haley backs the bill, after initial non-commitment.

Charles Pierce, on Republicans and "solid principle"—

... look at the photo of Haley during her press conference yesterday. If you look closely, in the background, you can see obvious anagram Reince Priebus, the emptiest suit in American politics, who was in attendance to represent the Republican party's long-standing opposition to the display of symbols of treason, a solid principle since at least last Wednesday. Of course, he was there because most of the candidates for his party's presidential nomination have been flopping around like fish in a boat on this issue for a week now, and Haley was doing Priebus and the rest of those political giants the inestimable favor of letting them off the hook, at least for the moment.

Walmart, Amazon, Sears, eBay had acted more quickly, announcing they would stop selling Confederate flag merchandise.

Don't know if this purchase came from Walmart, but the company's new policy won't affect the amount of firepower always on sale.