Jeff Bezos says he would quit the Amazon described by the New York Times

AMAZON’S boss has fired back against reports of an abusive culture, saying he would resign if working there were as awful as a recent expose suggested.

Report on 'bruising' Amazon workplace sparks debate

AMAZON boss Jeff Bezos has fired back against reports of an abusive corporate culture at the e-commerce giant, saying he would resign if working there were as awful as a New York Times exposé suggests.

Mr Bezos was responding to the Times piece, published on Saturday, which put a spotlight on the work environment at the hard-driving company.

The article quoted one former employee who said: “Nearly every person I worked with, I saw cry at their desk.”

The report included testimonials from 100 current and former employees who depict a “bruising” workplace at Amazon, where employees are expected to “toil long and late”.

“I strongly believe that anyone working in a company that really is like the one described in the NYT would be crazy to stay,” the Amazon founder and CEO wrote in an email to employees that was obtained by MarketWatch and published by the New York Post. “I know I would leave such a company.”

The Bezos message also said the article “claims that our intentional approach is to create a soulless, dystopian workplace where no fun is had and no laughter heard. Again, I don’t recognise this Amazon and I very much hope you don’t, either.”

The Bezos email noted that the Times piece features “anecdotes describing shockingly callous management practices, including people being treated without empathy while enduring family tragedies and serious health problems”.

The email went on to tell employees to contact Bezos or Amazon’s human-resources staff if they know of any incidents like those reported, saying that Amazon’s “tolerance for any such lack of empathy needs to be zero.”

The NYT claims were also disputed by a senior Amazon employee who spoke to FOXBusiness.com on condition of anonymity, stating: “I don’t share the experiences expressed in the article, and haven’t known anyone who does.”

An Amazon spokesperson also told the site that the company had a good track record of keeping employees.

“It’s not accurate to say that Amazon has high turnover — our retention rates are in line with the industry and people seem to confuse attrition with tenure,” the spokesperson said.

“We’ve created more than 150,000 new jobs since 2010.”