{"id":228620,"date":"2021-04-15T19:40:43","date_gmt":"2021-04-15T16:40:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/bezos-vows-to-do-better-by-employees-in-final-amazon-letter\/"},"modified":"2021-04-15T19:40:43","modified_gmt":"2021-04-15T16:40:43","slug":"bezos-vows-to-do-better-by-employees-in-final-amazon-letter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/bezos-vows-to-do-better-by-employees-in-final-amazon-letter\/","title":{"rendered":"#Bezos vows to do better by employees in final Amazon letter"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Bezos vows to do better by employees in final Amazon letter<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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Amazon founder Jeff Bezos vowed to do better by his employees in his last letter as chief executive to shareholders \u2014 even as he insisted that they\u2019re really not that bad off.<\/p>\n

On the heels of a bruising labor battle in Bessemer, Ala., that included claims of punishing working conditions, the richest man in the world on Thursday said he now aims to make the online e-commerce company \u201cearth\u2019s best employer\u201d and \u201csafest place to work.\u201d <\/p>\n

It\u2019s a goal Bezos, 57, said he plans to be personally involved in when he steps down as CEO in the third quarter, remaining the tech giant\u2019s chairman. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn my upcoming role as Executive Chair, I\u2019m going to focus on new initiatives. I\u2019m an inventor. It\u2019s what I enjoy the most and what I do best. It\u2019s where I create the most value. I\u2019m excited to work alongside the large team of passionate people we have in Ops and help invent in this arena of Earth\u2019s Best Employer and Earth\u2019s Safest Place to Work.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ambitious new goal follows a failed but still reputationally damaging effort by employees to unionize the company\u2019s warehouse in Bessemer, Ala. Employees overwhelming voted to remain out of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, with just 738 out of 6,000 employees voting in favor of a labor contract. <\/p>\n

But Amazon still suffered blows in the process, including the union\u2019s claims that Amazon played dirty to win, resulting in political figures like President Biden weighing in to warn Amazon not to interfere with the voting process.<\/p>\n

Amazon also suffered from employees\u2019 complaints about working conditions so harsh they often don\u2019t have enough time to go to the bathroom or take meal breaks. The fight also raised anew concerns about unsafe pandemic work conditions, including cramped quarters with colleagues who contracted the deadly Covid-19.<\/p>\n

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\"Amazon
The push to unionize Amazon\u2019s fulfillment center in Alabama drew support nationwide, including from these protesters in NYC.<\/figcaption>
LightRocket via Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

In his 3,891 word essay <\/a>, which waxed philosophical about wealth and responsibility as the world\u2019s largest company, Bezos sometimes set a defensive tone about the complaints. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhile the voting results were lopsided and our direct relationship with employees is strong, it\u2019s clear to me that we need a better\u00a0vision\u00a0for how we create value for employees \u2013 a vision for their success,\u201d Bezos said. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf you read some of the news<\/a> reports, you might think we have no care for employees,\u201d Bezos said. \u201cIn those reports, our employees are sometimes accused of being desperate souls and treated as robots. That\u2019s not accurate. They\u2019re sophisticated and thoughtful people who have options for where to work.\u201d <\/p>\n

He insisted that conditions are not as bad as some reports depicted. <\/p>\n

\u201cEmployees are able to take informal breaks throughout their shifts to stretch, get water, use the rest room, 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,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Still he acknowledged that there are problems, including repetitive work that results in injuries. About 40 percent of the injuries at Amazon warehouses \u2014 where Amazon employs 6,200 \u201csafety professionals\u201d\u2013 are related to this kind of repetitive work, Bezos said.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s why Amazon last year launched the \u201cWorkingWell\u201d program at 350 facilities where 859,000 people work, coaching people on \u201cbody mechanics.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Amazon
A view of Amazon\u2019s fulfillment center in Bessemer, Ala., from which a banner reading \u201cVOTE\u201d hung from the building, encouraging workers to vote on whether to unionize.<\/figcaption>
AFP via Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

The company is also developing \u201calgorithms to rotate employees among jobs that use different muscle-tendon groups to decrease repetitive motion,\u201d according to the letter.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This year, according to the letter, Amazon will also invest more than $300 million into safety projects, including $66 million to create technology<\/a> that will help prevent collisions of forklifts and other types of industrial vehicles.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Stuart App<\/a>elbaum, president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, said the letter validates what the union has been saying all along. \u201cBezos\u2019s admission today demonstrates that what we have been saying about workplace conditions is correct.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bezos is stepping down from the company\u2019s day-to-day operations at a time when Amazon\u2019s share have skyrocketed \u2014 up 83 percent over the last two years as demand has soared due to the pandemic. <\/p>\n

The stock\u2019s dizzying rise has helped catapult Bezos to status as world\u2019s wealthiest person with a net worth of $196.4 billion. <\/p>\n

Bezos acknowledged his eyepopping wealth in the letter while also attempting to draw attention to the other shareholders who have benefitted from Amazon\u2019s soaring $1.6 trillion valuation. <\/p>\n

\u201cMy Amazon shares have made me wealthy. But more than 7\/8ths of the shares, representing $1.4 trillion of wealth creation, are owned by others,\u201d he said.\n <\/p><\/div>\n

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Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“#Bezos vows to do better by employees in final Amazon letter” Amazon founder Jeff Bezos vowed to do better by his employees in his last letter as chief executive to shareholders \u2014 even as he insisted that they\u2019re really not that bad off. On the heels of a bruising labor battle in Bessemer, Ala., that…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":228621,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/04\/bezos-vows-improving-workplace.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[7309,102131,2758,71631],"class_list":["post-228620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-unions","tag-4-15-21","tag-amazon","tag-jeff-bezos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228620"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228620\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/228621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}