Can Amazon Defend its Reputation in Light of Powerful Personal Stories?

A weekend New York Times article about the demanding work environment at Amazon has sparked significant conversation in both traditional and social media, not to mention those in “real world” offices everywhere. Many have commented on the impact of “purposeful Darwinism” in which the only survivors are those willing to work incredibly long hours and sacrifice their personal lives for the company’s increasingly ambitious goals.

It’s the individual stories, mostly anonymous, that resonate – a woman with breast cancer and another who gave birth to a stillborn child, then were placed on “performance improvement plans” for not “giving their all” to the company. Parents of young children learned that colleagues had sent negative feedback to their bosses because they didn’t consistently put in the same long hours. Another former employee “cut back working on nights and weekends” to help care for a dying parent, then was told she was “a problem” because she wanted to transfer to a job with less pressure.

In response, Amazon Founder and CEO Jeff Bezos claimed the article painted an unfair picture of his company. But his denial felt like too little too late. His first mistake was declining to be interviewed for the story. Even more importantly, he did not have a good counter to the portrayal of what he described as “a soulless, dystopian workplace.”

How can an organization protect its reputation when anonymous employees or former employees make damaging claims?

First, of course, you have to do the right thing. But even when you do everything right, someone can still make accusations. That’s when it’s helpful to be able to point to policies in place to prevent those bad things from happening. How different would the story have been if Bezos had been able to tell the New York Times about specific policies? What if he had said, “We allow employees to take up to four weeks of paid leave for personal or family health reasons…” or “We have a procedure in place for any employee to appeal an unfavorable performance review and here’s how that works.”

Instead, Bezos sent a memo to employees after the story appeared asking them to contact him directly if they knew of “stories like those reported.” If Amazon’s culture is anything like what’s portrayed in the article, I wouldn’t expect a flood of emails.

Meanwhile, while consumers will continue to shop at Amazon, how many talented job seekers will line up to work there in the future?

The Times They Are a-Changin’

The illustrious New York Times recently ousted Executive Editor Jill Abramson after less than three years on the job, and replaced her with Dean Baquet, the managing editor. Of course, journalists love to write about their colleagues, so widespread reporting began immediately. Two illustrative pieces were delivered in widely disparaging form – NPR’s David Folkenflik told the story in a series of tweets while Ken Auletta published a more traditional three-part series on the New Yorker’s blog.

The emerging story line was that Abramson angered her boss by hiring an attorney to re-negotiate her compensation after learning that her male predecessor had earned more. (The Times denies this.) In response, Publisher Arthur Sulzberger, Jr., issued a statement saying Abramson’s management style was the cause; that he had “heard repeatedly from her newsroom colleagues, women and men, about a series of issues, including arbitrary decision-making, a failure to consult and bring colleagues with her, inadequate communication and the public mistreatment of colleagues.” Wow!

Abramson, meanwhile, delivered the commencement address at Wake Forest University and, by all accounts, took the high road and focused her attention where it should have been – on the graduates.

There is a certain amount of irony in a major news organization bumbling the announcement of a sudden change in leadership. Surely Sulzberger knew that firing the organization’s first female executive editor would require some explanation. And certainly the New York Times would never allow another important institution to get by without explaining why it had fired a senior leader – someone who, from the outside, looked very successful. As CNN reported, “The paper won eight Pulitzer prizes during her brief tenure… Signups for digital access among readers increased. The company stock doubled during her tenure, performing better than the rest of the stock market.”

We have helped numerous clients manage sudden leadership changes. Typically, the board or management team does not want to give a reason, protesting that it’s no one’s business. But without a reasonable explanation, speculation and rumors fill the vacuum. No organization should risk the kind of PR conundrum Sulzberger found himself in, leading to reputational damage for both the leader who was fired and the organization that fired her. It is much better to agree in advance to a reasonable explanation and part ways graciously, with the reputations on both sides intact or even enhanced.