Morgan Zimmer MGB301 Mon/Wed 12:30-1:50pmProblems at Amazon? Assignment1. Is it important for a CEO to be aware of how different employees perceive the company’s policies, practices, and culture? Why or why not?Yes, I think it is important for a CEO to know what goes on at his own company. In this case, the CEO of Amazon, Jeff Bezos was unaware that a good number of his employees, both past and present, were and are not quite satisfied with how things are handled on a daily basis. The New York Times published an article interviewing roughly 100 current and former employees of Amazon and the results that were selected for the article were not good. The interviewees had some positive, but mostly negative things to say about the company. The employees know working at Amazon is challenging and the hours are long, but not every employee is cut out for that type of work. The company does not provide any extra benefits or paid paternity leave. It appears that the ideal Amazon employee must be willing to put the company first, leaving behind family and extra activities like vacations. The ideal employee must be dedicated fully to the company. For example, Molly Jay, who was an early member of the Kindle team, ended her employment with Amazon when her father became diagnosed with cancer. She cut back her hours at work and took unpaid leave to care for him, but was “blocked from transferring to a less pressure-filled job” and was told she was a problem from her boss (TNYT). More cases like this exist, where a woman who had thyroid cancer was given a low performance rating once she came back from her cancer treatments. She was told by her boss that her coworkers were excelling without her. Also, a woman who had miscarriage was shown no mercy when her boss stated “I’m sorry, the work is still going to need to get done” and “from where you are in life, trying to start a family, I don’t knowif this is the right place for you.” There were multiple cases similar to these included in the article by The New York Times. For the employees who remain at the company, it is apparent that gruesome and confrontational meetings occur often and feedback is favored. Once a year there is a review held, an Organizational Level Review, to weed out the employees who are just not needed. It is referred to as “rank and yank” because it forces managers to dismiss employees with talent to make quotas. Employee performanceis ranked and discussed by higher-level managers (TNYT). Employees are afraid to speakup for fear of being criticized by their managers. As for the feedback, there is a system in place called the Anytime Feedback Tool to allow the employees to positively or negatively rate their coworkers. Some employees view this tool as a means for some employees to get ahead and is a means of constant competition. The team members are ranked and the employees at the bottom are dismissed from the company every year. Employees are expected to be on top of their game at all times, especially in meetings. If they do not know the answer, it is not okay because their managers say it is unacceptable.Some employees felt they were constantly trying to “impress a company that can often feel like an insatiable taskmaster” (TNYT). Thousands of employees enter and leave the company each year, meaning only the most talented and dedicated prosper. If Jeff Bezos was aware of how his employees felt and put the employees first instead of customer satisfaction, maybe there would not be as much turnover from year to year. It seems as if Jeff Bezos is confident enough that there is not much he needs to do to retain employees,Morgan Zimmer MGB301 Mon/Wed 12:30-1:50pmProblems at Amazon? Assignmentthat the pool for possible employees is so massive that it does not matter how they’re treated, as long as the customer wins. 2. Was Jeff Bezos' response to the New York Times article appropriate? Why or why not?In my opinion, I feel as if Jeff Bezos responded to The New York Times article as if he was completely oblivious as to what was going on in his company. In the article by ABC news, Bezos responded with “I strongly believe that anyone working in a company that really is like the one described in the NYT would be crazy to stay. I know I would leave such a company.” He was then asked if he was a tough boss and Bezos responded with “I am a mother bear when it comes to guarding our customer experience. And I spend the vast majority of my time analyzing our customer experience in a very fine-grained, analytical way with a lot of different metrics.” To me, that sounds like he always thinks of the customers first and then his employees come afterwards somewhere down the line. He even said the "fastest way to upset me and to make me into not a nice boss is to not have enough care and concern about some aspect of our customer experience." In the article by PBS, it mentions that Bezos said directly to his employees that working at Amazon is not easy. He knows that high standards are essential when trying to preserve as a company. In the article by CBS, it states that Jeff Bezos sent out a letter to all of his employees after The New York Times published the bashing article. In his letter, he wrotehow TNYT did not accurately depict how the company is run or the work environment. He told his employees that if anything happens as is claimed in the article to come forward so attention can be placed on it and that he does not recognize the Amazon depicted in the article with hopes that none of his employees did either. But, Bezos must know something is not 100% right, that the article must be somewhat true. Turnover numbers don’t lie and the medium employee tenure of the company is one of the shortest among the rest of the Fortune 500 companies. 3. What role may fit have played in shaping the reactions of the employees who were interviewed? Which types of fit seem to be relevant in this situation?It seems that The New York Times only included the dialogues from employees who were dissatisfied. There is not one case where the employee has good things to say and if there is, the employee no longer works for the company. The New York Times interviewed roughly 100 past and present employees so there had to be at least one interviewee with good things to say. It seems that the cases in the article were from people who believed they were not treated fairly. Cases like the woman who hadserious health