Amazon's Bezos Hits Back At 'Dystopian' Claims

Amazon boss Jeff Bezos has hit back at a scathing article on "soulless, dystopian" working practices at the multibillion-dollar firm.

A New York Times article claimed workers are routinely crying at their desks, encouraged to use a secret feedback tool to report on colleagues, hounded outside of work and left fearful by annual staff culls.

The damning portrait of life at the tech giant’s US base came from interviews with former and current employees.

But in an email sent to staff Mr Bezos rejected the claims.

"The article doesn't describe the Amazon I know or the caring Amazonians I work with every day," wrote the multi-billionaire.

The company's founder said the article was based on "isolated anecdotes" and told staff anyone working in such a culture would be "crazy to stay".

Among the Times' claims is that workers who "suffered from cancer, miscarriages and other personal crises" had not been given time to recover and found themselves "edged out".

One former employee, whose child was stillborn, was reportedly put on a "performance improvement plan" to ensure she stayed focused.

However Mr Bezos - thought to be worth $47bn (£30bn) - said "shockingly callous management practices" were not part of his company and told employees to personally email him if they were treated badly.

"Even (Taiwan OTC: 6436.TWO - news) if it’s rare or isolated, our tolerance for any such lack of empathy needs to be zero," he wrote.

"The article goes further than reporting isolated anecdotes.

"It (Other OTC: ITGL - news) 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 recognize this Amazon and I very much hope you don't, either."

Amazon has become one of the internet’s great success stories since it began as a bookseller in 1994.

Its huge reach has seen it diversify into TV production and film services, cloud computing, and making its own tablets, phones and e-readers.

It is also experimenting with drone deliveries and showed its financial clout by recently snapping up the Top Gear team for an exclusive series - a move Mr Bezos called "very, very, very expensive".

But its massive growth and willingness to live with extremely slim profit margins have seen persistent claims that it is damaging smaller retailers (Other OTC: UBGXF - news) .