Mehul Chauhan P40085

Amazon as an Employer
Situational Analysis
Amazon is one of the world’s leading retailers, constantly ranked in world’s most admired
company due to its growth and constant innovations that made the company a disrupter in its
market space.
A recently published New York times article about the high stress levels of employees at
amazon which had some very adverse effects on the employees. It stated amazon encouraged
employees to be ruthlessly critical of each other in meetings and send feedback to each
other’s bosses. It also mentioned the long hours and all-time availability of employees was
also a part of the amazon’s work culture. To this the CEO Jeff Bezos responded as ‘You can
work long, hard, or smart, but at Amazon, you can’t choose two out of three’. This clearly
indicates the high effort he expects from each of his employees. Clearly some employees
have faced these issues due to their perception of stress and their own personality traits.
These are each individual differences of the employees due to which they react to the stress
faced by them differently. The workplace stress at Amazon is expected at a High paced
innovative company. The employees which look at the challenges as an opportunity thrive in
this environment. But due to these high levels of stress amazon has high rate of employee
turnover. But this also means that only those who are competent, thrive in the workplace.
This leads to a highly efficient and innovative workforce, which is exactly what Amazon
desires.
But this can sometimes lead to the loss of talent i.e. people who are competent but cannot
manage stress. This is one of the major downfalls of being an aggressive employer
Problem Statement
Should Amazon continue being an aggressive employer and always keep employees on the
edge?
Objective
To asses the impact of an aggressive environment on employees and its impact on work &
innovation.
Criteria
1. Reduction in employee stress levels
2. Solution should not reduce the quantity and the quality of an employee’s work.
3. Improve the company’s image as a good work environment.
Alternatives, Evaluations of Alternatives and Selection
1. Amazon, as an employer should engage in stress relief exercises, allocation of a
space, as stress relief zone and specialized Stress relief programs. This alternative will
help employees relieve and manage stress. This would also improve the company
image as fun activities would be projected as work environment at amazon. This
move has potential for employees to waste time.
 2. Initiate a proper communication channel between HR and employees for their
concerns and issues related to workplace stress. This move would provide social
support and help employees manage stress, but this move does satisfy other two
criteria.
3. Amazon could organize a meet, where it explains to its employees the reasons behind
the stressful work environment and its benefits. This move does not satisfy any of our
criteria.
1st Alternative best fits the given criteria.
Action Plan
Amazon should focus on having some stress relief exercise daily for five minutes in the
morning. They could also have a stress relief zone with some games, books or music station,
where employees could sit back and relax. But this would be only accessible during their
downtime or breaks. Amazon also needs make sure that employees health is not affected by
the stress. So, it could have on site qualified personnel for it.
Amazon also needs to attenuate its stress levels to match the below Stress v/s job
performance curve. If the stress is below or above the optimal value, it would result in
reduction of employee efficiency.