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https://www.pacificprime.com/blog/compassion-in-the-workplace.html

1. Fortune magazine’s Elite List of the World’s Most Admired Companies, ranking second in 2014
and fourth in 2015

2. However, in 2015, controversy erupted on social media when an article in The New York Times
portrayed Amazon as a company that was “conducting an experiment in how far it [could] push
white-collar workers to get them to achieve its ever-expanding ambitions.

3. In late 1999, when the Internet boom took a precipitous fall after years of exhilarating success,
Amazon was burdened with debt and spiralling losses.

4. Bezos was ranked as the top innovator in 2013

5. However, such employees were a small minority. In 2013, Amazon had the second-highest
turnover among the Fortune 500 companies, with a median tenure of one year.2

Characters

1. Many leading technology wizards, such as former Twitter chief executive officer (CEO)
2. Dick Costolo, as well as venture capitalists
3. Marc Andreessen and
4. Keith Rabois
5. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos wrote, “You can work long, hard, or smart, but at Amazon.com, you
can’t choose two out of three.”12

ANALYSIS:

Stressors

“Are the environmental events or conditions that have the potential to induce stress”

1- Role Overload An issue within Amazon that is understood from reading the article is that every
employee is required to put in long hours, sometimes 80 or more hours which can produce
stress.
 2- The responsibilities of the manager can induce stress as well, knowing the employees that are
employed under them and having to make difficult decisions sometimes to relinquish employees
of their duties or disciplining. At Amazon, it was mentioned that there was a review, AMAZON
CASE ANALYSIS 15 companywide, “in which managers discussed their subordinates’ rankings”
(Article, Page 3). The article also mentioned that managers would “incriminate employees of
other work groups at Amazon and “chose team members who could be sacrificed in the review
process”

3- Being a manager and having to protect your own employees by throwing others under the bus
or sacrificing your own to protect other members of your team would create an awkward feeling
in the office where members could feel like they could be next, and managers could feel stress
from the responsibility to do so, explained in the textbook as experiencing “guilt and tension

4- The feeling inside Amazon is that Jeff Bezos has requirements of his managers to act in a certain
way and an expectation of effort and a “strict emphasis on customer satisfaction

5- Work Family Conflict: One of the main significant concerns at Amazon is the effect that requiring
long hours from their employees has on the employee and relationship with their family.

6- Female empolyees

7- at Amazon there were requirements of the employees that were viewed as unfavorable by
some and that aggressive critique was encouraged between employees
8- “Employees were expected to put in long hours and were reprimanded when they failed to
respond to emails that arrived at midnight

This culture in the workplace has a strong possibility to induce stress in many people and contributes to
the issues raised when considering Amazon offering a valuable employee proposition, and the resulting
effects could be a detriment by inducing anxiety, tension and possibly depression.

These physiological feelings that result from such a work environment can make it seem impossible to
overcome and the thought of the extensive demands mentioned can produce a feeling that the person
“does not feel capable of coping with these demands”

some employees enjoying the work culture at Amazon such as “Over-achievers bubbling with innovative
ideas and eager to collaborate with and learn from brilliant co-workers thrived in the challenging, fast
paced environment and seemed to embrace

the extreme demands place upon them – not as a problem to run from, but as an opportunity to grow”
and that “Amazon would advance their careers”

Stress can sometimes be considered a positive motivator or challenge, as there is a required amount of
stress that a person needs as described by Johns & Saks (2014) “All people require a certain level of
stimulation from their environment, and moderate levels of stress can serve this function”
these employees who reported their work environment as an opportunity to advance their careers seem
to have a strong ability to reduce anxiety by finding ways to cope with stress by dealing with the stressor
directly or working to reduce the anxiety towards having the stress episode terminated.

The ability to cope with stress by dealing directly with the stressor or reducing the anxiety can derive
from the employee’s personality

There are several pros and cons of keeping employees “on the edge”. Pros: a) Obtaining high-quality
employees: In Amazon case although many employees left the company, competent employees
considered this harsh environment as an opportunity to grow and stayed. The employees who are
resilient were excited to work on cutting edge project that made them feel that their work advanced
their career as well as millions of other peoples’ lives. b) Employees become alert not to make mistakes:
At Amazon, employees were constantly under scrutiny and bottom performers were fired. When
employees are under observation and are heavily criticized by other employees for making mistakes,
they become more serious about their work and try to give their best. Cons: a) Impede creativity: If
employees can work in a stressful and worrisome environment, they cannot engage in work properly
and their cognitive control is impacted Running Head: Amazon as an Employer negatively. Brain imaging
study shows that when we feel safe, our brains stress response is lower. b) Stop employees to take a
risk: When business leaders behave in a hostile manner, their subordinates become less inclined to take
risks. So, when employees are on the edge they do not take any kind of risk that can be harmful to the
growth of an organization. c) Higher turnover: keeping employees in the tough atmosphere may lead to
lack of dedication towards an organization and ultimately affect its higher turnover. In 2013, Amazon
had the second-highest turnover among the Fortune 500 companies.

Jeff Bezos leadership style