The company has clamped down hard on amazon workers’ demands for more protection and benefits during the pandemic. Workers who started petitions or protests were fired. Tim Bray, amazon’s vice president, wrote a resignation blog post about the company’s toxic corporate culture.
Tim Bray, Amazon’s vice president of technology, gave up his multimillion-dollar salary and complained that Amazon was suppressing its employees.
He pointed out unkindly that Amazon has threatened and fired employees who try to defend their rights for a variety of reasons. This has led to more scrutiny of how tech giants treat their employees during the pandemic.
Meanwhile, amazon has lost another warehouse worker to COVID-19, bringing the total number of employees who have died from the virus to three.
Daniel gave up millions of salary, only to voice protest
In late April, Tim Bray announced his departure on May 1 in a lengthy blog post titled “Goodbye, Amazon,” in which he discussed his reasons for leaving and blamed Amazon’s toxic corporate culture.
Tim Bray, 64, is a top software engineer. He is known as the “father of XML”, the inventor of search engine and the Oxford English Dictionary, which can be retrieved online. He was once included in the North American 100 along with Bill Gates.
He graduated from the American University of Beirut in 1973 and later received his Master’s and doctorate degrees from the University of Guelph in Canada.
Since then, I have worked my way up in various technology companies and started my own technology company. I joined Google Android team in 2010 and Amazon in 2014. Before leaving, I served as vice president of Technology and chief engineer with a salary of over $1 million.
These self-made advantages were outweighed by his desire to be a voice for his employees.
Dissatisfied with the company’s toxic culture, wrote a long and angry resignation
Daniel reacted angrily as employees protested against the dismissals
The reason why Tim Bray is leaving is because of amazon’s recent behavior toward its employees.
In March, amazon fired Christian Smalls, the founder of the strike, after a protest against the company’s lack of protection for workers.
In April, Emily Cunningham and Maren Costa, two user experience designers who publicly criticized the company’s labor policies, were fired the day they launched their petition.
These incidents caused Tim Bray’s dissatisfaction, followed by a number of petitions or protests, all of which resulted in his dismissal from the company. Finally, Tim was completely disappointed and chose to resign.
Denounce the toxic culture of the company and refuse to go along with it
In his post, Bray said Amazon was “cowardly” for firing and belittling the employees who organized the protest, saying the dismissals were actually creating fear.
In his opinion, it deviates completely from humanitarianism and does not value the balance between individual freedom and rights. Instead, it tries to silence dissenting voices by means of repression, which is unreasonable.
“Firing the whistleblower is evidence of a toxic vein running through the company’s culture, so I choose not to serve or drink that poison,” Bray said.
He also points out that this phenomenon is not only unique to Amazon, but is a problem of many large companies, and even a disease of capitalist culture.
Finally, he wrote, “I’m sad, but I feel like I’m breathing more freely.”
Amazon’s response has been slow to arrive
Amazon has so far declined to comment on the resignation letter, which has attracted worldwide attention.
For fun, in our previous post on Bezos’ Annual Shareholder Letter, what makes the business world’s must-read read Different? Bezos, the richest man in the world, recently touted a wave of Amazon’s corporate culture in his 2020 annual shareholder letter.
I wonder if Beckham will be impressed by being taken on so quickly by his right hand.