"Amazon must become the world's best employer"

In his final letter as CEO of Amazon, Jeff Bezos promises to pay more attention to employee well-being. “We will be the world’s best employer and the world’s safest place to work.”

Alabama

In 1997, Bezos wrote his first letter addressed to the company’s shareholders, a custom that became an annual tradition and one that everyone around the world looks forward to keenly. Recently, the Amazon chief published his final letter, as he will soon step down as CEO and become chairman. Andy Jassy will take the helm.

In the letter, he refers, among other things, to the vote to form a union in Alabama, in which the “no” camp ultimately prevailed. For years Amazon was criticized for its working conditions and workload, but Bezos largely refutes the allegations.

Robots

“If you read some news articles, you might think that we don’t care about our employees. In those articles, our employees are sometimes accused of being desperate souls and are being treated like robots. That is incorrect. They are thoughtful and considerate people who can choose where they want to work. When we surveyed fulfilment centre employees, 94 per cent said they would recommend Amazon to a friend as a workplace,” the CEO said.

Still, it wouldn’t be like Bezos if he denied things could be better. And that’s where he now wants to get down to business. “Despite what we’ve accomplished, it’s clear to me that we need a better vision of how to create value for employees. We’ve always wanted to be the world’s most customer-centric company. We won’t change that. It’s what got us here, but I will commit to adding to that. We will work to be the world’s best employer and the world’s safest place to work.”