Is Amazon about to reinvent the working week?

Following recent criticism from the press, retail giant Amazon has promised to reinvent the work week in an attempt to improve employee work-life balance.

A report published in The New York Times last year detailed horrific working conditions, claiming that staff in the Pennsylvania, USA, warehouse had to endure temperatures over 30°C, with bosses keeping ambulances outside in case a worker should faint.    

Amongst the complaints were a former Amazonian who had given birth to a stillborn child, and explained how she “just experienced the most devastating event in my life.” She was then told by her manager that she would be put on a “performance improvement plan.” This scheme, she told The New York Times, was “to make sure my focus stayed on my job.”

Since then Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has come out and defended his company’s corporate culture in a memo leaked to media. He wrote that “the article doesn’t describe the Amazon I know or the caring Amazonians I work with every day”, and went on to defend corporate culture in a letter to shareholders.