Amazon asked The New York Times to correct its unflattering exposé of their workplace. They didn't, so Amazon just published it themselves.

Amazon's European headquarters in Luxembourg
(Image credit: EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP/Getty Images)

No company would be thrilled to be portrayed as the worst corporate workplace in the world, but thanks to a blistering critique of Amazon in The New York Times in August, the massive Seattle-based online retailer more or less won that ignominious blue ribbon. One memorable part of the piece, for example, quoted a books marketing employee, Bo Olson, confessing, "Nearly every person I worked with, I saw cry at their desk."

Amazon Senior Vice President for Global Corporate Affairs Jay Carney (yes, the former journalist and ex-White House press secretary) wasn't having any of that. In a piece published Monday morning, Carney slammed The New York Times for poor reporting, and appeared to discredit a number of testimonies used as proof of Amazon's allegedly nightmarish workplace. That books marketer who claimed he saw everyone crying at his or her desks? Carney outs Olson as possibly having "an axe to grind": "[Olson's] brief tenure at Amazon ended after an investigation revealed he had attempted to defraud vendors and conceal it by falsifying business records. When confronted with the evidence, he admitted it and resigned immediately." Carney continues:

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
Jeva Lange

Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.