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Amazon Exec Called Fired Worker 'Not Smart' in Leaked Memo (bloomberg.com) 59

Posted by msmash from the new-lows dept.
A senior Amazon executive called a fired Staten Island warehouse worker "not smart or articulate" in internal discussions about how the company should respond to employee criticism of its handling of the pandemic, Bloomberg reported Friday. From a report: Amazon General Counsel David Zapolsky said fired worker Chris Smalls should be the focus of Amazon's public-relations campaign countering activist employees, said the person who saw an internal memo. Amazon workers around the country have been walking off the job or holding demonstrations to highlight what they describe as inadequate safety precautions. Smalls said the memo reveals that Amazon is more interested in managing its public image than protecting workers, and he called on employees to keep pressuring the company to implement stronger safeguards. "Amazon wants to make this about me, but whether Jeff Bezos likes it or not, this is about Amazon workers -- and their families -- everywhere," he said, referring to the company's chief executive officer. "There are thousands of scared workers waiting for a real plan from Amazon so that its facilities do not become epicenters of the crisis. More and more positive cases are turning up every day."
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Amazon Exec Called Fired Worker 'Not Smart' in Leaked Memo More

Amazon Exec Called Fired Worker 'Not Smart' in Leaked Memo

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  • What if ... he's not smart?

    • What if ... he's not smart?

      Just based on the intelligence of the average person, odds are that he's not.

    • He isn't. NOBODY on this planet has more masks and gloves and disinfectant and toilet paper than Amazon.

      • What if ... he's not smart?

        He isn't. NOBODY on this planet has more masks and gloves and disinfectant and toilet paper than Amazon.

        If you're looking for dumb w/lots of medical supplies, try... Baruch Feldheim, 43, from Brooklyn. He was hoarding and re-selling PPE at about a 700% markup. According to this article (and others):

        The stockpile of supplies that were seized included 192,000 N95 respirators, 130,000 surgical masks and nearly 600,000 medical grade gloves, the authorities said. They said they also had recovered surgical gowns, disinfectant towels, particulate filters, hand sanitizer and spray disinfectant.

        The man who was charged with lying to federal agents, Baruch Feldheim, 43, charged a doctor $12,000 last month for a large order of masks, gowns and hazmat gear at a 700 percent markup, according to the F.B.I. The agency called it a glaring example of hoarding of medical supplies that are designated as essential under a presidential executive order.

        Then, he did this stupid thing:

        When federal agents first confronted Mr. Feldheim on Sunday, he coughed in their direction and told them that he had tested positive for the coronavirus, the authorities said. He was arrested on Monday and also charged with one count of assault on a federal officer, the criminal complaint said.

        Hope he enjoys Rikers Island ...

        • Is it still assault if he wasn't Covid-19 positive? Is assault just hurting someone's feelings now?

          • Is it still assault if he wasn't Covid-19 positive? Is assault just hurting someone's feelings now?

            He wasn't trying to "just hurt their feelings". He coughed on them and claimed he was infected with COVID-19. The officers did't know if it was true or false at the time of the verbal assault [uslegal.com] and had to assume it's true, for safety. The defendant's behavior was obviously intended to intimidate and terrorize the officers.

            A few days ago, a woman was arrested for intentionally coughing on $35,000 of produce [komonews.com] at a grocery store after saying she was sick. The store had to discard all the produce and the employ

          • When the victim is a cop, sure.That's why he's allowed to KILL YOU

    • The sad truth is about 50% of the population has below-average intelligence (by definition).
      A warehouse worker's job requirements don't require intelligent people to do the work, they may be a lot of really smart warehouse workers, but the job can be done with people with below-average intelligence. As the job requirements are fairly fixed.

      How smart the employee is or isn't shouldn't get a person fired, only their work performance.

      I think Amazon Execs were being elitist in their thinking, where the things

      • > The sad truth is about 50% of the population has below-average intelligence (by definition).

        True that.

        I surprised the idiot hasn't replied to that yet.
        There is always that one idiot who replies saying "the average isn't the median. They are two different things, moron". Because apparently the idiot has never heard the word "mean", so they think that median and mode aren't averages. They think the word "average" means what the word "mean" actually means. So they don't know the words, but they think th

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Junta ( 36770 )

      The point is less that they are calling someone out as not smart, it is that it sounds pretty bad that they are discussing how to cherry pick the worst looking worker to try to discredit employees complaining about Amazon's practices.

      Less so about how their strategies are effective, or how the employees are failing to implement guidance, or middle managers failing somehow. Some number of potentially merit based defenses. No, instead try to claim everyone is dumb because they think they found one sample th

    • Hey in this day and age, EVERYONE gets an A, everyone is above average, and everyone is a special, individual snowflake!

  • Essential work (Score:3, Insightful)

    by alvian ( 6203170 ) on Friday April 03, 2020 @01:42PM (#59905060)
    All this workers are essential enough to keep them working during this pandemic but they don't get paid a living wage. They rely on government assistance to get by month to month. That's the government subsidizing companies like Amazon. Do you know Amazon doesn't pay any taxes? Now we are asking them to risk their lives to prop up a system that doesn't work for them. This workers won't get adequate medical care if they do get sick. It could mean a death sentence for them. US is broken.
    • i think you're mixing up your evil mega corps. walmart is the one that doesn't pay their employees, amazon pays well but works their warehouse people to death
      • A typical Amazon warehouse employee gets 32k / year. And also the bit about being worked to death. That too.
  • Use fifth grade language, always attack.
  • anyone else hear the casual racism?

  • Not me, no way (Score:2, Insightful)

    by AndyKron ( 937105 )
    Makes you want to go out and get Amazon Prime, doesn't it? Not me.
    • Alexa... cancel my prime account.

      (I feel better)

    • Makes you want to go out and get Amazon Prime, doesn't it? Not me.

      Do you also not own a car because a petrol company had a spat with an employee? Not own a computer because Intel and AMD in the past had disagreements with employees that caused them grief?

      Honestly I can't get worked up over this. Companies are arseholes. Employees are arseholes. Every so often one comes in contact with another and they swing their dicks around and someone loses. This has happened in basically every company with more than 20 employees.

      There's only so many fucks I have to give about things i

  • Empowered workers- (Score:5, Insightful)

    by WolfgangVL ( 3494585 ) on Friday April 03, 2020 @01:55PM (#59905102)

    Now is not the time to shit on your workforce. Low wage earners have all of the power here. The emergency unemployment safety for these workers is really upsetting the balance of power. Starbucks, Pizza hut, and now Amazon. Right now, low wage workers are looking around and seeing the bosses collect 50x more pay than them while relaxing at home.

    This tone-deaf corporate response is only going to empower them further.

    • Re:Empowered workers- (Score:4, Insightful)

      by jellomizer ( 103300 ) on Friday April 03, 2020 @02:43PM (#59905256)

      Sorry I feel your statement is incorrect.
      Low wage workers at this time are the most vulnerable. The big companies can use this as an opportunity to do some cleaning and restructuring of their workforce.
      For the past few years, the economy was on overdrive and companies didn't have time to think about their processes, they just kept on hiring new people, so they can keep demand. These weeks-months of slower work means the execs can catch a breath from daily interactions and create a new strategy. As they have put in new processes that will change how a lot of things work. Work for Home means less need for office maintenance staff or cafeteria workers. Doctor's offices pushing towards telehealth means fewer nurses taking vitals.
      Also, a lot of people are a lot of people looking for work. So if you low-end staff just quits, then you have a bunch of people ready to be hired just to survive.

      The mangers, administrators, and execs have more advantages. They can work from home, they can pull up their sleeves and do extra work if needed. After the virus threat ends, the economy will take a while to pick up again. Because of many business changes. And people living from paycheck to paycheck. May have been forced to lower their standards of living, thus making it harder for these companies to build up customer base again.

    • Now is not the time to shit on your workforce. Low wage earners have all of the power here.

      Huh? Really? Because what I heard is that a record number of people filed for unemployement last week, and it is precisely low-wage earners that are in insane oversupply right now.

      The only people who have any kind of power are highly skilled workers in a critical situation. Nurses and doctors have power. Engineers, technicians, and operators at critical infrastructure have power. Someone working in an Amazon warehouse? You can boot them out, kick them while they are down, shout down the street "who wants a

  • Come on Amazon, you have got to be better at PR than this...

    Apparently Amazon has some *serious* employee morale problems. This is a management failure. What has resulted is a PR nightmare. It's a nightmare that they had to fire this guy in full view of the public but it stared long before that. They set this up with their drive to lower their fulfillment costs, without considering employee morale, which is itself a short sighted tactic. You can only squeeze your line workers so much before they start

    • Come on Amazon, you have got to be better at PR than this...

      Apparently Amazon has some *serious* employee morale problems.

      I wouldn't jump there that quickly. This is a single employee, and Amazon has over 800,000 employees. I guarantee you can find at least one disgruntled employee at any company with more than 20 employees - and I'd bet at least 1% of employees are pissed off at any time. For a company like Amazon, that's 8,000 employees at any time. This isn't a sign of failing management or PR at Amazon - this is a sign that social media can hyper-magnify a solitary complaint and blow it up in this age of feelings and s

  • Note for the union organizers (Score:4, Informative)

    by Headw1nd ( 829599 ) on Friday April 03, 2020 @02:11PM (#59905132)
    You should try and make the media focus on Amazon General Counsel David Zapolsky, as it appears that he is neither smart nor articulate.
  • Yes, no one has been shot, but clearly Amazon is happy with their employees dead. Will it take 9 years before Amazon will be unionized too? (see 1941 Strike at Ford’s River Rouge Plant) Will it take Bezos new girlfriend to tell him to do the right thing? I think Amazon (and everyone else) will do better out of a little unionization and avoiding a revolution. (History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes)

  • Comment removed (Score:4, Informative)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Friday April 03, 2020 @02:58PM (#59905320)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • David would be wise to remember, the peasants decapitating french monarchy

      But they did that action due to the equal application for oppression on all. For all intents and purposes from outside this looks like a company spat between a single employee and Amazon, and the "peasants" would all be queuing at lord Amazon's front door right now wanting to take this person's place in Jobville.

  • This report is from someone who said they saw a memo, by the company that told you that chinese chips implanted on your computer's motherboards are spying on you.

    Bullshit? Probably.

  • In Singapore and South Korea, where they have Coronavirus under control, they take everyone's temperature on the way into any large buildings (restaurants, hotels, convention centers, etc.). And they kick out anyone with a high temperature. That's faster and cheaper (and, in the US, much more available) than a Coronavirus test. The fever hits before the more obvious symptoms, so it protects everyone better than just keeping out people with the full-on symptoms.

  • Looks to me like Amazon was trying to figure out how to handle the pr fallout from the guy. The leaked "memo" was just a statement of facts for them to keep in mind. It's not some giant scandal.

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