Shame on Amazon

My story on why Amazon let me go over a bag of nuts in the office areas of a fulfillment center (FC). This was my email to HR. 

Frustrated now ex-employee of Amazon in response to a situation I feel to be a wrongful termination. I worked as an Engineer. I was terminated over a bag of nuts I was accused of stealing. I do not agree with the outcome of termination. Amazon does not care about employees. 

In my tenure with Amazon I have learned numerous facets of leadership principles, principles that make up the foundation for any business relationship among Amazonians. I want to share this situation so you can understand why (and how) I was unfortunately forced to leave Amazon. 

I was let go for taking a bag of open nuts off a cubical desk in the office area at an FC, a bag of nuts I genuinely believed were my own from a previous day. An individual from the FC operations saw me take a bag of open nuts off the end of an unoccupied desk and took the route of accusing me of “stealing from Amazon” by turning my name into loss prevention. They did not speak up to me at the time. Loss prevention/HR looked at a security video and then determined that I was guilty of stealing and let me go. 

The resolution should have been a conversation between two coworkers about food in the office space and a slap on my wrist for thinking the bag was mine.  One of the core leadership principles of Amazon is "Earn Trust” and that would have applied here directly. 

This principle talks about speaking candidly even when doing so is awkward or embarrassing. If someone thought the nuts were not mine then why not speak up and respectfully let me know by opening up a conversation. It sounds like common sense, because it is! I have come to learn that Amazon has a very black and white policy on "stealing" that does not take into account human decency and interactions in an office setting. 

Amazon seems to act as though employees are disposable and does not consider one’s thoughts and/or actions. I was a well-compensated engineer at Amazon. Stealing anything, let alone a bag of open nuts I had believed was my own, is not anything I would have done intentionally to a coworker or anyone, EVER. 

This seems like a simple misunderstanding that any company I have ever worked for previously would notice immediately when discussed. Amazon loss prevention/HR did not take that into consideration, they did not believe me and did not care. 

Amazon has an ethics hotline but the only reason it exists is to provide legal cover for all of their abusive tactics. I was told filing an ethics hotline investigation is useless because they will always side with Amazon and not the employee. 

Shame on Amazon!