Unqualified

I’ve got some information about Amazon that you might like to know: the company routinely hires and promotes people who do not have even the minimum qualifications listed in their job descriptions, and they discriminate based on age and other factors, since the average age of a manager (not an executive) is 31. It’s easy to prove if you know what to look for and where, so I’m sure you can find more evidence than I have already.

They also favor certain people when hiring and promoting, based on different factors like whether or not you’re a veteran, have an MBA, are hired into the Pathways program, whether or not your boss or the hiring manager likes you, etc. The people they hire in the Pathways program actually get a mentor and a clear fast-track path of advancement up the ladder; something that no other Amazon employee gets. If you’re in a management job, you can keep advancing, even to jobs where you have no experience or qualifications, whereas someone not in management would have to meet every requirement to even be considered, and would certainly be passed over.

Somebody sent me a copy of an email recently from a manager to an associate at their site in 2018. Though some parts are redacted to protect identities and remove things that have no bearing on the message, I do know the names of the people, and when you place it in the proper context, it seems to clearly imply that the associate is gay. However, I have talked with a number of people at that site who worked with the associate, and they all confirm he’s definitely not gay. It seems the only thing he did to cause that reaction from his boss was to do some nice things for him of his own free will, and didn’t ask for anything in return.

Not the kind of work environment anyone should want, or have to tolerate. It sounds like that manager (who’s been promoted a few times since that happened) is homophobic, or has some issues with his own masculinity. When the associate responded to that email by sending a letter to the manager at their new site, he was targeted by HR for termination based on the false claim that he had violated some policy, which doesn’t exist.

This is Amazon and the way they treat people, promote incompetent hacks, and retaliate against anyone who speaks out and criticizes them, you included. Discrimination is rampant at Amazon and many other major corporations, so Congress needs to step up and greatly expand the types of discrimination that are prohibited, and put substantial minimum penalties in place for that, including mandatory federal prison time of at least 5 years for Jeff Bezos and anyone else in the company who had knowledge of it or participated in it in any way, including their attorneys.