Comments on What the Fuck is Wrong With Amazon.com?

you think for a place that wants to pay someone with 4 years of collage $11 an hour that they would run the employment well dry, but they don't.

I dont know what is worse, the managers who dont know what the fuck they are doing or the temp agencies that hire over-qualified people to cover the managers asses until the temps get fired.

i'm waiting for comte to drop some nugget about how this chick is a whiner and shouldn't talk to the stranger if she wants to work at amazon. or something.

Giant corporations like Amazon are more afraid of controversy than just about anything short of red ink at the end of the quarter.

This is par for the course.

Someone has obviously had 4 years of "collage".

WTF? This is some crazy homegrown Seattle drama. Sounds like a good cover story.

Sloggers: Write Amazon letters complaining; not that it will do any good. Corporations run everything enjoy and just give up fighting them.

So forget that letter, they would just throw it away.

This is ridiculous. She is only giving Amazon.com GOOD PR by being chosen as Sexiest Customer Service Rep, especially since her photo is so sweet and sassy and not untasteful in any way.

Companies need to realize they are in competition for good employees. They hurt their reputation as a good employer by unceremoniously firing employees like this.

The PR people need to either go back to PR school or get some needed management training. This decision provided BAD PR for a company that until now had a decent reputation.

Amazon is the the Starbucks of books. Plus, they sell dog and cockfighting media.

I guess Amazon hates good press.

Maybe you need to do an expose on them.

@7 : The reason for her firing doesn't seem to be the fact that she appeared in the Stranger feature, but that she told a story from her workplace. I guess we will never know for sure.

I treat Barnes and Noble mail order like some people do Walmart. It's hard to quit the sales, coupons and freebie stuff at Xmas time. Damn Amazon.

Do you know for a fact she was fired because of the article? Unless there's information you have that you didn't put in your post, this screams like a post hoc ergo propter hoc logical fallacy.

Maybe it's not a good idea to be associated with the Stranger or the Slog.

That really sucks, and it definately Amazon (or her agency) a bit spineless if that's why she was let go.

But you know all those NDAs and related papers you sign when you hire on? Almost all of them have language about this sort of thing. People should probably understand that anything that might be considered confidential that happens on the clock needs to stay that way.

I used to work for {redacted} and I can tell you that it’s the same all over.

I’ve known several people who worked at Amazon who didn’t have a kind word to say about it after they left on their own accord. If it’s any consolation, it’s the junior management petty fucktwits who are the most miserable in their jobs. Overworked, underpaid and usually let go right before they can claim that brass ring due to “corporate restructuring” and their bosses’ feverish urgent need for more zillion $$ bonuses.

Unless you’re senior management, large companies are going to treat you like rubber gloves after a liposuction.

My sympathies are for Ms. Davis—who obviously has way more potential than Amazon can handle—and I hope that this change isn’t too disruptive for her.

I'm certainly not saying she deserved anything (and it sounds like she handled the situation correctly once she became aware that - whoops - she may have made an innocent mistake), but I know that when I was hired at Amazon in 2000, we had to sign PAGE after PAGE after PAGE of NDA stuff, they are pathological about keeping information internal.

We were specifically warned about "web logs" and online journals, even about talking about Amazon while on the bus.

It was painful not to spill some of the ridiculous stuff I came across in my years there in any online forum that I participate in, but I didn't, because this is one part of their strategy where there have been absolutely inflexible, and warned you they would be from the start.

Though I wonder if temporary employees are made to sign the same kind of paperwork.

years of college doesnt mean job security. was she a liberal arts major?

Yeah, it's a stupid PR move to fire someone over something innocuous like that.

But it's also really stupid to write about your employer online, even obliquely.

Think of your employer as the popular snotty girl in 8th grade. They are gonna react the same way.

Amazon sounds like a really lame place to work.

You know, I don't know anything about Amazon or their employment policies, but I have to say... When I read her interview and got to the part about the crazy customer, I did a little bit of a double take and thought to myself, "Gee.. Someone didn't think THAT comment through" I mean, seriously. Everyone KNOWS that call center employees talk shit about the annoying people that call in, but no company wants that advertised. That's just bad PR. So even if Amazon mighta over-reacted in firing her, she had pretty bad judgement in even making the comment in the first place.

she obviously is unprofessional, not willing to take responsibility for what she did. The same type of person that would blame her co-workers for the mistakes she made--who knows? Her co-workers possibly could be breathing a sigh of relief right now...she could have been spiteful, cruel, simply inept, maybe she just is an attention hog...We have no idea from this article. I mean, those policies not to talk about work couldn't possibly apply to one sentence in an article...That makes NO sense. God only knows what shoddy work she could have been doing...

It's all Mike Daisey's fault.

super, amazon IS a really lame place to work--run by zombie kissups who pretend the crap they promote isn't a notch or two below walmart

I know this girl, she's really nice. I have no idea how good she was at the tasks she was assigned, but she was sure easy on the eyes during smoke breaks.

@ #4,

Well, if the temp is an art major they could have had four years of "collage". That being the case if they're getting $11.00 an hour from Amazon they're probably being overpaid.

Amazon is a great company and the only way to stay that way is compete. Microsoft does not allow employees to blab about the company. You don't read Mudede writing tell all about his former employer.

Microsoft, Starbucks, Amazon and The Stranger are all what I love about Seattle. I'm glad they have the balls to protect their companies from idiot employees blabbing. They used to say "loose lips sink ships".

You can't be too careful about corporate security these days.

That doesn't surprise me. I kept my head low after a minor brew-ha-ha about me surfaced on Slog and in The Stranger. I had good fairies on my side and kept my shitty temp job (for which I was completely overqualified and overeducated.) The key is don't rock the boat especially when you aren't rocking the blue badge at Amazon. She wasn't even an Amazon employee - Guaranteed she was a Corestaff Amazonaian.

Every big company's management tree eventually becomes a minefield of assholes with a thimbledick complex. Apparently, Sam and Maxine each ran into one of these assholes, who took their respective public disclosures (neither of which were a big deal) too personally.

To vilify Amazon is ignorant to the fact that just about EVERY big company has this problem. You'd have to vilify everyone.

Did I seriously call Arielle 'Maxine'? LOL, I don't know what the hell... sorry about that. It's late.

Amazon sucks; the woman is lucky to be out.

@20 and @21

Fuck all of you corporate apologist douchebags. If that little comment sank Amazon, the it deserves to be sunk. Treating your workers like throwaway garbage does far more harm to a company than anything else I can think of. Quit kissing the ass of the people trying to fuck you over.

I would like to point out that there is a difference between 'being fired' from a full time position and being a contracted temporary employee who is advised they are no longer needed.

Doesn't anyone have any serious concerns over our employers' ability to control what we do off the clock? Participating in a blog and talking about your job should be things that people are free to do. She's not spouting corporate secrets, or giving away customers' personal information. She's just telling people about this crazy incident that happened at work.

Yeah, I know this is how it is all over. But I'm surprised at the passivity with which we are accepting this, and alarmed at how easily it is to find apologists for this.

Well I don't know anyone that works there, but it sounds like a creepy place from everything I'm hearing. And if they're so worried about customer service, maybe they could do something about those annoying blog posts clogging up the screen? Like how the hell do you kill that "music blog" (Ear-Maggot or whatever it's called)???! WTF? it's like the worst blog on the entire internet!

Why are all you whiners acting like this is something NEW?

Jeebuz, corporations have been firing employees for things like this for - well, since corporations have existed. Sure, it's fucked-up, but hey, guess what? If you don't like the way The Man treats you or your fellow wage-slaves, there's always the option of organizing your workplace into a union bargaining unit, because that's the ONLY WAY you-all are going to have any sort of workplace protection from vindictive assholes who will fire you at the drop of a hat for the most minor infraction of some bullshit "corporate standards and governance policy".

But of course, you-all would rather lean forward across your cubicle desks and take it where the sun don't shine, than stand up for yourselves, because it's easier for you to blame us "corporate apologists" (as if we're the ones holding you down on that desk), than to actually DO SOMETHING about your own fucked up situation.

And you wonder why you don't get any sympathy from those of us who were smart enough to get out of jobs like yours.

Arielle, I'm sorry. You deserved to get canned far, far less than I did, and it sounds like you were genuine, forthright and willing to make up for the situation as best as possible. Since when was making up for lapses in judgment such a bad thing? Heaven forbid Amazon have a young employee profiled in a "sexiest employee" writeup with a tiny bit of harmless attitude. Best of luck.

well...

- First & foremost, Amazon is a great place to work.
- You have no idea why Arielle was fired. But then neither do I. It's too bad. Speculation abounds.
- As long as you aren't an HOURLY or TEMPORARY employee you can expect some semblance of job security no matter where. Those people are treated like shit everywhere. Microsoft dash-trash anyone? (I've worked both places)
- Collective bargaining was useful, once, when there were more people than there were jobs. Now, not so much. Gil Kerlikowske?

Jebus, don't anyone read the bloody news anymore? (Or remember reading it, anyway?)

Maybe I'm too frickin old & seen too much crap go by, maybe I am jaded. :)

She was fired because Jeff is literally obsessed with the customer. He preaches it every chance he gets internally and externally. Anybody who works for Amazon knows it’s probably not kosher to speak bad about the customer, even in jest.