Featured Image Credit: Eugene Gologursky/Stringer / Nathan Stirk/Contributor / Getty
Most people would probably feel intimidated going straight to the head of their company if they had a problem.
Especially if that boss was Jeff Bezos, the second richest man in the world.
But one Amazon warehouse worker decided to go for it and Bezos' response blew her away.
Tara Jones, who works in an Amazon warehouse in Oklahoma, contacted the Amazon boss directly to complain about being underpaid.
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In 2020, she found out that $90 was missing out of the $540 she was owed while on leave.
In the note to the billionaire, the new mother wrote: “I’m behind on bills, all because the pay team messed up.
“I’m crying as I write this email.”
Little did she know, the act would impact other employees on leave from the firm - Her message triggered an internal investigation that revealed massive issues with Amazon’s payroll and HR systems.
It turned out that workers on leave across 179 warehouses had been underpaid for at least 18 months, according to The New York Times.
One worker in the report ended up having his car repossessed and he and his wife were forced to sell their wedding rings just to afford food and pay their medical bills.
Amazon’s attendance software mistakenly logged medical leave as unapproved absences, causing some employees on medical leave to be automatically fired.
Amazon is no stranger to backlash over the negative treatment of its employees.
“This is inexcusable," one user boldly wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
A second commented: “But Jeff is busy in space tourism ignoring the problems on Earth.”
A third claimed: “I know someone fired from a job she loved because Amazon's software registered ‘no show’ or ‘lateness’ in the 2 weeks after she had an abortion and unexpected problems. Her manager's protests were ignored by the Amazon machine.”
And a fourth added: “Seriously, wowww come on back to Earth Jeff…”
Amazon's CEO Andy Jassy, who took over from Bezos in July 2021 has since promised that Amazon will become 'Earth’s best employer'. The tech giant issued a statement.
The spokespersons said: “We’re disappointed when any of our employees experience an issue with their leave.
“The controls we’ve implemented over the last 18 months have resulted in less than 1% of people experiencing an issue while being on paid leave.
“Certainly, the unprecedented nature of Covid did put a strain on our system’s ability to keep pace with demand and we’ve been hard at work investing and inventing to do better every day.”
