Guest essay by Eric Worrall
As well as selling stuff, Amazon is a major player in the cloud computing market. They help clients eliminate the hassle of managing their own computer hardware.
This hard won reputation for quiet, non-judgemental and reliable service is now under threat, from employees who demand Amazon apply a climate morality test to people with whom Amazon does business.
Hundreds of Amazon employees put jobs at risk by criticizing firm’s climate change policy
Hundreds of employees published comments highlighting the company’s work with oil and gas companies
By James Vincent Jan 27, 2020, 8:44am EST
Hundreds of Amazon workers are speaking out against their employer’s record on climate change, risking being fired to defy a company-wide ban against such public criticism.
The group Amazon Employees for Climate Justice published comments from 357 workers on Sunday, many of which highlight what workers see as Amazon’s hypocrisy. The company has pledged to use only renewable energy sources in the future and cut its carbon emissions, but it continues to work with and improve the businesses of oil and gas companies.
“The science on climate change is clear,” writes Amelia Graham-McCann, a senior business analyst at the company. “It is unconscionable for Amazon to continue helping the oil and gas industry extract fossil fuels while trying to silence employees who speak out.”
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“I want Amazon to continue its vision to be Earth’s most customer-centric company,” writes Melissa Reeder, a senior UX designer. “By ending our contracts with oil and gas companies, we can show the world we put people over profits and be a leader against climate change.”
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Read more: https://www.theverge.com/2020/1/27/21083330/amazon-employees-criticize-climate-change-oil-gas-work-risk
I cannot emphasise how potentially damaging this employee protest movement is to Amazon’s reputation.
Handing another company the task of maintaining key internal computer infrastructure is an enormous act of trust. Amazon has been tremendously successful in convincing large numbers of companies that there is no downside to letting Amazon handle their computer hardware, letting Amazon’s clients focus on getting the software right.
If companies now have to start worrying about whether their most sensitive infrastructure could be threatened at any time, by activist Amazon employees who take a sudden dislike to their business, Amazon’s entire cloud computing business model could collapse.
How is it better for CO2 emissions if the oil and gas industry has to build and run its own separate data management hardware vs sharing Amazon’s massive centralized systems?
The only difference is that various snowflakes get to feel good about themselves and how they stood up for the environment.
Actually doing good isn’t relevant. It’s all about how they feel about themselves.
Don’t you just love it when they cannibalize themselves? The owner of the Washington Post is being attacked by his own employees who are doing what the WaPo is encouraging.
Amazon’s AWS recently lost the multi-billion dollar US DoD cloud computing contract to Microsoft.
The differences in corporate culture between those tech service competitors couldn’t be more stark. The risks to DOD’s data integrity presented by Amazon’s SJW culture was likely a significant concern to the Pentagon data security experts. This letter now to Bezos from his SJW employees only confirms those Pentagon fears about Amazon’s AWS reliability. The DoD takes insider threats quite seriously after the Snowden security apocalypse, a contractor working on the inside with access who decided to go SHW rogue.
Everyone of these letter signers needs a termination letter from HR and a security escort off company property to send the message how serious this is to the other employees and to Amazon’s AWS customers. If AWS does not do that, if I were Microsoft or IBM I’d be contacting all of AWS’s corporate customers to let them know their data is saferwith them.
This climate crap and self-righteous posturing is stupid. Tell those postulators to start by giving up their Nintendo switch and cellphones those have fossil fuel remnants in them.
Ms. Graham-McCann and Ms. Reeder got their 15 minutes. Not likely to see another Greta from either of them, though. Things must be slow at Amazon’s “Senior” Analyst and Design departments!
Is climate justice analogous to social justice: relativistic? Another euphemism that needs to be deconstructed in a run… flight through the gauntlet’s proving ground. “Wack, wack” says the wind turbine.
This little tif shows the hazard of adopting the latest fad in corporate governance of pandering to “stakeholders.” While we try to treat employees equitably, and vendors fairly, and produce a quality product that consumers want to buy, and try our best to be a good neighbor in our community, we cannot treat them all equally. Employees are being paid to do their jobs. They give up a right to political activism while on the job. If given free rein they will alienate customers. Vendors will do a sloppy job and overcharge if one does not monitor and pressure them. Without customer satisfaction there will be no business. Alienate shareholders and impair the corporation’s ability to raise capital. Already we have grouped them into two classes.
OT/ Tsunami warning issued for Jamaica and Cuba after 7.3-magnitude earthquake strikes Caribbean
The cancel culture needs to be canceled.
Jeff, just do a Reagan on them: fire them on the spot. Plenty of candidates to take their place.
To respond to the request of those idiots, Amazon should offer a Fast and Furious service for its goods delivery, filmed with a 8k GoPro.
Jeff seems to believe he can wiggle out of this the easy way. But that’s what happens when you don’t drive the debate – you are being driven by it. Let’s see what’s more important to Jeff. His business or keeping mum about those issues? The Climate Change movement will not rest before it has wrecked the worlds most profitable businesses, wrecked the richest countries economies and kicked us down the development ladder a couple of rungs. There is no accommodation with extremists. Its total victory or annihilation for them. So Jeff, will you fight fire with fire or continue appeasing?
A case of the tail trying to wag the dog.
“The science on climate change is clear,” writes Amelia Graham-McCann, a seriously-deranged person with s**t for brains.
One of her “life events” on Facebook was getting a car in 2010. Lots of pics of her on boats that do not appeae to be of the sailing or rowing varieties.
I would present the “ex employees” with a “DCM” certificate. Text or email, either works. <:o)
Even if he doesn’t fire them, I think it really would be worth an hour or two of Jeff Bezos’ valuable time to sit them down and record a video lecture, with Q&A, about why they cannot ever hope to have what they are asking for. He should then show it to all Amazon employees and politely suggest any dissenters quickly go and work somewhere else.
In the long run it really will be worth his time to nip this stupidity in the bud before it gets any worse.
If I owned a fossil fuel company, I would instruct my IT department to get off of any amazon based products as quickly as possible.
Even if Bezos doesn’t arbitrarily end the contracts, the chances of a self-righteous employee sabotaging your equipment is just too high.
The problem is, when companies go down the path to the “cloud”, O365, Azure, Windows 10, modern workplace, collaboration etc and consuming services on a subscription basis the company is hooked for life. There is no, sensibly economical, way to extract that paradigm shift in IT investment. You either deep dive or die (Commercially speaking). It is the heroin of IT, once you are a user you are hooked for life. Apple could only dream of what M$ is doing.
You may be hooked, but there is more then one dealer out there.
All using the same product. AWS, IBM, M$ (Obviously). Don’t see any others promoting the product more than M$.
I don’t think you have to quit service from Amazon; just get enough CEOs to threaten to quit.
Use the lefts own weapons against them. Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals #9 is:
The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself.
If Bezos has to face the implications of keeping Zealots on the payroll, those 357 ignoramuses would be gone tomorrow; and would give notice to the rest of the workforce to do the job for which you were hired; and if that ethically bothers you, work someplace else.
The carbon footprint of global IT is about the same as the global aircraft industry. Anyone who logs into Amazon , watches Amazon prime or runs their business on AWS, well…fill in the blank
If I worked for a company whom I felt acted ethically egregious and I could no longer participate in the company’s activities, then, if I found another job paying the same and with equal or better benefits, then I would quit, sending my resignation letter in protest.
However, if I couldn’t find a job suitable to the living standard to which I had become accustomed, then, I would do as these 357 Amazon employees and shoot off my mouth, hoping against hope that my protest would not trigger a demotion or firing. You (the company, Amazon in this instance) are morally reprehensible…but…I want to keep my job.
Now isn’t this just like snowflakes?
How is it even possible that members of the presumably well-educated staff of Amazon could come to believe that oil and gas companies were purveyors of evil? This is absurd. If oil and gas companies abruptly ceased to provide oil and gas, millions of Americans would die of starvation, exposure and the inevitable violence over the existing stores of oil and gas in the next six months. Oil and gas companies literally provide one of the critical ingredients for life in the United States, and could get several times the price for the goods they sell if they colluded to drive up the price. I am inclined to believe that corporate entities that provide goods and services that not only vastly enhance the lives of their customers but make their lives possible in the first place are good. So, evil? What?
Foolish people equate tobacco with oil and gas. Come on. If tobacco companies suddenly ceased to sell their product, a lot of people would have an uncomfortable few weeks, and then probably gain some weight. No one would actually die. Also, smoking really does sicken and often kill people, which is the exact opposite of the core benefit of oil and gas.
Someone please tell me: Who died and made these idjit employees God?
They need to learn what it means to be jobless, moneyless and hungry. Winter isn’t over yet.
What kind of ethics do those employees have? Why are they working for a company that does unethical business (in their eyes)?
My guess, Sara, is that idjit employees are also quite young, and certainly without dependants. I myself was an idjit when I was young. I probably still am now, although it is in the nature of idjitism to not realize that you suffer from it.
I wonder if you can buy ‘Carbon Footprints’ on Amazon?