We're all working for Amazon

Last week’s New York Times article on the work culture at Amazon had everyone talking. Though CEO Jeff Bezos responded saying that “he didn’t recognize” the company described in the profile, my suspicion is that many workers - at companies other than Amazon - recognized their own experiences all too well in the descriptions of a work culture that demands total commitment and attention, 24/7.

I’ve been struggling for a while to write a piece related to the changes that need to be made in today’s work environment to better suit people who want more out of their work-life than to become an “Amabot” or the equivalent. This week's Slate Money podcast teased at it in their discussion of the Amazon article and, in contrast, the recent Yale Law School commencement address by Daniel Markovits.

The podcast's discussion noted that the world we’re living in subjects us all to the influence of the Amazon ranking machine. From our high school class ranking, test scores, and college admissions, and the workplace: we push to work longer and harder than anyone else to prove that we’re not in that bottom group that would be “culled” under the leadership principals of Jack Welsh or Jeff Bezos.

These working conditions are brutal under any circumstance - single, married, male, female, with kids or without. But for parents the choice between work that is fulfilling, challenging and engaging in workplaces that put value on long hours and total commitment and being able to be an active part of their children’s lives - that is a real and painful choice that gets made in a thousand small decisions every single day in hundreds of offices across this country.

To be clear I understand that I’m talking here of white-collar workers, educated and with plenty of options for earning a living. Those in low-skilled, blue-collar roles have fewer alternatives and less positional power to affect change even though their conditions can be less desirable, more dangerous, and far less visible to the public.

This is why we see the exodus of top talent leaving to start their own businesses and companies or to strike out as independent contractors - the belief that in doing so, they will be able to create a new and better way of working. But ask any independent consultant or entrepreneur if their hours or working conditions have improved. They may have shifted the economics of the working day, in that they are the direct beneficiary of the effort they are making, but the hours are still long, and there are fewer support options so vacations and downtime become even more elusive.

How do we get the executives of today - in a globalized society - to see that there is a benefit to pushing for a different culture? There is a clear reward, even if it is short term, in continuing with the status quo; this very American style of work (and the relationship between company and employee) also happens to be a style that produces some of the most successful business models and technology on the planet. What’s in it for them to make the change?

I don’t know the answer, but I think we have to keep asking it if we dare to hope to find and make the changes needed to make the shift.

When you find an opportunity to trade a little money or status for a lot of freedom, you should take it. You should take it every time.

Daniel Markovits, Yale Commencement, May 2015