Jeff Bezos' Farewell Letter Calls For Better Treatment Of Amazon Employees

As Jeff Bezos prepares to step down as Amazon’s CEO, he’s left his successor with a new goal: making Amazon as good for its employees as it is for customers.

In a departing letter to stockholders, Bezos said that recent unionization efforts and reports of brutal work environments in Amazon warehouses are a wake-up call, CNBC reports.

After stepping down as CEO in the third quarter, Bezos will still be part of Amazon as the company’s executive chairman. He says improving the employee experience will also be his personal goal.

“Despite what we’ve accomplished, it’s clear to me that we need a better vision for our employees’ success. We have always wanted to be earth’s most customer-centric company. We won’t change that. It’s what got us here. But I am committing us to an addition. We are going to be earth’s best employer and earth’s safest place to work,” he wrote.

Bezos says his first order of business will be tackling workplace injuries, specifically sprains caused by repetitive motion. He hopes that a program automatically cycling employees through different types of work can mitigate the risk. Those schedules are expected to launch later this year.

Bezos also pointed to Amazon’s $15 minimum wage as a success story, and told Amazon’s executives to continue looking for areas where the company can lead the way. Responsibility for executing that direction will fall in large part to the new CEO, former Amazon Web Services CEO Andy Jassy.

Bezos’ new priorities haven’t come out of nowhere. Amazon has seen several recent high-profile scandals around working conditions, from accusations that employees have to urinate in bottles to a failed attempt at creating Amazon’s first employee union.

Labor organizers have already published a variety of allegations based on public records accusing Amazon of sabotaging the vote.

“We need to do a better job for our employees. While the voting results were lopsided and our direct relationship with employees is strong, it’s clear to me that we need a better vision for how we create value for employees – a vision for their success,” Bezos wrote.