在亚马逊(Amazon)的管理风格遭到尖锐批评之后，这家网上零售商的首席执行官杰夫贝索斯(Jeff Bezos)迅速进行了辩驳。

　　Facing a damaging threat to the company’s reputation, Mr Bezos sent an email to staff saying he would not tolerate “the shockingly callous management practices” depicted in an article on its workplace culture.

　　面对公司声望可能受到的严重威胁，贝索斯向员工发了一封邮件称，他不会容忍一篇记述其工作场所文化的文章所描述的“无情得令人震惊的管理实践”。

　　He wrote to all “Amazonians” after the New York Times described the group as a place where employees regularly weep, colleagues compete to criticise each other and serious health and family issues are ignored.

　　贝索斯给全体“亚马逊人”写这封邮件之前，《纽约时报》(New York Times)将该集团描述为一个员工时常哭泣、同事间彼此竞相批评、员工面临的严重健康问题及家庭问题被忽视的工作场所。

　　In the email, Mr Bezos encouraged employees to read the article, published over the weekend, but said: “It doesn’t describe the Amazon I know or the caring Amazonians I work with every day”. He added employees should tell HR — or email him personally — if they had experienced anything like the examples in the article.

　　邮件中，贝索斯鼓励员工去阅读这篇于上周末发表的文章，但是他称：“它所描述的并非我了解的亚马逊，亦非每天与我一起工作的有爱心的亚马逊人”。他补充道，如果员工曾体验过与文中所述的例子相似的经历，应该向人力资源部门反映，或者直接给他发邮件。

　　“I strongly believe that anyone working in a company that really is like the one described in the NYT would be crazy to stay. I know I would leave such a company,” he said in the email. “But hopefully, you don’t recognise the company described. Hopefully, you’re having fun working with a bunch of brilliant teammates, helping invent the future, and laughing along the way.”

　　“我坚信，任何在一家确实像《纽约时报》的文章中所描述的公司工作的人，只有疯了才会留下来。我知道自己会离开这种公司，”他在邮件中写道，“但希望你不觉得这种公司似曾相识。希望你在与一群优秀的队友共事、帮助创造未来时感到乐趣，一路走来充满欢笑。”

　　Amazon has previously been criticised for how it treats warehouse staff whose movements are carefully tracked by computers and who are often on temporary contracts with few benefits. It has also been embroiled in conflicts with book publishers and small businesses over its market power. The New York Times story described how white-collar staff were affected by Amazon’s obsession with data and said it had a commitment to fire the lowest performers in each team every year.

　　亚马逊之前曾被指责其对待仓库员工的方式，这些员工的行踪被电脑严密跟踪，他们签订的常常是临时合同，没有什么福利。它也曾因自己的市场实力而卷入与图书出版社和小企业的冲突。《纽约时报》的文章描述了白领员工如何受到亚马逊对数据的痴迷的影响，并称亚马逊每年会炒掉每个团队中表现最差的人。

　　Mr Bezos pointed staff to a blogpost on LinkedIn by Amazon.com’s head of infrastructure for search, criticising the New York Times article. Nick Ciubotariu called it “horribly misinformed”, arguing that his team “works hard and has fun”, that he had never seen anyone crying and that it was not true that the company culled staff each year.

　　贝索斯建议员工看一看亚马逊网站(Amazon.com)搜索结构主管在领英(LinkedIn)发表的批评《纽约时报》文章的博文。尼克丘博塔留(Nick Ciubotariu)在博文中称该文受到“可怕的误导”，辩称他的团队“工作努力而且充满乐趣”，称自己从未见过有人哭，而且文中所称的公司每年炒掉员工的说法是不属实的。