rating for Amazon.com

take medical leave, get fired posted on December 27, 2007

I have some misgivings about using a terrible misfortune to illustrate what goes on in some portions of Amazon.com, but without mentioning specific cases what I write may lack authority.

Earlier this year, Amazon.com terminated the employment of Gardner Cohen who was on medical leave at the time. Gardner was suffering from leukemia and died earlier this year. Amazon.com terminated Gardner at a time when he was expending his energies getting well again. Gardner had been at Amazon for a little under 9 years and his colleagues speak highly of his skills and knowledge. At the very least, Amazon.com could have displayed more sensitivity and better timing. Gardner's LinkedIn profile can be found at

http://www.linkedin.com/in/beldar

If this was an isolated or extreme case, it would be one thing, but this is not the first time Amazon.com has behaved in a reprehensible way. In 2001, Amazon.com terminated the employment of another man on medical leave. He was responsible for the development of Amazon's credit card processing system.

It seems that no matter what sort of work you do or how high profile the system you work on, Amazon will fire you the minute you fail to please their management.

Terminating employees on medical leave is just the tip of the iceberg. It seems management can pull any stunt to the determent of their employees without fear of any sanction from upper management.

I am at a loss to propose a solution to this sort of behavior. I would suggest some sort of group employee action or unionization, but the actions of the customer service employees who did this is 2001 were not well received.

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