HR to go all out

In response to accusations of an abusive workplace environment, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos assured employees Tuesday that the company’s human resources staff was working 100 hours a week to address their complaints. “I’ve heard your grievances, and I promise that HR is toiling 16 hours a day, plus weekends, until the problem is solved,” read a company-wide email from Bezos, who promised that members of the human resources department would not be allowed to rest for a single second until allegations of a cruel, backstabbing office culture at Amazon were fully dealt with. “Nothing matters more to me than the well-being of our employees, and our HR staff will continue to work their fingers to the bone — not seeing their families or friends or anything at all outside their offices — for as long as it takes to make this right.” Bezos added that any employee not fully committed to ensuring a healthy work-life balance should look for a job elsewhere. But he should be aware that a healthy work-life balance cannot be a balance without any balance. An abusive workplace culture may be a bad thing, but so is effectively detaining human resources over the issue. It is not the end of the world just because things are falling apart within the company.