A - Magic Is Might Statue

A – Magic Is Might Statue

In June of 1998, I placed my first order with Amazon.com because of discounts, free shipping, and access to books I couldn’t find locally.  I loved it.  Over the years, I’ve ordered many hardcover, paperback, and Kindle books from the site.  Most of my orders contained non-fiction books. I always said, “If I’m going to spend time reading, I might as well learn something.”  Fiction didn’t appeal to me…until Harry Potter.

 

I was introduced to the Harry Potter series through a friend in June 2003.  I tagged along for the midnight release of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I was amazed at the number of people waiting to get their hands on the 5th book in the series.  I resisted buying a copy that night but my interest was piqued.  Luckily, my friend, who happened to be a book publisher, loaned me the first four.  I binge-read them and Book 5 over the next couple of days.  I was hooked.

 

In Chapter 12 of the final book of the series (Book 7), Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows1, J.K. Rowling writes about a statue housed in the Ministry of Magic after it fell into the hands of the Death Eaters. “A gigantic statue of black stone dominated the scene. It was rather frightening, this vast sculpture of a witch and wizard sitting on ornately carved thrones…Engraved in foot-high letters at the base of the statue were the words MAGIC IS MIGHT…Harry looked more closely and realized that what he had thought were decoratively carved thrones were actually mounds of carved humans: hundreds and hundreds of naked bodies, men, women, and children, all with rather stupid, ugly faces, twisted and pressed together to support the weight of the handsomely robed wizards” (page 241). Hermione remarked that the Ministry was putting Muggles in their proper place.

B - DCS_0160

B – DCS_0160

Yesterday, I finished reading The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon2 by Brad Stone. It tells the story of Amazon (Amazon.com) and its founder, Jeff Bezos.  I found the book very interesting and disturbing. I knew that Amazon was customer-focused. What I didn’t know is that it came at the expense of their employees.

 

So why are Amazon and Harry Potter part of this story?  For me, Amazon now evokes the same image as The Magic Is Might Statue. For Amazon, it would be called “Customer is Might.” The customer stands on the platform of Amazon while its employees are the ones supporting their weight. The employees are in their proper place.

 

Bezos considered that, “…Amazon was a missionary company, not a mercenary one” (page 286). “Missionaries have righteous goals and are trying to make the world a better place. Mercenaries are out for money and power and will run over anyone who gets in the way”(page 287). From a customer standpoint, Amazon was a missionary but from the employee viewpoint, it was a mercenary.  Employees’ ideas and suggestions were dismissed.  Working conditions were extreme.  Brad Stone’s book is full of further examples of the toxic environment workers endured.

 

“The people who do well at Amazon are often those who thrive in an adversarial atmosphere with almost constant friction” (page328).“Despite the scars and occasional bouts of post-traumatic stress disorder, former Amazon employees often consider their time at the company the most productive of their careers” (page 327).

 

“His [Jeff Bezos] manic drive and boldness trumped other conventional leadership ideals, such as building consensus and promoting civility. While he was charming and capable of great humor in public, in private, Bezos could bite an employee’s head right off” (page 176). In 2007, 12 years after the company was founded, it was rumored that Bezos hired a leadership coach. He evidently realized he needed to change people’s perceptions in order to “keep his notoriously eviscerating assessments of employees in check” (page 265).

 

In reflecting on the book, I still find it hard to believe that people put up with these antics. This book was an eye-opener, not only because of what I learned about Jeff Bezos and Amazon but because it caused me to look at all companies differently and consider what the inscription on their statues would say. I’m hoping for “Employees Are Might!”

 

If you read the book, I would enjoy hearing your thoughts about Amazon and employee engagement.

 

1 Rowling, J. K. (2007) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. London: Arthur A. Levine Books.
2 Stone, Brad (2013) The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon. New York, NY: Little, Brown, And Company.

 

Photo credits
A Magic is Might Statue – HarryPotter.wiki
B DCS_0160 – The Making of Harry Potter Studio Tour Leavesden – Madame Guillotine.org.uk

 

P.S. – First time here? Welcome to the Agent In Engagement site. Thanks for taking the time to stop by!  I hope you’ll explore the rest of the site. Let me know what employee engagement topics interest you.

 

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Let’s Get Engaged!

I’m Agent in Engagement Simpson…Gregory Simpson.

As an Agent in Engagement, my mission is to help companies and their employees succeed by focusing on how frontline and middle managers engage, manage, and develop their direct reports.

After years in the field, the consulting field, where I created award-winning employee engagement work for Fortune 150 clients, I’m looking forward to returning to headquarters where I’ll to continue to battle every company’s greatest nemesis, employee disengagement.

 

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You can follow me @agtinengagement, email me at g…@a…t.com or learn more about me at www.gregoryfsimpson.com.