A recent piece by The New York Times explored the work environment and practices inside the retail giant Amazon. The article shared the stories of a number of cancer patients who said that they were evaluated unfairly or edged out while trying to work through treatment — or a family member going through cancer treatment — at Amazon. A spokesman from Amazon said that responding to such employees' crises were "not our policy or practice". Here are a few of the stories shared in the article:

"A woman who had thyroid cancer was given a low performance rating after she returned from treatment. She says her manager explained that while she was out, her peers were accomplishing a great deal."

"A woman who had breast cancer was told that she was put on a “performance improvement plan” — Amazon code for 'you’re in danger of being fired' — because 'difficulties' in her 'personal life' had interfered with fulfilling her work goals."

"Molly Jay, an early member of the Kindle team, said she received high ratings for years. But when she began traveling to care for her father, who was suffering from cancer, and cut back working on nights and weekends, her status changed. She was blocked from transferring to a less pressure-filled job, she said, and her boss told her she was 'a problem.' As her father was dying, she took unpaid leave to care for him and never returned to Amazon."

For the full article, click here.

Update: The New York Times published an article in response to the original piece, in which Amazon's founder and CEO Jeff Bezos said that the company "would not tolerate the 'shockingly callous management practices'" described in the NYT piece.