Amazon Ashley – A Lesson in Ageism

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There is quite a bit of discussion going on right now about Amazon Ashley, who is sales representatives for the company. Some people are upset, while others have absolutely no problem with it whatsoever. There is nothing to be upset about. What some people fail to understand though, is that the company does have rules in place that prevent them from discriminating against their employees, or promoting one gender over another. This may sound unfair, but as long as Amazon has rules in place that ensure that each customer is treated fairly, then everyone is protected.

As a sales representative working for Amazon, one cannot promote someone based on their race, because that is against their policy. So, what Amazon Ashley had to do was find other jobs, which could allow her to receive promotions for age, gender, and height. In fact, one could say that Amazon Ashley is a reverse discriminatory employment practice, because she promoted her son over her daughter. That may seem unfair, but it is also legal, so there really isn’t anything to be upset about.

What some people are upset about is that Amazon Ashley continues to promote people up in Salesforce as “senior sales representatives” even though those individuals are over fifty years of age. The United States government has regulations in place to ensure that our nation’s senior citizens are treated equally. The only way that Amazon Ashley could be promoted up in Salesforce is if she qualified for and received a performance bonus based on the number of senior sales representatives she promoted. Amazon Ashley probably figured that she would receive a performance bonus for increasing the number of senior sales representatives that she promoted, and therefore she did. Unfortunately, it appears to be a marketing strategy that she violated, and for that reason she will be negatively impacted by this whole episode.

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