Amazon CEO Andy Jassy spent last week in Saudi Arabia with Trump, announcing a partnership between Amazon and an artificial intelligence company cofounded by Saudi Arabian Prime Minister (and close Trump ally) Mohammed bin Salman.
The problem?
According to the CIA, Bin Salman is believed to have ordered the 2018 kidnapping, murder, and dismemberment of columnist Jamal Khashoggi at the Bezos-owned Washington Post.
Bin Salman was also accused by Bezos in 2019 of hacking Bezos’ phone and obtaining information about an extramarital affair that the National Enquirer later published.
I’ve had some difficult bosses in the past.
A McDonald’s manager named Lou was so incompetent that his teenage employees had to work around him and behind his back to make the restaurant run well.
An unethical and incompetent principal angered me so much that I was marching down to his office with closed fists and rage in my heart when a wise and observant administrator saw me, determined something was wrong, and dragged me into an office to calm me down before I did something I would later regret.
That principal did not last long.
The manager of a sales company where I briefly worked—a weirdo named Jack—would remove his shirt and throw it into the trash can if we hit our daily numbers and encourage others, including the female salespeople, to do the same.
Some actually did.
Never me, of course, but lots of the guys and even a few of the women.
It was quite the office culture.
None of these people were good managers or leaders. Some were downright awful human beings. But I have to say:
None of them partnered with someone who had allegedly murdered one of their employees.
Granted, I don’t think any of them found themselves in the same position as Amazon CEO Andy Jassy — because no one, as far as I know, had ever murdered or ordered the murder of one of their employees — but I suspect that if someone had killed and dismembered a member of their team, even they would pass on the opportunity to go into business with the murderer.
Some things strike me as morally unambiguous, even when large amounts of money are in play.
Most people, I suspect, would draw a red line at murder.
But not Andy Jassy and Amazon.
