I personally think that's overly optimistic.
Modern corporate culture structures are toxic to society across the board. Some a bit less, some a bit more. The more leverage an entity feels they have (i.e. power), the more toxic they tend to grow against their own workers, consumers, etc.
This problem is absolutely not isolated to Amazon, they're just the current poster child of what's toxic and growing in corporate America. This pandemic has put a spotlight on these practices (for the better I argue) and illustrated almost in caricature the divergence between business goals and societies goals.
People are far to quick to defend these organizations' behaviors and give them the benefit of the doubt.
>I personally think that's overly optimistic.
You’d be surprised. There are a few dozen people at the Distinguished Engineer / Senior Principal level at Amazon. They have enormous influence on the organization. If more follow Tim’s example it will be felt across the company.
> At that point I snapped. VPs shouldn’t go publicly rogue, so I escalated through the proper channels and by the book. I’m not at liberty to disclose those discussions, but I made many of the arguments appearing in this essay. I think I made them to the appropriate people.
> That done, remaining an Amazon VP would have meant, in effect, signing off on actions I despised. So I resigned.
It's an effective way to state your case especially if your position or notoriety is such that it will attract attention.