New York

FOR 20 years, Amazon has revelled in its toughness. "Work hard" are the first two words of a company motto. An oft-repeated line from Jeff Bezos, the founder and chief executive, calls the company culture "friendly and intense, but if push comes to shove we'll settle for intense".

That uncompromising attitude played a large role in building a retail powerhouse with a market capitalisation of US$250 billion. But now Amazon is taking issue with a depiction that its culture is all-toughness-all-the-time for many of its workers, and says it wants to tamp down on excesses that have left many bruised employees in its wake.