I have no sympathy for an executive at Amazon who was “fired for upgrading to business class” (which doesn’t seem to be the case at all). If he abused company travel policy, he deserved to be fired.
Don’t Abuse Company Travel Policy If You Want To Keep Your Job
Marc Sadeghi was hired to run the visual effects department for Amazon Studio, located in Southern California. Amazon’s travel policy is clear: everyone flies coach. If you want to upgrade, pay for it on your own dime. This was not only communicated to Sadeghi, but part of his written contract.
Nevertheless, when it came time to travel to New Zealand he demanded business class, citing his scoliosis and sciatica. He we rebuffed, even though he claimed it would take him two weeks to recover from flying coach (he was allegedly told “bummer” in response).
While he did seek a medical clearance, the bureaucracy within Amazon moves slowly and it was not ready ahead of his trip.
Sadeghi then ordered his assistant to find a way to upgrade him. Eventually, he instructed his assistant to use a company credit card to upgrade him to business class.
When Sadeghi returned from New Zealand, he was called into Amazon’s HR office where he was quizzed on his conduct:
- “Have you ever asked your assistant to run personal errands?”
- “Have you ever sent your assistant a picture of a cartoon penis?”
- “Have you ever instructed your assistant to break policy?”
Busted.
He was forced to turn over his laptop and badge on the spot.
But now he is suing Amazon, claiming:
- disability discrimination
- failing to provide a reasonable accommodation
- wrongful termination
If he misappropriated his company credit card and knowingly violated company policy, I see little merit for this lawsuit.
(an update: his case was dismissed; a “dismissal for lack of prosecution,” generally meaning a court terminates a legal case because the plaintiff failed to actively pursue it within a specific timeframe or failed to take required actions to move the case forward)
CONCLUSION
Trustworthiness is perhaps our greatest asset in the workplace. I have no desire to work with the smartest person in the room if s/he is going to stab me in the back to get ahead. By all accounts, this man agreed to the travel policy, did not stick to it, also seemed to run up other personal expenses on his card, and therefore deserved to be fired.
And can I get on my soapbox for a moment? We have a lot of these types of clients at Award Expert and are proud to help them get upgrades or award travel at very attractive rates. But there’s a certain profile (and yes, I will generalize here). Notoriously stingy. I’ve been stiffed on so many bills from these types. Business class is not free and no one is entitled to it without paying for it, even if you work for a fancy studio. Rant over…
Don’t abuse company travel or credit card policy! It’s that simple. It’s not worth it and it’s not right.
I wonder if he thought of citing his back problem to fly coach with several stops. For example, flying to Honolulu and stopping overnight then flying to Sydney. I don’t know if there were any pre-pandemic HNL-AKL flights though decades ago there used to be.
I have flown LAX-AKL in economy class and it isn’t that bad. I also have flown LAX-SYD in business class and it’s sweet.
When flying from the US to London, I think the most comfortable way is the daylight flights. Economy class JFK-LHR 9 am-8:45 pm is better, in my opinion, than business class JFK-LHR 8 pm – 7:45 am +1.
Good suggestions . I might suggest go to HNL to stay overnight . Then to Tahiti for a week of surfing . Then on to Auckland . Care for his back nicely that way .
Surfing is terrible for the lower back!
But my sciatica! I’m a victim!
Amazon’s policy sounds pretty reasonable. Ours is the same, and I like the fairness of it. And at least for us, we pretty much control our own travel arrangements. And I’m happy to pay with cash or miles for my own upgrade.
But if you charge something on the company card that you are not supposed to, that’s it.
Even before the pandemic, one is really lucky to get to travel for business even in coach. Meeting can easily be done with Zoom, MS Team… You were lucky that you got to travel. Think about it, not only Amazon has to pay your airfare, but also Uber, hotel, meals… You are probably the dumbest person in the planet to violate the company’s policy, then sue the company. You were the “head” of the department/division and you don’t know the phrase “employment at will”??? Amazon does not need a reason to fire you, let alone you violated its policy. Your career at Amazon was over, and good luck finding job (at that level) in this pandemic time. The good thing is that you have become so famous that your name, Marc Sadeghi, will be remembered by any potential employers as well.
Employment at will
I love to travel, but I am absolutely not attracted to things like having to travel for work, giving up evenings and weekends without any compensation or time off in lieu, being forced to fly the wrong airline/alliance, not having the time to visit the most interesting museums and/or best bars in town etc. I’ve had *G and/or E+ status for over 20 years now, work travel doesn’t even come to 5% of my total trips.
I have a friend who lives in the Netherlands and works closely with the Brazilian subsidiary of his employer. He recently went to Sao Paulo for the second time in a year, spent a full week there and basically didn’t get to see anything. Despite his two tickets costing his employer €5k (for anyone unfamiliar with the market, it’s pretty easy to find deals in business class between Europe and Brazil for less than €2.5k), he only travelled in premium economy and hasn’t even reached silver status on FB! I’m not singing up for such a gig anytime soon.
I don’t get it – the company insists on premium economy even if discount business class is about the same price?
Can’t the employee upgrade himself?
They have someone (not sure if it’s internal or external) who books the most direct routing in the class corresponding to the employee’s grade (something like worker = Y, manager = W, director=J) without paying too much attention to the price. My friend had never travelled outside of Europe before the first GRU trip, so I am helping him with the frequent flyer stuff and trying to convince him that he should tell them to be more sensible about the criteria and send him via MAD/LIS in business instead.
To allow business class based on the lower price could be problematic. Does the company then trust when people flybusiness class that it was actually cheaper? Or does the employee have to provide proof of the prices? Or have the company research it somehow after the fact? The way it could complicate the expense processing may not be worth the savings due to the extra steps to enforce the policy,
@Carl, the employees don’t book themselves so I can’t imagine this being a problem as long as they can check that the direct flight is more expensive.
@Arthur: I did not mean to respond to your comment. I apologize.
If it is important enough to the company that I travel overseas, then they send me in business class. Simple as that. If this is not the company policy, I’ll work elsewhere. The amount of travel I need to do, the type of work I need to do when on travel and the value of the deals I am closing, it is a necessity. Frankly the teeth gnashing about travel costs by some companies is ridiculous. In the grand scheme of things, it is a small cost compared to overall income.
That’s nice to know, Ryan. Not sure how that furthered the conversation around this article, but now we all know your thoughts.
Amazing how quickly it all changes when it’s your company and not just a faceless corp that you work for and try to leverage for max personal gain.
Just to be clear, at my company, which has a similar policy, anyone traveling internationally is likely to be making enough money to easily afford to pay for their own upgrades. And is likely to be savvy enough to know how to get that upgrade at a reasonable price or with miles.
I’ve travelled globally w/Amazon employees on engagements…they do not mess around w/the class of service policy.
Also goes to show how most of us are replaceable, even executives.
I’m a bit confused here – was the executive upgraded to business class or premium economy? I’m seeing conflicting accounts. Business Travel News suggests Amazon’s travel policy forbids the use of business class for air travel, which is technically different than a policy that requires coach travel. If Amazon’s policy demands you pay the lowest fare there is much less executive wiggle room than if company policy demands economy class fare (premium economy is a form of economy class by definition) . That said, the “Have you ever sent your assistant a picture of a cartoon penis” question tends to make me think there is a sexual harassment angle here with damning evidence in the company email system. Often sexual or racial harassment policy is one strike and you are out.
That question is a giveaway that there are other issues in play. I’ve had my share of discussions with HR in my (so far) 45-year career, but I’ve never been asked whether I sent anyone a picture of a cartoon penis.
I worked in toxic environments (they are disproportionate in IT) and I have had 2 such accusations in my long career by people looking to get me for some personal grudge or for the fun of it. Knowing the shark tank I swam in, I calmly and confidently pointed out the context of the accusations and circumstances and the charges were dropped. If I hadn’t already been cynical and “red pilled”, I probably wouldn’t have fared as well. It was the “nice guys” I know who got sideswiped and said they were “sorry” which was taken as a confession and admission of guilt and pushed out the door.
I won’t post a link to it, but you can imdb search “sausage party” and it’s possible that he sent out an email that included a list of movies that included that one (he was a visual effects director).
In one environment I was in, a gal was being “managed out” such as her walking for a cup of coffee and leaving her computer screen unlocked in violation of company policy. The horrors! Yet, EVERYONE we knew did it and we had a running joke with a friend where we would send joke emails from his unlocked screen to (friendly) colleagues such as “Does the wind in the surf smell fresh today?” and they would ask him what he meant and he’d be puzzled until he figured out we did it. But in any case, “managing someone out” means looking for petty stuff that looks bad on paper but is a “code red” and normal SOP.
My guess, and guess here, is that the guy was new to Amazon and didn’t know the culture and get bitten in the shark tank. At that job level, guys are pushed out because they’re not popular or someone has a grudge against them, not performance or even compliance.
Matthew, you left out don’t make your assistant run personal errands and never under any circumstances send your assistant a depiction of a penis. The penis thing was definitely getting him fired regardless.
So agreed! I work in this field, and he was not right! These cases often take time to sort out, he should have asked for this earlier.
Were the clients who stiffed you Award Expert clients? If so, why not simply explain that if payment was not forthcoming by X date, the contract is not being upheld by both sides and the reservation will accordingly be cancelled?
I would never accept a job requiring economy class travel ( and its 30 + years since to do so was the norm in my salaried roles). If they really want you, they’ll pay. There have been many occasions though when I’ve chosen to fly economy ( short sectors, outrageous fares, lack of J availability, etc). Not negotiating it upfront is courting disaster, and instructing a junior to circumvent the policy is inviting disaster…
My parents took me on holiday to New Zealand in the Spring of 1978. We flew nonstop LAX-AKL on Pan Am Boeing 747SP. We were in Coach (there were only two classes back then) and I remember the estimated flying time outbound was 12:15 and 11:30 on the return. That was long flight but not bad and the service was not all that bad either. The only think I don’t miss from back then was the smoking section.
In regards to the Penis thing that alone sounds like grounds for termination to me. Very inappropriate.
In regards to the travel policy Sadeghi should have either upgraded using his own money or miles (I don’t know if Amazon allows employees travelling on the company dime to keep their miles) or he should have simply followed the company policy. I don’t have much sympathy for the guy.
Even as an Army General Officer, I always traveled in coach, including internationally. This is true for all Government employees. I have no sympathy for those that say they would never work for a company that required coach. This seems much more about ego than health.
It’s primarily about productivity for me. Anyone who thinks they can step out of 14 hours stuck in a middle seat in Y, jump into an important work meeting and be at their best is extremely optimistic at best. A belief in one’s ability to do that when also communicating across cultures and/or languages is closer to delusion than mere optimism.
If, on the other hand, the brief is ‘we’ll have a taxi ready to take you to your 4-5* hotel upon landing where you can chill out for the evening, and you can have a lie-in join your colleagues the following day for lunch before doing the meetings’, economy is a lot more reasonable.
When it comes to the public sector, a lot of the time it’s all about appearances. I know people in the UK who will happily travel on insanely expensive (we’re talking hundreds of pounds for relatively short distances) fully flexible second class train tickets for work but wouldn’t be permitted, or in some cases they may be permitted but not willing, to buy an off-peak first class ticket to travel on the very same train for a quarter of the second class price.
Random question. What airline/plane is pictured at the top of this article? It’s beautiful.
That is Air New Zealand’s business class. While I used a stock photo, my review is here:
https://liveandletsfly.com/review-los-angeles-london-air-new-zealand-777-300-business-premier/
Don’t be fooled, Mike – the hard product is not great, at all. The crews and the soft product are just fine, but the seats are waaaay past their “best by” date.
This just goes to show how shady of an employer Amazon is.
No clue how your contracts are written but why aren’t you automatically charging your customers from a card on file when you provide a service? Different issue from the Amazon guy but you threw it in there.
Personally I have no tolerance for those who don’t pay their agreed to debts. Nothing wrong with being frugal but that doesn’t cover stiffing others.
If he booked economy Y class, he could probably upgrade with very little cost.
Obviously he made a mistake, but I personally don’t think this is a fireable offense. A few considerations:
– If he genuinely has back problems, going economy for 13 hours each way would be a disaster. My dad suffered from a herniated disc and he could not have done so long on a plane. the consequences would last for months.
– In light of the above, he probably should have just told the company that he couldn’t travel in economy given the back issues. But he probably thought that the clearance for business would come through, and that he should take the trip anyway so as not to slow down business/the company’s progress/etc.
So yes, a mistake in retrospect, but it seems very over-the-top to fire him for it…
It seems like the not-get-fired way of doing this would be:
1. Pay for the upgrade personally
2. Wait for the medical exemption to get approved
3. Approach the company about reimbursing the upgrade expense
@Doug … +1 .
When I Was traveling for work, I would fly 2x to the JFK/ewr airports on my company’s dime. I asked politely if and only if the price of first class tickets were close to economy tickets ( far enough in advance of course) they would approve the reimbursement. Otherwise, it’s on my own dime, no biggie. Once again his behavior is usually why we can’t have nice things lol. Serves him right.
The honorable mayor of New Orleans was caught traveling Business and First class during her world wind tours representing the city. However, city policy was tourist class all the way. When it hit the fan, she claimed she was exempt from the guidelines. Accompanying her was her body guard (NOPD officer) who flew tourist, so the city knew exactly how much she overspent. Also, she was alleged to have had an ongoing affair with the body guard!
Eventually, he resigned, got indicted for fudging his timesheets while guarding the mayor, and pleaded innocent.
As for the mayor, she walked away from the entire mash up unscathed by paying the city the difference…..go figure!!
As an Amazon Employee who has gone through the accommodation process to fly business on longer flights, I can say that it’s not difficult or unreasonable. It takes a week at the most. This guy could have pushed his trip back a week if he was that worried about it. If you have a real need, and your doctor signs a form, Amazon won’t say no.
If a client/employer’s policies are too restrictive about premium cabin travel and that’s important for your travel as an employee or contractor, then best to either find a different employer/contract, different way to work, or different work.
Why are comments from 2021
Because I updated this story with the legal outcome.
I’ve always been surprised by Amazon’s policy. I work for another large retailer, who is notoriously frugal, and we’re allowed to fly business on anything that is long-haul. Amazon prides themselves on their culture of frugality, and this policy seems like an unnecessary holdover from when they were a scrappy upstart. Not a Fortune 2 company.
I guess Bezos didn’t get to be worth $230 billion and travel on his own G700 by letting the peasants who work for him travel in business class. As Jerry noted above, this is the “scrappy startup” behaviour of a company that’s just getting organised, not a multinational behemoth that made $59 billion profit in 2024.
That said, rules is rules. Amazon is a notoriously terrible company to work for whether you’re a casual in the warehouse or a senior exec. Find something better, and don’t get fired.
You’d think Amazon would have the money to let more employees fly Business, not fewer. Sure it was right to fire him if this is written into the contract, but it really shows just how horrible a company Amazon is. I’ve been boycotting them since 2017 and encourage everyone to.