Jeff Bezos, Black Lives Matter and Whole Foods: What Not to Do

The world of work is evolving rapidly, challenging old norms about the lines between our professional and personal lives.

Collisions pitting employees’ values against those of their employers are inevitable. If not properly managed, they can put a company—and its in-house lawyers—in a tough spot: defending a position that they really don’t want to defend.

Just ask Whole Foods.

In the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos posted a number of statements supporting the Black Lives Matter movement. At about the same time, store managers at Amazon-owned Whole Foods were sending employees home for wearing BLM masks ...