Amazon workplace. Investor sustainability. Pay to remote staff. A COVID story. Shell Nigeria.

Every weekend I share 5 PR reads from the passed week that you may have missed. Enjoy.

Amazing Amazon. While being widely criticized for unfavourable treatment of its employees, the tech giant takes the second spot in Fortune's ranking of most admired employers. Not really a general promotion for Employer Branding or HR excellence. This once more shows the huge impact of a company’s success and a recognizable CEO on employer reputation. People want to be part of the success of Amazon or be as rich as Bezos, taking the working conditions for granted.

Sustainable choices. “Some are making big announcements on climate change, while failing even to have a deforestation policy in place”. In this article big, known brands are mentioned in the headline, but for me the biggest outtake is the increasing pressure on financial facilitators cooperating behind these iconic brands to make sustainable choices in business. It’s no longer accepted from banks, investors and other business supporting firms, to be indifferent to their own, or their clients' sustainability efforts.

Equal pay for remote workers? An opinion article on PRovoke media written by a PR agency owner, leaves me puzzled. Already for days I try to make up my mind what is my stance. Leaving temporary remote work due to covid out of it, more and more companies have staff located in remote areas hundreds of kilometres away from the office. Should these remote workers earn the same as office workers? First reaction of course is yes, as long as they perform equally. But in a B2B consultancy environment where personal relations are key, is a fully remote employee as valuable as one drinking coffee with the client every other week?

A COVID story. This article confronts us how much our world has changed over a short period of time. But it also reminds us to the power of a story. Soon, when the pandemic officially turns 1, we will have a tsunami of articles appearing: experts will share their opinions and reflect. Not many of these articles will have the impact of this one. A real life Hollywood drama script. A human story of a guy who finds himself in a new world after being ‘asleep’ for almost a year. A reminder that that micro-narratives are key when telling a bigger story.

In the new world order David beats Goliath. A tangible example of how the world for corporations is changing. Shell’s Nigerian subsidiary responsible for multiple oil pipeline leaks in the Niger Delta and ordered it to pay damages to farmers, in a victory for environmentalists. This case that drags on since 2008, is a not just another litigation against Shell. The outcome of this case, followed by media worldwide, may be a little game changer for corporations in how to deal with local presence in foreign markets.