[HaloZero]

Why are they mutually exclusive? If I can help get employees for my seasonal surge and HELP homeless people then that's a double win for me.

The article is only arguing that Amazon's part time job though wasn't as life-changing as intentioned. It was only seasonal (which they knew) and the hours didn't end up helping the staff. Now you can argue that Amazon doesn't care because it didn't accommodate the homeless workers with day jobs instead of night jobs.

[bittercynic]

They don't have to be mutually exclusive, but it is important to understand what the primary motivation for an arrangement is, because it helps you predict how the arrangement is likely to change with changing conditions.

If the primary motivation was to help the seasonal employees, the program might have looked significantly different.

Amazon is being shown in a very bad light in this article, but it seems fair to say that both Amazon and the seasonal employees went into this arrangement with unrealistic expectations.

HOWEVER, One side clearly has much more power than the other, and when you wield enormous power and fail to provide help that is clearly needed and you are clearly capable of providing, I think it is easy to predict that you will not come out looking good.

You have to wonder whether Amazon knew things could turn out this way when they approached the YWCA.