A detailed and shocking report of the work culture at Amazon was published by The New York Times over the weekend, prompting criticism against the largest company in the U.S.

After reading the report, which describes workers as overworked and forced to compete against each other, Amazon's founder and CEO Jeff Bezos responded to the criticism and denied most of its claims.

According to Fortune, Bezos drafted an internal memo to Amazon staff that encouraged them to read the article while saying it "doesn't describe the Amazon I know or the caring Amazonians I work with every day."

The New York Times article describes Amazon as a "bruising workplace" where employees work long hours, are encouraged to send secret feedback to report their co-workers for poor work output and are even found crying at their desks.

Bezos disagreed with the New York Times and claimed his employees are not mistreated and objected to a "bruising workplace." He instructed employees to e-mail human resources or him personally if they have any stories similar to the New York Times article.

"Even if it's rare or isolated, our tolerance for any such lack of empathy needs to be zero," Bezos notes in the memo.

Nick Ciubotariu, Amazon's head of infrastructure development, also responded to the negative article against Amazon. On a LinkedIn post, Ciubotariu said "singling out several outliers to vilify an entire company does not represent truth in journalism."

Bezos said that workers would be "crazy to stay" at a company like the one the New York Times article described.

"[The article] claims that our intentional approach is to create a soulless, dystopian workplace where no fun is had and no laughter heard," Bezos wrote. "Again, I don't recognize this Amazon and I very much hope you don't, either. More broadly, I don't think any company adopting the approach portrayed could survive, much less thrive, in today's highly competitive tech hiring market."