Amazon’s latest results were so superb that they catapulted the online retailer’s market value beyond that of Walmart Stores for the first time. Now, the $250 billion goliath led by Jeff Bezos finds itself in another spot that its bricks-and-mortar rival will more happily cede: defending labor practices.

Following a front-page New York Times article on Amazon’s culture, Mr. Bezos told his staff that the company described in the newspaper isn’t familiar to him. The article “claims that our intentional approach is to create a soulless, dystopian workplace where no fun is had and no laughter heard,” Mr. Bezos wrote. “I don’t recognize this Amazon.”

The chief executive, who owns $45 billion of Amazon stock, may be right. That doesn’t mean he hasn’t pushed his people in ways considered unacceptable elsewhere. Arguably, that has been an ingredient of the company’s success, and a quid pro quo for the wealth Mr. Bezos has conferred upon so many so-called Amazonians.

Even so, the perception of Amazon as a place where employees “cry at their desk,” as one former executive told The Times, or where engineers routinely take their laptops into the toilet stall, as another onetime Amazonian revealed on Vice’s Motherboard website, could backfire in ways that resemble Walmart’s travails.

As Walmart, based in Bentonville, Ark., has expanded, it has faced growing legal fire and public scrutiny over the treatment of its 1.3 million workers. Since 2000, the company, the nation’s largest private employer, has paid hundreds of millions of dollars in fines over employees forced to work off the clock or denied breaks.

And the claims keep coming. A recent ruling found Walmart had failed to pay California minimum wage to drivers, while accusations have surfaced over the years claiming gender discrimination in pay and promotion policies. These costs have been shouldered by shareholders and given the company a reputation that led to consumer boycotts.

Walmart is changing its ways, though. Just this year, it put into effect a $1 billion program, including wage increases, job training and more flexible worker schedules. It also raised minimum wages for many employees.

The Amazon depicted in The Times article looks like a crummy place to work. It’s a reputation that carries risks that could hamper recruitment and even hurt its position with customers. It won’t be long before Mr. Bezos devises reforms of his own.