Avoid the heartburn

My story is much like the myriad ones you will read on here. If you look at the reviews for Glassdoor, they are pretty accurate. Before joining I didn’t want to believe them. My wife tried to convince me that it would be a terrible idea, but I thought it was just civilians who were soft. Before joining Amazon, I left the military a year before and I was a production supervisor in a food manufacturing plant after leaving the military. It was a good job and a good company, but I felt restless and I wanted more to chew on in my work. I thought Amazon would be perfect. But I soon learned that the grass is not always greener on the other side….it’s greener where you water it. There is a lot of truth in advertising when it comes to Amazon….it’s just that the truth is not from their advertising, but from those bruised from working there.

I was hired on to be an Area Manager in a sort center. Everyone experiences the same things, but everyone has their own unique reality when it comes to the company. Those 10-12 hours look nice, but once your 12th hour comes and goes and you still are not done, your morale becomes deflated. And it’s not from having a bad day or fixing an emergency, but standard practice. It was standard to have a day that wasn’t less than 14 hours. There is a focus on continuous improvement just for the sake of saying you are practicing lean methodology. There were many times I would come into work from a weekend to find a new process initiated. Which sounds good, but these practices can become frustrating. You’re told that you can start a project and make some real change, but with a change there should be some buy in. Instead of some project proposal and having one man/woman in charge blessing off/giving guidance/shooting down the idea, the lower level leader will just start initiating changes without understanding or caring about the impact elsewhere….but I digress…..there is a belief that being busy is being productive, which is not the case. There is an adversarial environment that leads to people backstabbing each other. Especially in emails....it was not uncommon to view an email chain that was addressing something of little importance that was being blown out of proportion, and upon viewing the whole chain seeing your name being called out. Amazon would have you believe this creates a competitive environment, but I’ve been in those. In the military, the competitive environment was like iron sharpening iron. A competitive environment breeds a family atmosphere where you might have each other’s back, but you don’t hesitate to talk trash. A sister company might beat yours at gunnery, but the next week you might destroy them during a surprise inspection. In those settings you will be on top and you will also be on the bottom. Amazon doesn’t breed that. There is the backstabbing and a constant tension in the atmosphere that leaves you feeling like crap. No matter how great of a job you have down, the big picture is lost and the small mistakes are spotlighted and used as ammunition against you. Before I finish this cathartic experience I will briefly explain my personal experience that is much like others but unique to me.

During the last peak, I led a new team of PA’s and together we ran the overnight sort. At the end of the day, the final sort wraps up all the volume and ships it to the post office. During Peak we added another sort from 2 am to 6 am. It only last through peak, so that we could handle all the volume. Sort centers are filled with part time workers and the shifts last 4 hours, so in a day you will lead close to three shifts at least. Our new team had a rocky start, but soon found our footing and we began to rock and push through a lot of volume. We were hitting our metrics (which is all that matters) and after peak I felt that I mastered the sort center. I was leading much in the way an Operations Manager and I felt that I was ready for a new challenge. So towards the end of peak, I applied for four different jobs in different locations around the country. My regional manager (from what I was told by my facility’s leadership) blocked the applications. I was called out as “disloyal” and “only out for myself.” At this time, the AMs were switching spots….those who worked at night’s went to days, and vice versa. I wasn’t moved. I was to stay on nights and I was told that I couldn’t apply for another job for six months. I sucked it up and went about on my merry way. Time goes on and things are getting strange. Simple misses get documented, which didn’t get documented before and ones that other AM’s were not getting written up for as well. Soon came the famous PIVOT…which use to be just a PIP. But in light of much controversy the company has received, Amazon moved to the PIVOT, which gives you three options; Take a severance (which isn’t much); go on a PIP (which is a death sentence); or appeal. I appealed to buy time. In doing so, I was given what would be my PIP and from there I built my case. Without going into too much detail, which might out me, I fought back and argued every point with facts. I had my date saved and I presented my arguments based on metrics and screenshotted pictures of files to prove my case. The case they built was less of a lie, and more of an exaggeration of the facts. I won my appeal, and I was given the opportunity many AM’s long for at my facility….TO GET THE HECK OUT!!!! The worst thing was that after I won, my site leader (who was new by a week and didn’t know me) asked me “what am I going to do for Amazon?” Really!!?!?!?!?!......What am I going to do? What is Amazon going to do to prove that it’s a great place to work at. I pretty much had a fabricated case built against me and I was able to beat it fair and square. How is Amazon going to change the culture?....I moved into a Fulfillment Center and it is better, but not good enough to keep me here. In all fairness, some of those in a leadership role tried to protect me from receiving the PIVOT. They held it a bay (for 3 months) so that I could find another job outside the facility within Amazon. But they couldn’t hold it off and were soon let go. This they told me in a candid conversation. But the good news is that they were courted and soon offered another position by a competitor. So in the end…everyone had a happy ending.

I finally found a new job and I will start it soon. It’s nothing sexy, but it should provide some stability and a fresh start. Please read this if you are thinking about joining and seriously save yourself the heartburn. If you are suffering now in Amazon there are many like you and don’t lose hope. Keep up the fight. Something else will turn up and you too will have a happy ending.