Horror to work for Amazon

I have worked at Amazon for a year. During this time, I went through stowing (stacking goods on shelves), sorting and shipping. Every Dept. has its own metrics and the quota gets raised as soon as they see you are comfortable performing at that level. Quota for stowing is 220 items per hr and the speed is the most essential part of job. Shelves to stow items are totally full, with items ranging from stinking protein drinks (smell like a food for pigs) to baby toys to sex toys/porn videos. Warehouses are cramped, hot in summer/cold in the winter to save on energy and extremely noisy.

In the sorting dept. (Pack, Sort), production bands run in tandem and there are many accidents. Amazon counts accidents as events when you need a physician’s assistance. As a results, they falsified statistics during safety controls to show that they are accident-free for 3 months while there were at least two accidents. One was a mangled hand in a production line (outdated conveyor belt salvaged from a junkyard) and the other one was another body cut caused by a stupid guy jumping into container.

Drug use is rampant and there are people openly smoking dope outside the main entrance. Management does not want to take on it because they close eyes to look good on paper and during meetings. The motto is to protect people no matter what and eliminate troublemakers. In effect, people come to work stoned and the Amazon prohibits drug testing except for alcohol.

The qualification of people coming to work is below normal. They catch them from ex-prisoners or people with no skills. The only education you may get is from second-level courses leading to a certificate below community college degree. Attempts to change it were blocked because Amazon needs working mules.

Backstabbing is a norm and I was involved in a situation when manager tried to get me justify things which were never said to fire a guy. I refused to kick a destroyed guy and was told afterwards to back up manager in the future. Such branding is commonly used to select corporate lice and ensure their compliance with the Darwinian culture.

Elimination of people is carried out by a manager through his henchmen. I had a couple hits on me by such worms and it was obvious who guided them. Typically, they get you for safety violations or not complying with a teamwork. Everybody is scared and complies with the flow.

Meetings with people are on the level of elementary school. Language is intentionally kept simple with graphical description of what went wrong and how to fix it. Any attempt to talk at the high school level is discouraged as too eloquent.

Equipment is outdated and breaks down all the time. Forklifts are commonly rented and the batteries are discharged making them nonfunctional. Repairs are given to Facilities Dept. which does not have time or training to do it properly. In effect, there is a shortage of forklifts and qualified operators.

Training is performed for everything by people who learn it in 1-2 hrs how to operate it. The skill level afterwards is below mediocre and the workers need help to make the things work.

Quality inspections are performed routinely but the results are manipulated to make the manager look good to the superiors. Falsification of results is common and encouraged verbally in private. Voicing a hint of such manipulation publicly or in a broader circle is consider backstabbing of its own group.

Safety inspections are performed by people who had a similar training. In effect, they do not know the subject or the working conditions to judge it as safe.

Noise level is above 80 dB but the company measures it far away from the source to make it compliant with local OSHA regulations.

Unionization is frowned upon and openly discouraged during meetings. Legally, it cannot be stopped by Amazon and the company set up its own union to make sure people do not go away to look for alternatives.

Product quality is very low. Packaging is poor to save money and the packages are handled like bricks to meet the quota. Broken packages are common and destruction during transport is very common. Broken items are frequently dangerous and cause skin allergies when spilled. Cleanup is substandard and performed by foreigners paid $2/hr which is below the minimum wage here.

I would strongly disrecommend the company and any products sold by it. A local store has better quality items and a way cheaper.

If you think about finding a job, go somewhere else because you will not learn anything to be competitive on a job market. It is a slave factory driven by low wages and an aggressive demand for cheap goods.