ONT6 Fall 2019

Open Letter to Amazon.com: Democracy in the Workplace!

 his is an open letter from an Amazon.com tier 1 Associate who works at the Ontario 6 Fulfillment Center in Moreno Valley, California. My name is Mark Oglesby (login: moglesby) and I’m using this Open Letter to speak about Democracy in the workplace! Our case today concerns the ONT6 Fulfillment Center in which I toil in horrible pain due to Amazon’s dictate of SPEED! Or so-called “Customer Obsession!”

And it’s concerning this subject that I would like to address my co-workers, Process Assistants, Area Managers, Operations managers, Senior Operations Managers, General Manager and all other Amazon.com operatives around the globe: For your approval or not!

In the course of working in the Amazon.com Fulfillments Centers (ONT2 in San Bernardino, ca and ONT6 in Moreno Valley, ca) for the last seven years (beginning in October of 2012), I have witnessed much and I feel the need to share my experiences with you at this time. I will begin with a statement that comes to mind nearly everyday if not every hour I’m working at the Amazon.com work site: “I’ve never worked for anyone whose behavior is so completely if not utterly reprehensible in its callousness towards other human beings!”

Now you mighty say: “Take a breath or two as you’re kind of out there!” But really now, as I move about the FC, and as I witness the fear and anxiety in people’s faces as they dart about their business; I don’t see my position as being anywhere near extreme! Amazon.com has created and continues to maintain an atmosphere of apprehension, worry, concern for ones safety, if not out-right dread as to ones state of employment and the needed finances that it brings. Shame on those who orchestrate such misery! And this includes the Amazonian Amdroids in HR!

Listen! There’s no legitimate reason or cause for this behavior. We as a group are taught survival of the fittest as soon as we walk into the Fulfillment Center. We are instructed to be at war with one another as we compete for the diminutive, insignificant crumbs which fall off the Amazon’s table!

Think about it folks! How do things work out here? Dog eat dog as we crash into one another attempting to keep pace with the ungodly metrics which call for so many units per hour as the sliding scale continues ever upwards as we’re forced to work faster and faster!

In point of fact! In the beginning when you first start working for TheAmazon, you’re told point-blank: “Safety-Quality- Productivity!” in that order! It’s a lie! They know it! You know it! I know it! If your numbers aren’t there, you won’t be there either. And it does not matter that you’re working your heart out and giving everything you’ve got: Never! Fail even once and the journey to your removal from gainful employment begins: immediately! 

Clearly! We must not allow this to continue! I am sick and tired of watching the humiliation of hard working people who’ve been trapped in this bureaucratic nightmare! Hard working people whose lives, and that of their families, depend upon their income! A very tiny income I might add! And for someone, say, an Area Manager, to take that income away, in my mind, this action is a crime against humanity. Innocent people, our families, our children, our loved ones, suffer! And for what? To make our “leadership” (in quotes because they know nothing about leadership as they are the very antecedent of such noble qualities) look good for their corporate over-lords!

For you see! The numbers game is solely for those soulless bureaucrats (Area Managers and above; also, the HR Hit Squad!) whose personnel files we are destroying our health, safety and well being to fill! Our first duty is not to the customer or the company or even the shareholders; it’s to the desolate, austere bureaucrat whose place in the company is also on the line if their numbers aren’t there!

Wake-up! Amazon.com will crumble if we continue to place these inept, mindless bureaucrats in a position where their needs out-weight the needs of everyone else. From the moment merchandise arrives at the FC to the moment it leaves the ship dock, the bread and butter of this company is in danger of being beaten and broken as everyone speeds to meet their numbers! And for what? The clueless bureaucrat!

Change it or lose it! Democracy in the workplace is the only entity that can and will stop these bureaucrats from destroying this company, Amazon.com! With Democracy in the workplace, stability will be ensured as all begin to establish an ethic which states: This belongs to all of us! Which says: Will must work together for the common good as we must not fight one another just to make a number!

Also! We as workers, those who actually produce something of value in the workplace, are entitled, because of our hard work and dedication (we get the job done!); to a seat at the table and an enriching of our pockets as well as are physical and mental well being. Besides, we are human beings deserving of dignity and respect! No more crumbs off the Amazon table! Our demands will be met as our intention is clear: United We Stand! Divided We Fall!

One last thing! When on the work-floor (which we call mods at the FC) or anywhere in the Fulfillment Center please remember that we are one! Bring courtesy and respect to your co-workers as we must demonstrate that we will not be pitted once against the other as so callously written by John Rossman in The Amazon Way: “ By contrast, Amazon.com is a gladiator culture.”

In a Democratic culture, an Egalitarian workplace; we can develop and establish a structure, a coordination of cooperation and consideration as employer and employee obtain a shared vision of what works best for our customers, our productive workers, our management and HR personnel; and that’s not to mention, those who share the vast majority of profits from “OUR” collective labor! Hey: I don’t care how successful this or that company is or might become in the future as I must quote from the gospel of Christ: 

What does it profit a man to gain the whole world yet lose his soul? It profits no one!

Clearly! Democracy in the workplace is much needed in today’s business and financial reality if all of those who participate in the before mentioned “Democracy” are able to share equally in the proceeds of such enterprises: Demos: (Government, Politics & Diplomacy) the people of a nation regarded as a political unit! Concerning this definition? If there’s no Democracy in the workplace; you cannot maintain that you exist in a Democratic society!

Sincerely,

Mark Oglesby (Amazon.com login: moglesby)