BOYCOTT AMAZON - my experience working in a fulfillment centre

[IdiotCoder]

It all started about six months ago. I applied for a job at Amazon after seeing an ad posted at the labour office in my city. I go to the hiring fair and fill out an online application. There are a lot of questions repeatedly asking "Are you going to steal from us?"

the fact of the matter is they accept anyone who doesn't say"I am going to teal from your warehouse". They then took our picture and sent us on the way.

A few days later, I get an email from Amazon telling me I got hired. Great. Now they want to schedule an interview with me. One problem: I already was interviewed!

I get another email telling me to book an appointment (which I already have done). So I call HR and they book another appointment with me.

I pass my background check and begin my first day. The orientation boring. They basically say they will sue you if you tell anybody their trade secrets. All employees go through a metal detector, checking to see if the employee is stealing anything from the warehouse. The pay and benefits are good, but it still isn't worth it.

On my first day, I was assigned to packing. I have minor cerebral palsy so I have poor dexterity. They pull me aside and ask me to get a request for medical information from my doctor. I had to wait six months for them to come back with a decision.

So last week they called me back. My badge when clocking in didn't work because I was on a leave of absence, uh, okay.HR says they will manually enter my punch, but those guys aren't really prompt and I had to ask them a few times.

A week goes by and my legs and feet are KILLING me from all this walking around. I was always pressured to work faster without making too many mistakes. IF I didn't stow an item without 10 minutes of stand up too often you get fired. IF you're too slow you get fired. IF you stow something incorrectly you get fired. If you miss your subway to work and you have to wait for the next train too often you're fired. In addition, there's something called Mandatory Extra ZTime requiring you to work overtime during peak periods. And to top it all off, you have to work 10 hours a day

So as I was pressured to works faster and more efficiently, I thought to myself "fuck this.They pay isn't bad but it feels like a sweatshop.

After attempting to stow an item in a bin I get an error message telling me the bins full. This happened for longer than10 minutes and I may have gotten a warning. I don't know, but I sure as hell not going to even bother pleasing the asshole bosses who treat us like robots. I put my scanner away, Tell HR I quit. This is way too much, handed in my badge and left.

And since they fucked up my LoA status, I am not sure I'm going to get paid.

If you shop at Amazon, (which I know a lot of people here do), consider the fact their employees are being exploited. If you believe in fair labour practices, shop elsewhere.

[waterman]

Wow, this is deep bro. I am sorry for you, I confess that purchase a lot in amazon but I did not know that workers were treated that way I thought that almost in Amazon was automatic with robots and stuff.

[IdiotCoder]

Wow, this is deep bro. I am sorry for you, I confess that purchase a lot in amazon but I did not know that workers were treated that way I thought that almost in Amazon was automatic with robots and stuff.

Some warehouses have robots but mine didn't.

[DayTrader27]

Sounds horrible. Why did you put up with those guys for so long?

[IdiotCoder]

Sounds horrible. Why did you put up with those guys for so long?

I only worked for a week.

[Jating]

What do you expect? They're the number one online store and I don't think they manage to stay on top without employees exploitation.

Similar to Nike sweatshop in Bangladesh or any parts of Asia, willing to be paid for cheap and those capitalist and milking them to the last drop.

[IdiotCoder]

What do you expect? They're the number one online store and I don't think they manage to stay on top without employees exploitation.

Similar to Nike sweatshop in Bangladesh or any parts of Asia, willing to be paid for cheap and those capitalist and milking them to the last drop.

I've heard from my friend who worked there that it's a demanding job but I thought I would be able to do it because I ran a half-marathon in 2013. I was expecting that, because I'm an athlete, I could handle walking around 10 miles a day because I ran 20k. Sadly, that's not how human kinetics work.

[otrkid1970]

Sounds horrible. Why did you put up with those guys for so long?

I only worked for a week.

Only a week?  Sounds like you were trying get the new routine down. I think it's unfair you slam them for a tough week at a new job.

[Glorious04]

Sad  . But they're a big company so people are expecting good service from them which they also pass to their employees and unfortunately you are one of them. Yea right we can shop from other companies but do we really know if other companies are treating their workers good? We will never really know unless we are part of them just like you've experienced it personally when you applied.

[odolvlobo]

You want us to boycott Amazon because you didn't like your job? Must we boycott every company with an employee who doesn't like their job?

From your description, it doesn't seem like you were being exploited. It seems more like you weren't good at your job and you weren't willing or weren't able to improve. There is no good job in the world (except in government, of course) where the employee isn't required to meet minimum standards and isn't encouraged to improve their speed and accuracy. Oh, and getting to work on time is such a basic work requirement. If you can't do that, you'll have problems where ever you work.