delivery driver

senior maintenance person

warehouse worker

warehouse associate

fulfillment associate

Amazon Warehouse

This will be kind of long but it’s because I really hope people see what working here is like before they apply. 

I have worked for a decent amount of big corporations in my work history. Obviously any big corporation is gonna be all about the money and care very little about their employees. However most places at least pretend to care.
Even when I worked for the mouse, everyone knows they don’t care about their employees, otherwise they wouldn’t have so much money. The reason people like working there because it’s actually fun helping people and the company at least pretends to care. They give you all kinds of discounts and perks as well as free food and gifts all the time. If you have a problem HR legitimately tries to help you. Not saying disney is perfect cause it has plenty of flaws, but its not terrible. 
However amazon is completely opposite. They don’t pretend to care, they actually make it blatantly obvious they don’t care AT ALL. I will give examples. 

Discounts: Everyone starts seasonal, and seasonal gets absolutely NO discount. Almost every other company gives some kind of discount day 1. Amazon theres no free prime or any free amazon service. Not even a discount on prime or any amazon service. Once you become a blue badge(full employee) you get only a 10% discount on very certain items. The item MUST be sold and shipped by Amazon to get the discount and even then it still gets denied sometimes. Also once you’ve racked up a $100 in discount for the year, no more discount. Period, least till the next year. However you can show your Amazon ID at a sketchers warehouse or store and get 30% off. Thats right a company you don’t work for will take better care of you than the trillion dollar company you do work for. Even though said trillion dollar company wouldn’t have that money without warehouse workers. Apparently that trillion dollar company doesn’t feel the work you put in is worth the value of any of the money they make off of it. 
HR: First and foremost, they will try to avoid helping you at all costs. Regardless of your issue they will try to brush you off or say theres nothing they can do eventhough every where else will tell you thats their job. I can literally go for days on all the bad experiences I have had with HR but i will talk about two in particular. The very first time I went to HR was last year in March. I asked for a leave of absence cause i was going through a divorce and it was rough for my daughter. Right after the divorce, a close friend that I have known 16 years passed away of cervical cancer, the next day my aunt was diagnosed with stomach cancer, and a week later an uncle was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and given 6 months to live(he only lasted one) so it was a pretty hard time for me. I explained all this to HR. The HR person that replied to me, didnt write me or even call me. Just sent me a voicemail cause they can do that, saying that I couldn’t have a a leave of absence because i hadn’t been there a year. (Which is heartless, but i get it, guess I should of told my loved ones to hold off on all their crisis) then before she hangs up the phone says “thank you, and have a good day” like how am I supposed to have a good day after that? Also I didnt know the death of my loved ones meant so much to you but you’re welcome. Example no.2 just this last month after almost two years of employment, never being written up, and being one of the top preformers in my department I put in for a transfer to Las Vegas because of unforeseen circumstances I have to move as I have no where to live in California anymore. So when i expressed this to them they said they could do a “Hardship transfer” for me. However when the transfer window closed. My transfer was not only denied but completely ignored and disregarded, forcing me to be homeless. Which makes me feel so safe during this global crisis. When I contacted them about it they ignored me for an entire week before replying to tell me they’re looking into it. Not making a single solitary effort to let me work in a building where i would have a home to go to. Apparently they feel its better i stay where I am at and be homeless. Cause thats the kind of appreciation were shown for our hard work. 
Working here: there is always all kinds of problems. In my building, there are so many work stations that have problems. Problems that could be fixed if the company even tried but they dont. They will make you work with faulty equipment that they know is messed up and they will let that equipment go months sometimes over a year without being fixed. Its never their job to fix it, only your job to compensate. As many associates will tell you its all about numbers with amazon. Rate, and money is ALL they care about. So if you’re NOT making rate because your equipment doesn’t work properly, and you try to tell them. They don’t accept any kind of responsibility for it and will try to “coach” you on how to work around it which is really them telling you to work harder and compensate for their faulty equipment. They claim to care about safety. However anytime someone gets hurt, regardless of how it happened or bad the equipment is, they NEVER try to see if you’re legitimately ok. Instead they start to ridicule and trying to say you did something wrong because they wouldnt be a trillion dollar company if they paid workers comp or took care of injured employees. So when most people do get hurt, they try to hide it to avoid being fired cause like i said... no matter how it happened they wont accept any kind of responsibility for it. First response is blame the associate. 
In Missouri an Amazon building got in trouble for trying to hide the fact there were 80 cases of covid, and that was a small building. The building i work at here in California, is one of the largest in the country. We get a message everyday now(sometimes more than once) telling us theres a new case from someone in our building. Imagine how safe I feel knowing i have to go to work in that and then sleep in my car after. Now if you do catch it, they give you two weeks off paid to quarantine yourself. If your in a position like me though and you end up having to quarantine yourself as a homeless person, chances of recovery are pretty slim. Yet “our safety is their top priority” so they say which i will never believe. 
Transfers: When you first start, they will make it sound like its not hard to move up or even move around to find a job in amazon that fits you. In reality that couldn’t be further from the truth. Later they will tell you it goes by seniority, also a HUGE lie. I was hired back in 2018 and became a blue badge January 2019. You cannot transfer unless you’re a blue badge and been in your current position 30 days. I have put in for a transfer just about every single month since becoming a blue badge. Only to have every single one either denied or disregarded. They will say it gets denied over seniority however i watch people with less seniority get their transfers. I once applied for a transfer to a brand new building that was opening that was closer to my house at the time. The building was just like mine and I applied for the same job meaning my transition would be seamless and require no new training. I was denied and two people I know got hired on to start there. I watched people who started after me get their transfers there while i was stuck. Told people must have had more seniority. Remember when i said i knew 2 people that got hired on to start there. How does a new hire have more seniority than i do when I have been there a year already? What kind of logic is that?
There are many many bad experiences here, and much too many to type. I have plenty of friends here with experiences just as bad some even worse in fact. 

Since working here i have stopped purchasing items from amazon. I haven’t bought anything from them in over a year because i refuse to give them any more money. Once this covid stuff clears up and i can get something better i will be way way out of here. I would NOT recommend anyone work here. After being treated this bad as an associate, i refuse to be a customer. I wish i could get the world to boycott amazon but i know that’s unrealistic. I don’t expect anyone else to stop buying from Amazon but I hope people seriously think before accepting a job here. I have worked in 3 different buildings and never met anyone that didnt hate this place after just a few short months of working here. 

***THIS IS LONG BUT IT'S WORTH THE READ***I worked at the Amazon Fulfillment Center in Aurora, Co nearest to Denver International Airport. Too many employees(severe attitudes, always using foul language, very racist and threatening the lives of fellow employees(This Includes Management and Trainers)). Very few managers for the absurd amount of employees per department. I didn't even work there a year and went through more than 4 different managers. They don't know your name, don't care about you unless you are on the management team because to them you are just an obstacle on their way to a promotion. Speaking of promotion, they speak big on promoting their employees within. However, it's like the secret societies that run this world, if they feel for just a hair sliver that you don't run with their agenda then there is absolutely no way you will move up within the company. I tried saying hello to this Caucasian  woman who got promoted and she never said hello back and all I got was this look of "Why the hek are YOU even talking to me"!? I helped start the Co-Vid 19 Safety Team and we were suppose to enforce everyone including management to keep social distancing at 6 ft apart and wear masks at all times and if you were told more than once in a shift your name was forwarded to your manager for a write up. The problem with that was the managers themselves would not keep to these rules no matter how much you tried to enforce it and at the end of the day it didn't sit right forwarding these names to their managers for write ups when they(Managers) themselves would not follow these simple rules but then would turn right around and write these people up to the point of termination. I even had a sit down with the 3 main assistant managers of the site and they just brushed it under the rug. No one and I mean no one is capable of staying 6 ft apart on their warehouse sites. The entire place is close contact and is impossible to stay 6 ft away from everyone and so many employees do not care about everyone else's safety and do not wear masks and hang out close enough to trade DNA and I mean EVERYONE, this includes employees, management, trainers and even the HR department. Not everyone wipes down their stations before or after shift. During the outbreak many people at our warehouse contracted the Corona Virus and all the company did was send out a mass text message to your phone or email you about it a month later. They would not tell employees what individual got it(which is understandable for privacy concerns) but they would not even let you know which department it was to give everyone a heads up and the opportunity to get themselves tested. The way the company see's it is we as individuals are most DEFINITELY expendable. They can always find someone else to do the job because they do not do background checks or interviews. you come in for a group sit down, they tell you your position, mouth swab you for drug test then call you and say start your shift. Your shift of which is 4 days a week for 10 hours. You get two 15 minute breaks but in a warehouse that's bigger than a dozen football fields they state your break starts from the minute you start walking from your work station to the break room and you have to be back at the 15 minute mark. So if you are a bit on the heavy side or have a limp in your walk(from standing 9 hours on the concrete floor warehouse) and it take you 5 minutes to walk to the break room and an additional 5 to walk back to your work station, well then you can guess how long your break is. Your lunch is only 30 minutes but at least that doesn't start or end until you punch out at the time clock but still, two 15 minute breaks and one 30 minute lunch for a 10 hour shift and those breaks aren't even spread out appropriately through out the shift. You take your first break within the first 2 hours of working, then two hours later a lunch break. Too many people have been terminated due to their BS time system. If you are fine with a billion dollar company using you like the tool they see you as and nothing more than this job is a perfect fit for you. They tell you from the start that they give you one or two 15 cent raises but then cap you off at that to encourage you to move up in the company but again like I said earlier, it doesn't matter how badly you want to move up, if they simply don't like you then you are going no where. Oh and if you think four 10 hour shifts a week sounds good(I thought it did, hek 3 days off) Think again. When they say mandatory 50 hour or 60 hour work weeks, THEY MEAN MANDATORY WORKING SIX 10 HOUR SHIFTS(MANDATORY) AS IN IF YOU DON'T YOU ARE TERMINATED. Which makes no sense because they always hire and fire people all the time so just hire the more people so that mandatory is not MANDATORY and can be an option for over time pay if they want it. But Nooo, they are so H*ll bent on hiring and firing employees that when they do a hiring surge for peak season and realize once peak is over that they hired too many people and have to start terminating them, that is when they look for the littlest and I mean the tiniest reasons to terminate you(the entry level employee that does all the hard labor back breaking injury causing work that keeps the company running) NOT management, trainers, HR or anyone else. They are so bent on getting rid of employees that at the start of the new year they offer you a severance package to leave the company because they realized "Oh crud, we hired too much" and like I've said before you are expendable no matter the person. I never injured myself working for anyone until I worked for Amazon and when I brought it to the attention of the onsite medical team, She told me from the other side of a glass window "I can tell you right now there is absolutely nothing wrong with it"! She never looked at it, examined it asked me questions about how did this happen or how I'm feeling. She just simply did not want to do her job because her shift just started. It is her job as an AMCARE onsite medical care giver to assist you. Even other team members of the AMCARE team neglected to treat me for 2 weeks. Just cause you love buying stuff at Amazon and it arrives fast does not mean it comes from a great place. Amazon in the United States is like a Chinese sweatshop minus the under age workers. Work here for 1 season and you'll be dying to pick up a job temporary doing anything else. But hey, first you'll have to try and find time during your 60 hours work week to fit in job hunting. That company is a chapter in my life I'm glad is over and I wish I could just burn the book it was written in. Amazon claims they are very big on safety yet they demand you hit an hourly quota that requires you to neglect safety and hit their target numbers and if you do not then you are terminated. Since I started working for Amazon I have gotten more injuries there than I have my entire life doing stupid things. Because of Amazon I am no longer able to utilize certain body parts the way I use to and am no longer able to work in the labor field. They used me and tossed me like I was a used part and will do you the same if you give them the opportunity. I do not believe this is what Jeff Bezzos wanted for his company but hey when corporate or "The suits" are in town or watching, everyone is like a robot. Working for Amazon disgusted me SO much that I cancelled my subscription as an Amazon customer and will NEVER be going back. Not to their shopping site, music, video nor any other services they offer. I hope you all find a better place to work even if it is just a temporary job to hold you over.

I'm hoping to make this review as comprehensive as possible so that future Amazon Warehouse Associates may know exactly what they're getting themselves into.




A typical day at work goes as follows:

You clock in using your ID. You join others at the start-up area to do stretches, listen to announcements from your superiors, and see where you'll be working. From there, you move to your work station and do whatever job you've been assigned. You get two fifteen-minute breaks and one thirty-minute break for lunch, all of which divide your day into 'quarters'. Each quarter, you'll be expected to meet a certain goal, whether it be making rate or just maintaining standard work procedures. At the end of the day you clock out with your ID again. You'll repeat that process every day.


As a Warehouse Associate, you'll fall into one of the following categories each day:

-Stowers: You push a cart around with several totes full of items, take the items out of the totes, and scan them into bins. If you encounter any bad items, you take them to the Problem Solvers, who will fix the issue. Stowing is considered the most difficult Warehouse Associate job for a number of reasons which will be addressed below.

-Pickers: Quickly push a cart around while pulling items out of bins, using a scanner to scan them into a tote, and placing them on a conveyor. You're being timed during all of this, so stopping or slowing down is rarely an option.

-Packers: Pack items into containers. That's all I know about this one, since I have neither worked in this position nor have I encountered anyone who has.

-Diverters: Occasionally a stower or picker will be placed in a diverting position, which basically just means you're going to stand in one place, pull totes off of a conveyor, and place them on a cart for the stowers to take.



Now, all of these jobs sound simple and straightforward at first, but somehow Amazon manages to complicate them to the point where you'll most likely be buckling under the pressure of mental stress and/or physical fatigue within your first month of employment. This brings us to the primary issues that you'll face as a Warehouse Associate:

RATE: This will determine whether or not you get to keep your job, which is unfortunate for you because it is almost entirely determined by chance and other forces beyond your control. If you encounter too many oversized items, overstuffed bins, damaged items, unlabeled items, supervisor conflicts, or problems with your equipment then you WILL NOT make rate (this applies to both stowers and pickers). At the start of your employment, they'll teach you a standard work procedure that is supposed to help you make rate. However, when you actually start the job, you'll find that those standards no longer apply. The bins are almost always full, so stowers can't find space to put their items and pickers have to constantly sift through items to find what they're after as well. Temperature is also a factor, since the building isn't air conditioned (you'll find that your rates will be even lower on hotter days). If you don't make rate for every single quarter (which you won't), one of your superiors will seek you out and reprimand you for it. They may attempt to give you tips, but they don't truly understand what your job requires, so their "help" is of no use to you. Your rate requirements can even be raised on a whim (which they will be) so all you can do is hope that you get a good set of items in your totes and avoid being fired for another day.

ERRORS: If rate doesn't get you down, these suckers will. Every time you miss (or misplace) an item, you will (once again) be hunted down and vilified by one of your superiors. This kind of makes sense when it's you're fault, but most of the time it won't be. Your scanner is capable of screwing up, missing a scan, or flat-out freezing up in the middle of a scan, all of which can cause you to make an error. Also, the people in receiving could screw up an order and end up putting too many items into the totes 'virtually' but not physically, which means you can be reprimanded over missing items that were never in your tote to begin with. Errors are unavoidable, but like rate, they will eventually cost you your job. In fact, errors are more likely to get you fired, since they put a "write-up" in their records every time one occurs. If you get a few too many write-ups, you're gone.

TOT: This refers to "time off task", which is just a fancy way of saying 'you took too long to come back from break'. Depending on who your supervisor is, they may reprimand you and write you up for getting to your station as little as one minute later than expected. This is yet another unavoidable problem, since the facility is so huge that most of your break will be spent getting from point A to point B anyway.

VIOLATIONS: Occasionally, you'll get a supervisor who's a real stickler about proper procedures. Unfortunately, the proper procedures are ALWAYS changing without any warning, so you're bound to unwittingly violate a few rules. This applies to stowers especially, and this is what makes stowing the hardest job for Warehouse Associates. For example, if you stow items in a certain place or in a certain way that a certain manager doesn't like (such as stacking items on top of each other), you will receive a write-up. This leads us to our next issue...

MANAGEMENT: This. This is what makes your job at Amazon much more difficult than it needs to be. You'll be working for several different managers or supervisors at any given time, and each will want things done their own way. For example, a manager on the third floor might be okay with you stacking items, but the manager on the second floor will write you up for stacking items. A supervisor in the west wing will allow you to put medium items in small bins, but a supervisor in the east wing will not. Once again... it's a game of chance. Since there's nothing set in stone for them, they make up the rules as they go along, and you either prosper or suffer because of it. Turnover also seems to be high among management positions, so you never truly know just who it is you'll be working for each day.

NO GROWTH OPPORTUNITIES: If you're a Warehouse Associate, you'll probably always be a Warehouse Associate (unless you have greater qualifications and apply for something better). There's no ladder for you to climb, and no position for you to be promoted to. You could be trained to become an 'ambassador', but all that means is you get to do the same job, but with additional responsibilities in exchange for slightly more pay.


I believe that Amazon could be a very decent place to work as a Warehouse Associate. It could be... but it isn't. Between the ever-changing rules, the rapidly rising standards, the lack of communication between managers, the dead-end-job status, the absence of job security, and the mistreatment of those in lower positions, there's really no reason to stay employed here for more than a couple months at best. Your coworkers and the free drinks are the only two things you'll genuinely get to enjoy during the work day. All that aside... get in, get what you need out of it, and get out as soon as you can. Otherwise, your employment will be terminated at some point anyway.

Amazon is a good place for you if you like to be pushed literally beyond your limits ALL the time. Speed/rate is what a fulfillment center revolves around. Nothing else matters - JUST rate. I was a picker. Keyword: WAS. Amazon fired me because I was too slow of a picker. I ALWAYS had 100% quality but that didn't matter because I was too slow. I was not a fast walker because I have problems with my feet. But nope. That didn't matter. They were unwilling to let anyone try any different jobs (just to see if maybe I was really good at something else).. I may not have been the fastest picker ever, but I was never given the opportunity to see if maybe I was absolutely amazing at another duty. Amazon treats its FC employees like dirt but anyone who works in any of the corporate offices or headquarters have the best of the best and have really awesome jobs in so many ways. Without FC employees, Amazon wouldn't exist - we're the backbone of Amazon.com - not corporate. When I started out in my first FC in Phoenix, it was ok - I just didn't like being stuck doing the same job all the time when others had lots of opportunities to cross train. Everything went to **** when I transferred to a different PHX FC. The management of 6 was terrible. It was nothing but empty promises, lies and massive favoritism. I will never go back to work for an Amazon FC. They don't pay us enough to deal with what they dish out. Oh! Phoenix is one of the hottest cities in the country temperature wise. None of the FC'S had air conditioning even though orientations said that all FC'S were "climate controlled" - a few fans blowing in one direction only is NOT "climate controlled". Don't fall for that. Oh! And you don't get 15 minute breaks. Breaks are MAYBE 10 minutes if you're lucky enough to be working on the first floor AND near the break rooms. My luck was that I'd end up on the top (3rd) floor and at the OPPOSITE end of the building from the closest break room. The rule with breaks was that AS SOON AS that bell sounded for break, that's when break started. It could take you a full 5 minutes to walk to the break room and maybe that to walk back - depending on where your first item pick was. Most of the time, you'd get a 5 minute break because you'd have to BE BACK PICKING at EXACTLY the 15 minute mark. Oh! Every single second that you're not physically scanning an item, that counts as "time off task" - you can get written up for that easily. If you reach 2 hours of T.O.T. in a day, that's immediate termination - no ifs, no explanations, no nothing. If you have to go answer nature's call during your shift and not on break, that's TOT. You sneeze one too many times? Every literal second counts as TOT. 

I will say that their benefits are pretty dang good. Tuition assistance after being an Amazon employee after a year; health, dental and vision insurance; 401k all start as soon as you sign up after being hired. You also got one stock share that would "vest" (I guess) after a year and would be yours to keep after a year of employment. 

Peak season activities were pretty fun. Lots of giveaways ranging from $5 Amazon gift cards, all the way up to a weekend vacation in Vegas or something like that. 

HR would occasionally pass out snacks and/or drinks at breaks or lunch. (Better eat your snacks and drink your drinks fast because nothing but water is allowed on the FC floor.) 

No phones on the FC floor. 

PTO was great! I forget how much you'd get each pay period, but you could use that at any time without getting manager approval. All you had to do was submit it on the HUB. (PAID time off) 

VTO was extremely common at 3. (Voluntary unpaid time off) If you wanted to leave early or come in late or something like that, sometimes HR would send out and alert offering VTO. The nice thing about VTO was that you didn't have to use any of YOUR hours that you had saved up. The only downside was that it was unpaid. (Oh well. No biggie there for a free few hours off!) VTO wasn't too common at 6 but it happened occasionally. 

Sometimes, you'd get offered the exact opposite of VTO. That would be VET. Voluntary Extra Time. Not always overtime because it depended on how many hours you end up with at the end of the week. Sign up for an extra shift if you felt like making a few extra dollars or catching up on missed hours for whatever reasons. 

The maximum amount of hours you could work in a week was 60. 

Peak season is 10 hours a day and 6 days a week. Normal shifts are around 10 hours anyway. No vacation time is approved during Peak. (Peak is generally from shortly before Black Friday until the day after Christmas. The dates can vary depending on the type of Amazon facility that you work in.) If you're not into taking much time off or something, I'd highly recommend to people that you save up as much PTO as you can before Peak hits. Once Peak hits: no vacation time is allowed and it's EXTREMELY RARE that VTO is offered during Peak. So. God forbid you get sick or need a break or something, you can at least use PTO and take the time off you need. 

Peak is intense. Workload goes up by several times for all departments. 

Amazon is a great place to work as a temp for maybe Peak season (or even Prime Day sometimes) but my personal opinion is that it's not a good place to work if you can't work EXTREMELY fast at all times and with little to no breaks. Working at Amazon will certainly get you your 10,000 steps goal for the day REAL quick. 

Most Amazon FC'S I've seen or worked at are HUGE... One lap round trip around 6 was easily a mile. 

GET GOOD WALKING SHOES. Don't get WALKING shoes though, invest in a good pair of RUNNING shoes. Running shoes support your feet better on the smooth concrete floors. Running shoes have extra "squish" on your feet to better absorb the impacts of your feet on the floor. 

Some FC'S can be very noisy and loud and some aren't. If you're sensitive about your hearing or anything like that, get yourself a GOOD pair of REUSABLE earplugs. Amazon usually provides disposable earplugs. 

Amazon FC'S usually have onsite medical staff. Some are paramedics, some are trained in other medical areas. If you're not feeling well, go to AMCARE. Get too up close and personal with the floor and it left you bloody a bit? go to AMCARE. AMCARE is pretty helpful for a WIDE variety of medical related issues, questions, etc.

I suppose I will summarize my entire experience with this company so that anyone going in REALLY knows what to expect.
Starting off at amazon things weren’t so bad. I had just lost a job and needed another one fast, and amazon seemed to be the best option at the time. I’m assuming the hiring process is pretty straight forward most of the time, however that did not seem to be the case with me. I went in for the initial briefing and drug testing. I went home and received an email saying something along the lines of me not submitting the drug test (I definitely did), so I contacted someone with amazon and they scheduled me for another drug test TWO WEEKS later. Which sucked but whatever. Got a verification email and triple checked date and time. I show up and no one is there, they say they don’t have anything scheduled. I have to show them my email and then they finally let me take the drug test. Went home. Got an email saying that I didn’t show, AGAIN. So I call and explain and they just offer me a position and a shift? So I guess they don’t really care about the drug tests that much. 
Starting off at amazon it was ok. I actually kind of enjoyed it for a little while. If you are physically prepared for a fast-paced, active job where you are on your feet for 10 straight hours then you should be fine. However the job is also monotonous, boring, and overall just a drag. You’re treated as slaves and expected to work in a robotic manner. But if you’re into that, then more power to you. 
Amazon is very misleading when hiring. They make it sound as if their is room for growth and advancement in their company. However, they would rather hire people straight out of college with degrees than allow current employees the opportunity to work their way up. On that note, most managers are BARELY trained to do what they are managing. As a picker, my manager literally just picked for a couple of hours one shift and then started managing. Because of this not only do they have no idea what they’re talking about most of the time, they are also totally unsympathetic when you don’t meet the ridiculous and unrealistic quotas you are given. That mentality pretty much applies to Amazon as a whole though. I would work myself into the ground and surpass quotas by an exceptional amount and I would either receive no recognition or I would simply get a pat on the back. But GOD FORBID you have an off night and you don’t meet your 105% minimum quota ( that’s right, not 100%, 105%).  You can be sick, sore, hurt, doesn’t matter. If you are hurt they only accommodate you when it’s convenient for them. 
Also they are completely unforgiving when it comes to absences. So just pray that nothing ever happens to where you can’t work because unless you take a leave (which is also a giant pain and you have to take it for an extended period of time) you’re screwed. Personally I suffer from migraines and obviously I can’t predict when those will pop up, nor can I take a leave every time it happens, so I spent many nights barely able to function walking around amazons warehouse. 
When you’re hired, you are told that you get intermittent 15 breaks throughout your shift and a 30 minute lunch period. All I have to say is don’t look forward to those 15 breaks too much. Because that 15 minutes includes the time it takes you to get to a break room from wherever you are at as well as the time it takes you to return to your task, so basically you have like an 8 minute break if you’re lucky. If you are located in one of the far sides of the building, well... good luck. You may as well just sit where you’re at and rest your legs, but you’ll get written up for that too. Another perk of breaks is that only ONE of the break rooms allows you to have your phone (no phones in the building, if you accidentally bring that in they are pretty unforgiving about that as well), so bring a book or find some other way to entertain yourself if you don’t have time or don’t want to walk to the front of the building and go through security every time you have a “break”. And forget about going to the bathroom. They expect you to do that on your already impossibly short breaks, if you haven’t scanned or picked anything for five minutes you’re officially “off task”, even if you’re just desperately trying to find a bathroom that’s open and not being cleaned. 
On the topic of “time off task”, I found this place impossible to make friends because you literally cannot stop what you’re doing to talk or anything. So I really felt like I was a robot. 
And if you’re still considering working at amazon, just don’t start there full time right before or during peak. I went from not working to being on my feet trying to exceed impossible standards for picking for 12 hours straight, 5 days in a row, for 4-ish weeks. They try to make it “fun” by offering hot dogs and other cheap nonsense but it was miserable. I’d rather choke. 
Overall I’m sure you can tell I did not particularly enjoy working here. My body felt like it started to really feel the effects, my hips hurts most of the time, and both of my knees are giving me problems (I’m a healthy person outside of work and in decent shape, so that’s not the issue). Apart from the physical aspects of this job, it was also totally mind-numbing, robotic, and solitary. And while this job may be challenging physically, mentally I felt reduced to a nothing, because mentally the job isn’t hard, it’s just so easy that it gets incredibly boring and turns you into a zombie. I felt no sense of community, everyone there was always dreading being there, and there was just an aura of misery in that place that I can’t quite explain. We were all just there because we needed a paycheck. 
Pay is good, benefits are good. There’s a taco truck that comes during lunch sometimes. Those are pretty much the only good things I have to say.  I wouldn’t mind working a flex schedule (where you get to pick and choose your hours) here during peak just for some extra cash for holiday shopping, but as far as long term employment goes, I would say make this place a last resort. I could go on even more, but I know I’ve said more than enough.

Work-life balance
Amazon will “Without Notice” add flex time to your shift 
It could be up to 1 hour before or 1 hour after. If you are 5 minutes late to either they will give you a 1/2 point. 6 points and you’re fired. They will not tell you they added flex time. And they like to do it by surprise towards the end of a shift when you can’t be on your phone to check. They won’t tell you what time you’re supposed to get off. And if a supervisor lets you off early. They will hold you responsible and give you 1/2 point for clocking put early. They do not care about you and they will not take the point off.

Pay & benefits
The pay is the only thing that’s good about Amazon. You’ll have to put up with a lot of abuse to keep working here.

Job security and advancement
Working here you will start off with a white badge. they will expect you to scan until your babysitter lets you go somewhere else. Which is to be a water spider. If scanning is full they will send you somewhere else. Where if you do good there and that manager wants you there (I was good at inbound) they will get angry with you send a supervisor to grab you and make a spectacle. And take you back to scanning. Then they will block access to training options and restart your scanning “Probation” they are really good at screwing you over here at Amazon

Management
Management is terrible. No one deserves their job here. Everyone answers to the Amazon way. Which is designed to punish anyone who speaks out against the terrible and evil way which they treat employees. If they see you do good at any job any point in time. They will try to break you. They will overwork you then expect you to work even harder. Their goal is to cause you to die on the spot. They will add “Flex” time to your shift, and they won’t tell you when you get off after adding flex time. Then another manager will tell you to clock out before the end of your flex time shift and they will give you points for it and refuse to remove those points. They will treat you like a child and punish you for trying to be a good employee

Culture
Amazon is evil. Period. You’re worked like a slave. They add flex time to your schedule and do not tell you. the flex time is added electronically so it ends up on your actual schedule. They usually add flex time after you come back from break so you cannot check your phone to see if they added this time. Then they will tell you to clock out early before the end of your flex time and punish you for it by giving you a half point. 6 points and you’re fired. Amazon treated us like children. Amazon tries to physically break you. You need to be certified to do anything at Amazon certified by Amazon. They don’t care about any prior education or experience. If you end up going to another department before your 2 week scanning probation ends. They will restart your 2 week scanning probation and then block you from receiving training. Amazon punishes whistleblowers. They lie and make false accusations. They work you like a slave and then work you harder. If you die on the job they will work over your dead body. They were constantly overflowing in inbound and still trying to push us to work harder. I felt like I was having a heart attack in my fourth day. The day prior they expected me to unload 4 trucks by myself. All packages weighing between 10 and 75 pounds. Most of them packaged incorrectly. With the heavy packages on the bottom and top out of your reach. So that when you pull light packages in the middle to reach the top packages you’ll have heavy packages fall on your head. If you get injured you will be punished. And or fired. Amazon culture is evil. You are a slave to Amazon. And there is no other way

Overall
In the beginning Amazon woos you with great benefits and a shoe allowance from Zappos. Once you start working it’s a different story. They will add “flex” time to your shift without notice. This usually happens near the end of your shift after your one and only break when you cannot be on the phone. They will not tell you when your shift ends. If another supervisor tell you to clock put for the day and it ends up being more than 5 minutes before your flex shift is supposed to end they will give you attendance points. When you reach 6 points you will be fired. They changed my schedule 5 times in the first week and had to fight to have points removed. I was following my contracted schedule verbatim but they didn’t add the schedule to the system so it was giving me points. It took Amazon almost a week to get my schedule right. In my first few days there I went to inbound even though they wanted me to do nothing but scan. I took a few extra shifts before my first scheduled shift. And as a result I worked in inbound. And the supervisors in inbound. wanted me back in inbound. While I was in inbound I worked like a dog. I liked inbound except when I had to unload 5 18 foot trucks completely by myself and they expected me to do it in 30 minutes. Most of the packages were incorrectly packaged and weighed between 5 and 75 pounds. They wanted me to do this by myself with zero rest and afterwards expected me to do more strenuous work. When my first scheduled shift began. I went to inbound. And they found out and sent managers to harass me and take me back to scanning. Then they punished me and tried to block me from receiving training. When I went to scanning they added flex time to my schedule and did not tell me. Then when the supervisors told me to clock out before my flex ended I received points for this. HR refused to take the points off. Management treats the employees like children. And you’re expected to work to your absolute limit and try to work harder after you reached your physical limit and if you die on the job they will just work over you and act like you never existed. 
Amazon has an ethics line but they work in coordination with the management and report all whistleblowers to HR and management. Amazons policy is designed to punish whistleblowers and try to prevent them from ever working anywhere ever again. Amazon is evil period.

There's little to be said here that hasn't already been voiced by so many people. Amazon pays fairly, has a robust system in place that will help you along, and the work, while mundane and physically taxing (especially if you work an overnight shift- very deleterious to your health) is not really cruel or overwhelming. It's just that the overall experience has no soul. 

Granted, I worked there while everyone wore a mask, but I don't believe it makes a difference otherwise. People come and go in tired droves. You have a nice interaction with someone one day, trade a couple of smiles, an empathetic line or two, and you may never see them again. There are supervisors who stop by every few days for maybe 10 to 15 seconds. They ask you: How are you doing? You answer. They are holding a clipboard or a box cutter. They look world weary. You pity them. Do they pity you? They leave. 

You are hauling grass seed. You are shuffling iPhone cases. You are sorting lingerie. You are looking at a bicycle helmet. Where is the barcode? A box can fit one hundred more boxes. Pillows and pills and baby books and tape and dust and toxicity labels. You are hauling cat food. You are falling behind the clock. The clock turns red. You are moving with speed and intensity. You grip, turn clockwise and counterclockwise, you peer this way and another, you find a tear in the cover of one of thirty copies of a New York Times best-seller. You set it aside where the recycling is piling up. It's hot. Sweat fills your gloves. You are following the steps of the ROBOTS acronym which delineates the entirety of your responsibilities. 

Your lips are dry. They haven't opened in hours. There is no one to talk to, but more importantly, no reason to speak. It is a needless expenditure of energy and moisture.

The whirring of industrial fans is one thing. The rumbling conveyer belts are another; they sink into your ears. Streams of cardboard. Glinting aluminum. There is more metal in here than you could have conceived. 

Two voices emerge in argument. Someone has misplaced a box meant for another person's workstation. They yell briefly at one another. It is the first thing either of them have said for hours, and the only utterance you will hear from another human being today. They do not reconcile because there is no reason to, and because their clocks are going yellow to warning red. These people don't know one another. They are distant, penned-in stars.

There are days that any restroom is a 10-minute walk (or jog, if you're hoping to outpace your workspace timer). There are days you realize the true cost of dehydration (relative to your being more fortunate than some). There are days you are 1 minute late from lunch because you decided to walk, which takes 10 minutes, and not jog, which takes less, up the stairs and over the concrete, and you see warnings flash on your workstation screen, and you begin to feel a desperate connectivity to just about anyone in the world. You think about people you may never have thought about before, in Delhi or Chengdu or Oxfordshire, with maybe a little less snobbery or avoidance. There are Amazon fulfillment centers on five continents. Africa will be sixth. Antarctica will open when robots can coexist with penguins or simply melts.

For select hours, if you work especially hard, and are very lucky, you will be entered into a raffle for a randomly sized cash bonus.

My name was used every once in a while, each time with the winging uncertainty of being spoken the very first time. 

I felt sorry for everyone there, as if I myself was not there. I believe I was pitied by others. There were moments of uncomfortable shared pity. I wish the robots could speak. I would have liked to know if they pitied us. I envied them. I wonder if that was the point. 

Everything is so functional at Amazon. We are familiar with and implicitly approving of their products. I can attest to their employee app, to the training materials, to the cafeteria, to the organization of things outside of the general chaos (visual, auditory, thematic) of a warehouse environment, and to their vending machine glove dispensers. I cannot, however, attest to the people with whom I worked, and shared a space or a harried glance with occasionally, and generally liked and rooted for whenever the chance arose. I cannot attest to them because I don't really remember them. It is a fog of people. The robots scurry like pill bugs around a sepulcher of the living. 

It is not the underworld nor purgatory. It is not some Kafkaesque vision or Dantean joke. It is not anything dramatic, fantastic, eccentric, or even unexpected. It is not these things, not other things, not an innumerable number of things.

There is really nothing wrong with working there. It is the fact of it that is wrong. Is unreasonable. Is unwise. Is antithetical to what you might believe is true and special about life.

Regardless of whether you'd like to work at Amazon sometime, I encourage you to find some means of entering a fulfillment center and seeing what it is like there. You will probably not get in. But, if you do, look at all the people, every single one of them. Try to imagine, to sense in your mind, who they are. Go then to the top platform, as if at the Eiffel Tower, and look out over the entire facility. The sheer enormity, the complexity, the design and execution, the human ingenuity, the human will and the human make. The human quotient in this place. What would you think?

Please do consider it. I promise you it would be time well spent.

And as warmly as I can write: Good Luck!









I have worked for an Amazon fulfillment center in Michigan for over a year and I am not at all impressed with Amazon in the slightest. In this review I will cover three aspects, probably the most important to a hard working individual trying to make ends meet with the least amount of incompetence and ignorance in the work place as possible.
  First I would like to cover the equipment. As you know most of Amazons equipment is automated or machine based. In the year I have worked for amazon I have found that most of the equipment in not just my department but all the departments is defective in some way. I have spoken with many employee’s in different departments and we have all come to the conclusion that the equipment is second hand. The equipment I work with is defective or has moments of not functioning every day, at least eight to ten times a day, and that’s just the station I use, it matters not if I move to another station, it will display the same pattern of not functioning. For example, my Arsaw station will tell me to put a tote on it even though there is a tote already in place, and then it will go back to functioning normally for a few minutes and then tell me to place a tote on it again. I endure this for ten hours a day, four days a week and on the days I come in to work overtime. We have automated robots that bring us products to pick and place in totes but these robots are constantly running over items that have fallen onto the floor or they are just losing signal constantly, all day long. All of these situations impact your rate, your units per hour and Amazon can’t do anything to fix these problems. 
  Second I would like to discuss management. I have found that management in my building are just winging it. When it comes down to professionalism you will find that management at amazon are nothing more than just people amazon picked at random it seems because I have not seen one REAL manager since I have been in this building. You may think that I am being funny but I assure you with the utmost sincerity that no manager in the building I work at is qualified enough to lead anything, you basically have to tell them what needs to be done. Example, one day, we had a floor breakdown which means that a work stoppage is called for employees on that floor. For three hours over thirty employees did nothing but stand around in the stand up area. When they went back to work I asked the manager why she didn’t have all these employee’s remove the upside down totes (Totes that no longer function due to wear and warpage) down to the first floor for exodus out of the building. She looked at me and said she didn’t think about it. I walked away, punched out and went home.  Another example of our management is during prime week, one of our busier work weeks, our management palletized hundreds of totes and shipped them out of the building for some reason, knowing it was prime week and that we would be picking thousands of items. So guess what? We ran out of totes for like two hours and work stopped because we didn’t have any totes. Really? During prime week? This happened two days in a row, as if they didn’t learn from the previous day. These are just a few examples of Management at its finest, of course I have many more examples but I just wanted to give you an idea.
  Lastly I would like to talk about amazons hiring process. Amazon doesn’t conduct interviews so you don’t exactly get the sharpest tools in the shed, nor the hardest working team either. Instead you end up with a few excellent workers, a few “OK” workers and a majority of lazy workers who try and leech off the backs of the hard working employees. Which is why there are really no hard working employees at amazon anymore they all left for better jobs. Why stay and work hard while 8 of 10 other employees are doing nothing? What’s the point? Everyone gets paid the same even though some work harder than others? Some walk around all day and do no work and no one says anything. 
  Amazon is a good place to work if you are a lazy, uneducated person who is not thinking about laying down a plan for your future. If you don’t care about what is ahead in your life or have no plans of going higher in your life and just want to stay at the same amount of pay at some dead end job then amazon is for you. If you are a highly intelligent individual, with a knack for thinking in real time, able to problem solve and rationally solve problems on the fly then do not waste your time at amazon. Find a place that you can be employed for using your brain and natural talents. There is no talent at amazon, except the talent of doing as little work as possible and then having to work mandatory overtime because no one did any work during the week. My warehouse is ranked 35 out of 35 and will remain because no one has the brains to improve the situation even though its common sense. If you are good at your job and you want to transfer to another department to learn something else they won't allow you to leave because you have to carry all the employees who can't do the job or don't work. I have tried to get out of my department a few times but they won't let me. Everyone can't believe im in the same department for over a year. If that doesn't say enough to you then I don't know what else to say to you.

This place is amazing, I hardly know where to start.  I was hired on as a picker through Integrity staffing solutions. My shift was nights 6:30am - 5am.  
Day 1 - you start in a group of 5 with a learning ambassador. A learning ambassador is a regular employee with a great work record that obviously excels at his / her job. The training is so/so, it all depends on the learning ambassador you get.  These are not training pros, just nice people that are good at their job, but not necessarily great trainers.  

 It’s overwhelming at first just because of the massive scale and volume of this place. The warehouse itself is 1/2 mile long and 1/4 mile wide.  As a picker you will walk roughly 12-15 miles at work EVERY DAY. This is one of the reasons I wanted this job, I wanted to work out while getting paid.  But watch out what you ask for you just might get it and more.  In addition to all the walk miles, you are bending over to pick the lower bins many many many times.  My first night I was so sore I could hardly walk. Full disclosure I’m 62 years old but I do run about 16 miles a week (when not working here obviously) also the upper bins require a ladder or step stool, so you’re doing that as many times as you are stooping.  All of this requires great physical effort and mental concentration.  Why mental concentration? 

Enter the scan gun (scanner) this is where it gets interesting.  The scanner is your tool that tells you everything. What to do, where to go, what to scan, when to go to the next location. Basically this little machine is your boss.  Your performance is monitored and you are managed through your scanner. You are logged into your scanner when not on break / lunch - always.    The managers that you rarely see can see your every move, and if you are not actively scanning product into bins, you will get flagged. No you can’t goof off, which I don’t care about, I like to stay productive and busy, but this takes practice.  There are numerous opportunities for error and confusion, and at first I promise you it’s overwhelming, it’s hard to not make mistakes. But fear not, the scanner will correct you into the correct action, but every error effects your overall productivity rate. 

It took me a week to get used to the scanner and knowing which bar code to scan every time.  You can check your stats anytime right on your scanner everything is updated in real time. This tool is also a powerful computer.  After 10 hours of doing this I promise you are mentally and physically exhausted. Like I said, after a week, I was fairly smooth at it.  

Currently we’re at peak season and there are over 250 pickers spread out like ants all over the massive space - 500 total -250 nights 250 days. 

The breaks and lunches work like this:
In a 10 hr shift
(2)15 minute breaks
(1) 30 minute lunch 

However, it does not work that way.  And the managers are very up front about this. 
Your 15 minute break is really a 10 minute break
Your 30 minute lunch is really a 25 minute lunch 
Why? - because it takes 5 minutes walking time round trip to get to and from your location to the break room.  You also have to pass through “airport style security” just to get to the break room.  Don’t forget you usually have to use the restroom.  I find this to be the biggest downside of the job. A joke actually.  Your 15 minute break is really a 7 minute break, and your lunch is a 20 minute recharge.  You must stay hydrated and fueled or you’ll get sick, this happened to me once.  Downing 3 cups of water cured me, but you must be careful.  

The shift is broken down into 4 quarters like a football game - after halftime (lunch) there’s a big stand up meeting that’s more like a rally with calisthenics and motivational speaking.  This is when you find out where we are to the daily goals, and motivated to do more.  Common mistakes and best practices are highlighted, safety is preached throughout. It’s actually kind of cool. But the party is over quickly and you’re back logged into your scanner and walking miles with your scan gun and cart.  I liked this job very much.  Full disclosure, I signed up for this job during peak season just for fun and supplement my social security.  While I was doing this job, UPS called and offered me peak delivery driver work for $6/hour more ($21.00) and also a day shift in Mesa where I winter. The ups job checked all the boxes, so my amazon experience was over after 2 weeks. Hey you can’t turn down a good offer when it comes.  This just happened as I write this, I’m giving my notice today. 

Lastly I noticed that the younger folks were much better at this job than me.  I think I did fairly well, I got my production up and errors down, but the younger folk I noticed were excelling at a high level.  Also I met some very nice people, and although I was corrected when I made mistakes, no one yelled at me or made me feel stupid.  

Therefore if you’re looking for a job, you should give this one a shot.  If your a motivated individual, you will do well, and make a decent living for your family.

As a person who looks at the metaphorical glass being half full, I have always focused on the positives in places that I work. 

That having been said, I can find little to no positives at the Amazon Fulfillment Center (FC).  The leadership walks around with tunnel vision, staring straight ahead and avoiding eye contact even when you say hello. 

The rules are constantly changing depending on which manager is in charge, though the company brags about standard work practices. 

The low wage is comparable to a fast food restaurant, even though it can be tedious and back breaking labor. 

The employees are promised two fifteen minute breaks, yet it takes five minutes to travel to and from any break room- most people have learned to sit quietly at their stations rather than risking being written up for not making it back, and going one minute over their allotted break time. After repeated employees voicing complaints, the facility has responded by saying, "We have always said you get two ten minute breaks during your shift, if you don't like it, there's the door." 

The company explains that employees cannot bring phones into the facility because it is a safety hazard, yet contract employees who frequently work within the FC not only have phones, but are watching Youtube and checking Facebook while they are there. 

The opportunity to advance is limited to Tier 2 and 3 unless you have a Bachelor's Degree or have been with the company for several years. Even so- the way the promotion system is set up, you must apply for a job, and then ALL correspondence about the status of your job application is done through your manager. That means that if HR has scheduled an interview, you put your trust into your manager having your best interest and checking their Email in a timely manner to inform you of any updates. Your manager will have full control over your advancement within the company, and they are able to sabotage that advancement if they decided to. 

Positive motivation does not exist with most managers. The only thing they seem to know is, "Work harder and faster or I will write your up." 

Another issue with the FC is the cleanliness within. Flies are constantly fluttering around the break room and facility, and fully mature roaches are seen regularly in the stairwells. Management will just tell you that this is normal for any large building that has food within, "Just squish the ones you see." 

Amazon advertises a climate controlled warehouse, yet walking inside is like walking into a humid tropical jungle. It can take your breath away. Verbal fighting over the less than adequate number of fans is a regular thing at the FC, as well as fighting over step stools that associates use as chairs at their stations. It is not uncommon for someone to steal a fan or stool while another associate is at their break or lunch.

Should you find yourself getting injured (torn back or leg muscle), a qualified employee is at the first aid room to patch you back up and send you back. Full disclosure- I do not know this first hand, but I have heard from several sources that the FC does not do paperwork at the time of the injury. Instead telling the associates, "We will treat you in house for three weeks and if it doesn't get better, we will fill out the paperwork saying you were injured on site." 

You will need to watch your time clock punches closely because HR is notorious for deducting an hour or two of UnPaid Time off (UPT) each month due to "errors." When you lose two hours of UPT in a month, you lose a 4% bonus as well. I have personally had to correct HR twice in the last two months alone to get my UPT back. You can also forget about getting the productivity bonuses that are available as your productivity is dependent on everybody doing their job efficiently, and everything running smoothly. Your picking or stowing station can go down for fifteen to twenty minutes at a time depending on the competence level of those that are trying to restart it.

Lastly, the company does mass recruitment to fill the repeated voids in their workforce. Going to job fairs in the area usually means, "Amazon is hiring, do you want to work at Amazon?" Many of the people at the facility travel over an hour to and from work each day because Amazon has exhausted the supply of local residents. Most people work at the facility just for the benefits.

I have worked at places where people were sour about, and have done my best to find good things about them. The Amazon Fulfillment Center is the first place that I have worked where I can find little to no positives other than a pay check.

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