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What Do You Know About Amazon The Employer?

LuteHawk

HR Legend
Nov 30, 2011
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Amazon is the 2nd largest employer in the U.S. with
with 1 million workers. Walmart is #1 with 1.6 million
employees.

They pay $18 per hour as their minimum wage for workers.
They have received criticism for their inhumane working
conditions in their warehouses. They fight unionization
among their workers at every step of the way.

Please add to this thread what you know about Amazon as
as an employer.
 
They’re building a big ass distribution center at exit 209 on I-10 in Tallahassee.
I think this means I’ll get my prime purchase drone delivered by midnight.
 
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I know nothing about them as an employer.

If EE's don't like how they are treated they can go somewhere else.

Plenty of jobs out there.
 
I talked to a white collar employee one time (either project mgt or marketing, can't remember) and they said it was terrible. I can't remember specifics but it sounded like typical public company stuff (all about the numbers, no sense of mission, treating employees like means to an end, etc.).
 
I talked to a white collar employee one time (either project mgt or marketing, can't remember) and they said it was terrible. I can't remember specifics but it sounded like typical public company stuff (all about the numbers, no sense of mission, treating employees like means to an end, etc.).
I think Amazon is pretty upfront about that at the very least. I can't stand the companies that put on the facade of being mission driven, like 'family', etc but then fire a bunch of the family and spend billions on buybacks.
 
I know they hire a lot of low and no skilled workers to do low and no skilled type of jobs and pay them rather well for said jobs. I know many of those workers then complain about having to work.
 
I think Amazon is pretty upfront about that at the very least. I can't stand the companies that put on the facade of being mission driven, like 'family', etc but then fire a bunch of the family and spend billions on buybacks.
I definitely appreciate how little they try to pretend they're a socially responsible company. My employer is an absolute joke in this regard.
 
From a consumer perspective, Amazon is incredible IMO. Am I not supposed to shop there because the employees have to work hard?

People choose to work for Amazon. And in this country we have OSHA, ERISA and any number of laws that protect workers from unfair labor practices.

Do they work harder than roofers in the summer? Do they risk their lives like fireman, cops, or the military? Do they have to put up with the kinds of crap faced by teachers and waitresses every day?

Ok, I get it. It's a demanding job and maybe the pay is not commensurate with the demands. Go get your degree and teach - lots of demand for teachers these days.
 
From a consumer perspective, Amazon is incredible IMO. Am I not supposed to shop there because the employees have to work hard?

People choose to work for Amazon. And in this country we have OSHA, ERISA and any number of laws that protect workers from unfair labor practices.

Do they work harder than roofers in the summer? Do they risk their lives like fireman, cops, or the military? Do they have to put up with the kinds of crap faced by teachers and waitresses every day?

Ok, I get it. It's a demanding job and maybe the pay is not commensurate with the demands. Go get your degree and teach - lots of demand for teachers these days.
I would rather pay more for Amazon shit and the people who work there get paid better and don't have to pee in bottles. Employers break labor laws all the time because fines for it are not very prohibitive. Also I don't cosign your last paragraph at all (quite the opposite). Someone needs to do a lot of these jobs and with your way they're always treated like dirt. One of America's biggest problems by far in my opinion is that Americans see themselves primarily as consumers and they only empathize with consumers. The only exception to this seems to be discussions about wait staff for some reason. Harder to ignore when they're in front of you working I suppose.
 
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I would rather pay more for Amazon shit and the people who work there get paid better and don't have to pee in bottles. Employers break labor laws all the time because fines for it are not very prohibitive. Also I don't cosign your last paragraph at all (quite the opposite). Someone needs to do a lot of these jobs and with your way they're always treated like dirt. One of America's biggest problems by far in my opinion is that Americans see themselves primarily as consumers and they only empathize with consumers. The only exception to this seems to be discussions about wait staff for some reason. Harder to ignore when they're in front of you working I suppose.
I'd pay a premium to shop on Amazon as well , but none of it would go to the workers. And even if it did they would still have to do drug testing.

My only point is that there are lots of sh^tty jobs in this country. I wish worker pay could increase across the board so everyone could make a living wage, but the market determines worker pay.

Capitalism is a bitch. But it's better than anything else.
 
I think it would be really interesting to compare Costco to Amazon. Costco has a reputation as being employee friendly, they allow unions, have reasonable compensation/benefits. They reportedly have low turnover and high job satisfaction. My impression is that Costco sees value in supporting their staff because hiring and training employees is costly and happier workers provide better service and are more reliable. I don't think there is that much of a difference in pay between these companies. A lot of the difference is culture and environment.
 
I would rather pay more for Amazon shit and the people who work there get paid better and don't have to pee in bottles. Employers break labor laws all the time because fines for it are not very prohibitive. Also I don't cosign your last paragraph at all (quite the opposite). Someone needs to do a lot of these jobs and with your way they're always treated like dirt. One of America's biggest problems by far in my opinion is that Americans see themselves primarily as consumers and they only empathize with consumers. The only exception to this seems to be discussions about wait staff for some reason. Harder to ignore when they're in front of you working I suppose.
They are allegedly get paid $18+/hr to do low/no skilled jobs. No way in hell are they being asked/forced to piss in bottles. Nor are they preventing employees from taking breaks. There are laws protecting against those that are strictly enforced.
 
I had a project manager who ventured over to work on their AWS platform not even a year ago. Someone time in early summer he resigned, tried recruiting a few of us to make the jump. Unfortunately for him, was in the latest round of layoffs
 
Employers violate the law all the time with little or no repercussion in part thanks to people (employers and employees both) not knowing the law.
Sure some skirt laws, but they aren’t making them skip breaks or not allowing them to go to the restroom. Especially not a company as big and as much under the microscope as Amazon.
 
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