Some Not So Great Employer Examples....

I chatted with an old colleague of mine today from my Amazon days.  For those of you that don't know, I used to work as an Area Manager in a fulfillment center (basically a warehouse) for Amazon.  I got this job right out of college and went into it with an open mind and high energy.  Long story short, the culture and lack of support I encountered was disappointing and I didn't stay with the company too long.  This experience did inspire me to investigate ways that I could get involved in promoting employee well-being in the workplace and lead me to where I am today - a recent masters graduate, trying to get into the corporate wellness industry.  (If you care to read more on the Amazon culture that I am talking about, feel free to read this article that was written while I was working for the company.)

Anyways, I am no longer in that space, but this friend of mine still is.  This individual has been at the company for almost 5 years now and I asked them how they were fairing with the recent outbreak and panic.  I misunderstood them when they said something about 'before everything is shut down' and thought that they meant the fulfillment centers were closing.  This was, however, not the case.  I was then informed that the center where this individual works was actually calling for overtime for their hourly employees until the end of April.  This would, of course, also mean more hours for the salaried managers, such as my friend.  The company was incentivizing the hourly employees with a $2 pay bump for the overtime, but had put no plans in place to reward the salaried workers for their extra time.  When I worked for Amazon, my "bonus" after the 6-day-a-week schedule of the holiday peak season was a $75 Amazon gift card......  Additionally, it seemed as if the attendance policies stood in place for the hourly employees.  While Amazon overall may have encouraged individuals to stay home if they felt sick, those working in the warehouses are still expected to report to their shifts or use their accrued time.

It is interesting to note that most people have no idea what it takes to have items shipped to your door.  My own roommate has ordered toilet paper online in order to avoid the crazed supermarkets in the days where we were stocking up.  When I was at Amazon, paper goods were some of the most common items shipped out of our fulfillment center and I can imagine that many others have the same thought process as my roommate currently.  What most don't think about is how those items travel through a warehouse or who is responsible for making sure they get to their final destination.  Many of the workers in these fulfillment centers rely on their income from work to support themselves and their families and I would bet that a large percentage of them would risk going to work while being sick to make some extra money.  With a virus that has a long incubation period (meaning you could be contagious and not even know that you yourself are sick), these close quarters workers are a population that has a much higher risk.  I've seen other past colleagues post about how what Amazon is doing by staying fully operational is actually a positive for society.  While I can understand that individuals want to utilize delivery services, I don't believe that this alone can justify or validate putting thousands at risk every day in the warehouses.

I'm disappointed with Amazon now, just as I was when I worked there 5 years ago.  They talk a big game, but don't really act.  I have heard stories from other big companies who have taken similar approaches.  Blue Origin, an aerospace company in Seattle, apparently had a company wide meeting where it told workers to stay home if they felt sick, but also that everyone was expected to be at work.  Another friend of mine sent me a message basically saying that this company wasn't taking any definitve stance on work from home policies.  They said that upper management was being passive aggressive and hoping that people feel enough pressure to keep coming in to work, while also leaving the door open to claim that they are letting people work from home.  I was absolutely livid for my friend when they told me this, especially because their job function could easily be done remotely.

I don't think that these examples are in the majority, thank goodness.  But, it does say something about the culture that exists in many of our industries here in the U.S.  It says that output is more important that the humans that are producing that output.  I disagree.

Soon I will write a post about the best practices that I have found amongst companies as far as making sure they take care of their employees.  I wanted to share these tidbits first, as they are two stories that come from my own personal network.

Don't let this post get you down - like I said, I do think that cases such as these are the minority and that society is challenging the output over human capital ideology.

-Vicky