The growth in Amazon, a shipping service, has gone up exponentially over the past decade, surpassing it’s competitors such as Ebay and CraigsList. Amazon is known for it’s innovative methods, and is used widely across the world. However, looking into the company’s internal corporate structure, employees of the company frequently complain about their treatment. Although Amazon is within it’s legal bounds, people are beginning to value a company’s ethics over their profitable success.
Amazon is known by it’s employees to follow a more traditional corporate structure. This means that the company favors punishment over reward, which is used as an incentive to increase work productivity. An example of this is Amazon’s policy on employee sick days. They have a system of “sick points”, which essentially boils down to limiting employees to 6 days a year which they can be sick. Amazon threatens to fire their employees if their sick days surpass this amount.
Another concern regarding Amazon’s employee treatment is their low wages in comparison to their long work weeks. Employees often have to work overtime on Saturdays, sometimes resulting in 7 day work weeks. In addition, I find it bizarre that employees must ask to use the restroom, from the permission of their manager.
Although I am usually satisfied by the quality and efficiency of Amazon’s services, I find myself uneasy to know that their employees resent their work. In comparison to a company like Zappos, it must be hard on Amazon employees to know that their poor treatment is not necessary to the company’s success.
-Timmy
Reference: Amazon Employee Forum