Amazon the Employer

I swear by buying just about anything I can from Amazon.  The prices are reasonable.  The customer service is excellent.  The web site is easy to manipulate. 

But an article in the Columbia Journalism Review led me to this expose about Amazon's warehouse practices in Pennsylvania.  It does not lead me to think I would like to work for Amazon.  

First of all, it would be difficult to work for them at this warehouse, as most of the staff is first hired on a temporary basis by an outside agency.  The article was written last September and a good number of worker complaints were due to the heat in the warehouse during a summer heat wave.  Temperatures exceeded 100 degrees.  Unlike most warehouses, Amazon kept all the doors closed to "prevent theft".  The heat was so bad that Amazon hired paramedics and an ambulance to stay outside the warehouse to treat employees staggered from the heat.

But heat was not the only complaint.  Some employees claimed that overtime was mandatory.  Others were pushed over and over to up their productivity no matter how high that productivity already was. In an economy where unemployment is high and jobs scarce Amazon was able to make demands of their employees which, to put it charitably, were not indicative of a company that cared for its workers.

There are other areas besides working conditions that lead one to have severe reservations about buying at Amazon.  I'll be discussing them over the next few days.