I’ve seen these new ads amazon have of their staff lounging around talking about bollocks like how to make a cup of tea or best british dinner, all looking very happy and healthy. And it got me wondering, we all know that’s absolute nonsense and the reality of being an amazon warehouse employee is total misery, right? But *how* miserable is it?
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My cousin worked in one and said it wasn’t half as bad as people make out.
Said it was hard work but they worked their way up pretty quickly and got loads of OT. Think their job title was team lead or area manager or something.
Seen their payslip once and(during peak) they were making more in a week than I was making in a month.
I did 4/5 months seasonal work in a warehouse – the pay was good and because it was during peak they had a lot of staff games like quizzes where you could win Amazon Shows and echo dots etc and every day if you found that little boxman mascot they had somewhere in the warehouse you won a prize. Hours were a bit shit, 55hrs a week was expected and if they asked you to come in on a day off you had to have a really good excuse otherwise they’d just terminate your contract. Someone I worked with was asked two days before if they could work on that Thursday and she said no as she was moving house and had everything booked and then she just never came back to work as they deemed her unreliable.
I was there during Covid and they were so incredibly strict about it that I was amazed. Weekly testing, and actually cared about your well-being. I had to self isolate after being near someone who had covid, reported it to the automated phone line and got two weeks off full pay, and still got the Christmas bonus that you were to get if you worked all of your scheduled shifts during peak. HR phoned me twice (once at the start and once towards the end) during my isolation to make sure my mental health was okay as well.
It isn’t the best place to work by any means – I started off picking which was easy, and then got moved to packing which was a lot harder as it’s more noticeable when you’re a bit slower, going to the toilet (that was 3 min walk away) really impacted your packing speed so you couldn’t really drink too much water otherwise you’d need to pee too often and you’d fall way behind and get spoken to etc
I’m from Swansea to know quite a few people that have worked at our one. Most of them actually spoke quite highly of it for what it was, hard work but a decent wage and they were actually looked after there.
Girlfriend makes 30-35k on nights depending on OT for the year. Moving up in the warehouse is a case of whose arse you kiss.
My uncle worked there for a time.
He said that the horror stories you read in the press about working conditions are exaggerated myths. Said its no worse than any other ‘line’ type job. The work is fast-paced and you have targets to hit, but said its the sort of work you can easily switch your brain off for and crack on – then suddenly realise you’ve been there 4 hours.
Bathroom breaks are available anytime as they have additional staff ‘floating’ to take up any slack on the line if someone needs to step away. Money was alright. Hours were occassionally unsociable (although as a single bloke with no dependencies, this didn’t bother him).
He said the only criticism was the absolute size of the place. I’d sometimes give him a lift in for shifts where it was too early/late to get a bus & he’d always get me to stop off at a shop so he could buy some food/drinks to take in with him. Because he said that due to the size of the unit & the fact you have to take a particular route through the building, by the time you reached the end of the building with the vending machines/canteen area – your break would be almost over.
Basically, his take on the place was that it was easy work if you were prepared to put a little bit of effort in. If you couldn’t be arsed, you’d find it a struggle & probably be in the “its horrible to work at Amazon” camp.
I worked at the fulfilment centre in Dunfermline. I’d go back if I got the opportunity. Its a long slog up and down the aisles all day but the time just flies by. I was walking 12 miles a day and making 1100 picks a day. Staff canteen was subsidised so a full meal cost about 2 quid. The money was decent and all the overtime you wanted. Competition’s with decent prizes for meeting productivity quotas. All in all its not bad for what it is. I’m currently working at a council community hub. Boring af would much rather be busy all day.