Hard work physically, low pay. Working hard is one thing, they're slave drivers.
Pros
Full time position and you do get benefits (although not good ones).
Cons
Very high rates to meet (I work in sort, but have picked, tote wrangled and packed), low pay (started at 11/hr), very physical, favoritism, mandatory overtime often announced at the last minute. Very hot and dusty environment. Allowed 30 mins. for lunch and two 15 min. breaks for a 10 hr. shift, but that means simply away from your station and or scanning. It takes several minutes to get to the break room and to get back to floor, so it's really a 20ish minute lunch and 10 minute (at best) breaks. If you go to the bathroom during work hours you are "off task" and can get in trouble and the few minutes going to the restroom greatly impacts your rate. Your rate drops every second you are not slaving away. Amazon claims the customer is the most important thing, but its seems rates are. I do make rate regularly, mostly well over 100%, but it's very difficult; PHYSICALLY EXHAUSTING. Such high rates, 10 hrs a day, 4 to 6 days a week on a concrete floor are physically very demanding and not very safe. Quite a few people cut corners, the cherry pick and pass harder work to others and management doesn't do anything about it. Quality is overlooked for the sake of speed. Customers will get damaged goods or the wrong product, but they'd rather get the item out than ensure that it's in good condition and or the right item. I've seen many damaged items get passed down to the next step and the next, because it would take time to fix the problem. A lot of people just pass it down, instead of dealing with it. Or they damage it themselves in their haste and pass it on. The lazy ones who pass the buck and the cherry pickers make work much harder, and negatively impact the rates, for us with a good work ethic and who care about the customer. No real opportunities to move up from warehouse associate. Can't move to another department, even if you're cross-trained without applying and interviewing as if you were a brand new associate. There are no such things as promotions at Amazon. Raises are a joke, 25 cents every six months, and not merit based. Favoritism - some employees, who are friends of supervisors, or PAs at Amazon, are allowed to get away with hardly working and talking for a good part of the day and are given tasks that are easy and tasks that others would like to do (water spider for example), but they slack most of the time. I truly dread and hate going to work.
