Bezos’ Own Paper Exposes Amazon’s Horrific Working Conditions
While Jeff Bezos spent his holidays jetting from Aspen to his yacht on St. Barths, Amazon workers faced grueling work schedules and high-risk work environments during the company’s “peak” season.
According to a new report by the Bezos-owned Washington Post, the Amazon exec’s solution to the company’s mass influx of orders and returns from Black Friday through January is to implement “Mandatory Extra Time” that forces some employees to work five eleven-hour shifts rather than their usual four ten-hour shifts.
Despite a spokesperson for the company telling the Post that employees are paid overtime for additional hours, and explaining that workers can’t be asked to work more than 60 hours in one week, 12 hours in a one day, or six days in a row, the company’s peak season policies led to managers in one Amazon warehouses feeling the need to remind workers to practice basic personal hygiene.
Amazon, employees reportedly claim, uses incentive pay, free drinks from 7-Eleven, raffles to win water bottles, and stress balls from roving “swag carts” to keep staff motivated amid strenuous demands. The raffle prizes, however, have seemingly declined in quality compared to previous years.
“The stuff they was giving out wasn’t worth it,” one longtime employee told the Post. “It’s like, y’all done made a billion dollars, and this is all you can offer for a prize?”
For Amazon delivery drivers, who work for contractors, not the online retailer itself, peak season entails longer hours and extra packages. This year, some drivers received $5 tips from customers who were prompted to thank their drivers via Amazon’s app, and coupons for free drinks from 7-Eleven each week to help them “stay warm and refreshed.”
Meanwhile, over the holidays, Bezos and his fiancée, Lauren Sanchez, were spotted partying in Aspen with Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump, and Kevin Costner before jetting off to St. Barths, where customs officials conducted a surprise raid on his $500 million superyacht, Koru.
Amazon spokesperson Steve Kelly told the Post that, during peak season, the company places “an extra emphasis on recognizing, honoring, and celebrating our employees for their commitment to safety, teamwork, and service to our customers,” and that employees are encouraged to share ideas for new appreciation programs with local managers.
A Senate report in July, however, found that workplace injuries increase during Amazon’s busy seasons with the company seeing more than 10 annual injuries per 100 workers, double the industry average.
These injuries, the report detailed, were part of Amazon’s “corporate culture obsessed with speed and productivity” which has “resulted in systemic safety failures and high rates of injury.”
The report’s findings were echoed just before Christmas when an Amazon delivery driver in Massachusetts described being “stressed” after abandoning more than 80 packages in the woods.
The exhausting environment within Amazon facilities led to workers at more than seven delivery stations and fulfillment centers in New York, California, Illinois, and Georgia walking off the job to demand higher pay, better working conditions, and for Amazon to bargain on a contract with workers who’ve voted to unionize with the help of the Teamsters.
In 2023, the company generated more than $36.9 billion in profits, and Bezos himself is the second richest person in the world, with a net worth of approximately $238.6 billion, according to Forbes.
All the while, Amazon opposes union organizing efforts, deploying tactics like delaying elections or having employees attend captive-audience meetings. The company Amazon is said to have recently spent over $17 million on union avoidance consultants, at times hiring them directly as managers.
