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    For Seasonal Workers, Amazon's Grueling Working Conditions Are Only Temporary

    By Rebecca Greenfield | The Atlantic Wire – Tue, Dec 20, 2011
    For Seasonal Workers, Amazon's Grueling Working Conditions Are Only Temporary

    Amazon's seasonal workers endure the same grueling conditions as the full-timers, it just doesn't seem as bad for such a short period of time. "It's like the best place to work and the worst place to work," seasonal worker Kelly Andrus told The Wall Street Journal's Stu Woo. She sounds cheerier than workers in an expose from Allentown paper The Morning Call, which portrayed the working conditions at Amazon warehouses akin to building the pyramids. Woo actually depicts the same, tough work culture, yet his subjects don't seem as miffed about the situation. "I definitely would do it again," another worker, Clare Moxley told Woo, after describing her as "too tired to do anything but stay in her 16 foot trailer" after a long day of work. That might have something to do with the weather. And the temporariness.

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    Though employees like Andrus and Moxley claim to have had good enough experiences, their stints don't sound too unlike the workers who complained to The Morning Call. Those full-timers said they worked sans air conditioning in 100-degree weather; passed out from heat exhaustion; lifted heavy boxes all day; walked 13 miles a day; were never promoted and lived in fear of being fired for underperformance. 

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    These cheerier temp workers don't pass out from heat exhaustion -- but it is winter time. Otherwise, the work sounds equally brutal. Employees report strict managers and physically demanding labor. Woo calls the gig "a sort-of modern-day migrant worker." "Workers can be on their feet for hours fetching items from shelves, packing boxes and preparing incoming items for storage," writes Woo, which sounds a lot like the 50-year-old worker who told The Morning Call he walked 13 to 15 miles a day and then got fired for not working fast enough. They don't have to worry about things like promotions or getting fired, as they only plan on doing the job for a few weeks. And that short employment time makes the job less tedious -- it's only temporary after-all. They still spend all day moving boxes around in a warehouse like the one below. 

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    For such a short period of time staffers see this more as a personal challenge, than a job. Many told Woo they lost five pounds in a few weeks. And Moxley said she was glad to prove that she can still handle tough, physical labor. They make the same $12 an hour pay as full time workers. Extend this from a seasonal job, to full time reality and we bet those workers would have a lot more complaining to do. 

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    Image by the Scottish Government via Flickr.

     

    11 comments

    • JoshuaW
      JoshuaW  •  Charlotte, United States  •  5 mths ago
      Warehouse work sucks...this is not news.
    • John M
      John M  •  Jersey City, United States  •  5 mths ago
      5 years ago I worked at UPS for about 5 years, it was the same conditions.
      It's the same thing at every warehouse.
    • A Yahoo! User  •  Columbia, United States  •  5 mths ago
      Should have gotten your education. Education is the great equalizer. You can start in the trailer park (as I did) and ride an education to a nice cushy job with a six figure income. Unfortunately, by the time some people begin to realize the importance of an education it is too late and they are stuck working hard not working smart.
      • Beige Almighty
        Beige Almighty 5 mths ago
        Education guarantees nothing. The unemployment lines are full of people with degrees that should have guaranteed them solid work.
      • A Yahoo! User 5 mths ago
        Oh well...it worked for me.
    • Shawn S
      Shawn S  •  Chicago, United States  •  5 mths ago
      Um. Yeah it's called manual labor. Duh. UPS workers do it, FedEx workers do it, USPS workers kind of do it. So the Amazon temps don't have a union. SO start one or complain to your Local/State/Federal officials about workers' rights. If the big bad company is doing bad things then make a stand, quit or shut up.
      • Beige Almighty
        Beige Almighty 5 mths ago
        Make a stand in Arizona and you get blacklisted.
    • Ultra-Humanite
      Ultra-Humanite  •  5 mths ago
      Gee who would've thought that being an unskilled laborer moving boxes in a warehouse would suck?
    • Mr LOL
      Mr LOL  •  5 mths ago
      well if you don't like it then leave. there are plenty of jobless people that would love to work!
    • paul
      paul  •  5 mths ago
      If its over 100 degrees they ate required to give them a stay time in that kind of stagnant environment. We have a warehouse that safety had recorded hottest 153 degrees in our warehouse with the average around 135. Managment got angry because we got a stay time of 15 minutes on 45 off in an airconditioned environment. So they let us work during the cooler hours which were still in the upper 90's-105. Which is what we workers wanted anyways come in early and leave early; but managment was still angry and wanted more work done than what we accomplished in a single day.
      • HunnyBee
        HunnyBee 5 mths ago
        153 degrees? Quit the tall tales. A human would die in an environment that's 135 degrees. You seem alive enough to type a comment.
      • paul
        paul 5 mths ago
        Obviously you never worked in an environment where its hot because I do it all the time bud, Warehouses and flight decks of aircraft carriers in the dead of summer and you dont know what osha requires. Yes 153 degrees in one spot of a metal warehouse in summer in virginia. Average was 135, OSHA requires a series of temp readings through out the warehouse where the employee would work and the hottest was in the rafters where we store metal poles but average for the whole warehouse was 135. And i dont know where you got the idea a human would die at 135. It gets pretty close to that in Africa and yet people live there year round. On ships when furnaces were used to feed the boilers temp would get in excess of 150 degrees. I just finished a book of the spanish american war where admiral dewey chased down a spanish ship and he made reference to the temp in side the furnace area, reaching 172 degrees yet men are still shoveling the grade A coal which burns hotter than lower grade coals which would give him speed in a chase. So obviously Beee you dont have a clue what your talking about. The human body can withstand an extreme temp hot and cold. And hence since it is unsafe the hotter it was in our warehouse that is why we were issued stay time of 15 minutes of being in there. So I'll end with just calling you an uninformed #$%$ that needs to read a book.
      • jack
        jack 5 mths ago
        I work in extremely hot environments as well. Good rebuttle Paul, makes sense and is accurate. Though not sure if an insult was required but he did call you a liar and bee is wrong. Osha does require a bunch of temperature readings to get an accurate average temperture of the building so a stay time can be given. As a navy man on air craft carriers I can attest to the tripple digits they can get up to in the summer. Must have been a rank warehouse with no ventilation though. Navy has many of them as well and it gets up to 110-130 in the summer time here at the base and warehouse attendants still work in them. Navy and civ workers.
    • Michael
      Michael  •  5 mths ago
      Yes, working in warehouses is hot grueling work. Brilliant observation...
    • James M
      James M  •  Broomfield, United States  •  5 mths ago
      Sounds just like working at UPS or FedEx. Move as fast as you can and don't stop. I don't know if I'd describe it at "migrant worker" or "slave labor" though. These jobs usually pay pretty decent, but they definitely aren't fun. I remember getting off of work completely exhausted, but unable to sleep because my arms were cramping so bad.
    • Bad Bob
      Bad Bob  •  Milwaukee, United States  •  5 mths ago
      One I worked for a canning company. 18 hour days #$%$ near killed a tender white boy like me. The Mexicans were tough as leather however.
    • Chuck Norris
      Chuck Norris  •  5 mths ago
      Their suffering is all in the name for us to have... MORE STUFF!!!
     Post a comment
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