I am not a robot

Amazon is American multinational technology company that focuses on e-commerce, cloud

computing, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence. It has been referred to as "one of the
most influential economic and cultural forces in the world" and is one of the world's most
valuable brands. It is one of the Big Five American information technology companies,
alongside Alphabet, Apple, Meta, and Microsoft. Amazon was founded by Jeff Bezos from
his garage in Bellevue, Washington, on July 5, 1994. Initially an online marketplace for
books, it has expanded into a multitude of product categories: a strategy that has earned it the
moniker The Everything Store. It has multiple subsidiaries including Amazon Web
Services (cloud computing), Zoox (autonomous vehicles), Kuiper Systems (satellite Internet),
and Amazon Lab126 (computer hardware R&D). Its other subsidiaries
include Ring, Twitch, IMDb, and Whole Foods Market. Its acquisition of Whole Foods in
August 2017 for US$13.4 billion substantially increased its footprint as a physical retailer.
The company is based in Seattle, Washington and has over 1,600,000 employees globally,
with 950,000 of those in the US. Amazon fulfillment centers are large facilities with hundreds
of employees, sometimes thousands. Employees are responsible for five basic tasks:
unpacking and inspecting incoming goods; placing goods in storage and recording their
location; picking goods from their computer recorded locations to make up an individual
shipment; sorting and packing orders; and shipping. A computer that records the location of
goods and maps out routes for pickers plays a key role: employees carry hand-held computers
which communicate with the central computer and monitor their rate of progress. A picker
may walk 10 or more miles a day. In newer fulfillment centers, items are stored on pods and
brought to pickers by robots. Amazon fulfillment centers can also provide warehousing and
order-fulfillment for third-party sellers, for an extra fee. Third-party sellers can use
Fulfillment by Amazon to ship for other platforms as well, such as eBay or their own
websites.
Amazon has been in the news many times in recent years for tax evasion, warehouse violations,
and buyer and seller manipulation. This article “I am not a robot” mainly focused on the
warehouse violations and unsafe working conditions in New York City warehouse of Amazon
also called JFK8. This article provides an insight of harsh working conditions and also the
dangerous workplace atmosphere that has resulted in many accidents to coworkers and
employees working on the warehouse. It also reflected the employee dissatisfaction towards
their job as well as fear of being fired from their jobs at any time. According to the coworkers
the top-level management don’t take any serious action to ensure the safe working environment
to its employees. This article tries to shows the actual working conditions of employees
working at Amazon warehouse where they have to put their life in risks to perform their day-to-
day activities and also highlights the management not taking any serious measures to prevent
from this kind of accidents even after the high injury were reported.
Job satisfaction among Amazon Workers
After reading the article, it shows that the Amazon workers are highly dissatisfied towards
their jobs and working environments. Some of the main reasons for their job dissatisfaction
are explained below:
i. Safety and Health Issues
This article clearly pictures how the employee safety and health issues has been handled
by the top management. High injury rates have been reported by the employees which
were found to be three times the national average for warehouses based on the company’s
injury reports to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Many staffs and
coworkers have witnessed several cases where employees were treated unfairly, injuries
were common and also many have experience close calls. Many order picker have said
that they were constantly dealing with the chronic lower back pain and knee pain due to
the job. Some of them experience really bad sharp needle like lower back pain and even
have to work half days just to recovered.
ii. Working Conditions
Employee working in Amazon warehouse should have a great speed and accuracy to their
task they have been assigned. For example: Rina Cummings a worker of Amazon has to
worked three 12 hours shifts every week at New York City Warehouse. Her job is to
inspect and scan a mandated rate of 1800 Amazon packages an hour -30 per minute.
Raymond Velez who worked as a packer at Amazon JFK8 warehouse has to required to
pack at the rate of 700 items per hour. The employee also claimed that the top level only
cared about the results and rate of worked performed neither they care about their
employees. In November 600 workers at Amazon warehouse have signed and delivered a
petition to management calling on Amazon to improve the working conditions. The
petition called on Amazon to consolidate workers two 15 minutes breaks into 30 minute
and also called for Amazon to provide more reliable public transit services to the
warehouse.
iii. Job Security

Amazon workers do not have job security at all. They can be fired anytime. Many
employees have said that, “People get fired regularly” “It just takes two or three
write-ups, depending on the severity. You can get fired for anything.” Workers are
regularly fired for missing rates of their particular tasks.

iv. Neglection from top level management

This article clearly shows the top-level management being neglected about the
employee working conditions, safety and health issues. Even after the frequent health
issue report, employee claimed that the top-level management didn’t take any serious
action regarding the problem. Employee also said that there has been no real change,
there were still injuries. Managers were saying the report is not accurate, which is just
a way for them to avoid responsibility. The top-level management don’t care about
their employees. They care more about the robots than they care about the employees.
v. Work Pressure

The employees have faced great pressure while working in the warehouse as
they are constantly being surveilled by computers to ensure productivity rates
are met. Employees are being tracked by a computer the entire time while
working there. They don’t get reported or written up by managers. They get
written up by an algorithm. They are keenly aware there is an algorithm
keeping track of them making sure employees keep going as fast as they can
because if there is too much time lapsed between items, the computer will
know this will write up, and employee will get fired.

We all know that Amazon has been using autocratic leadership style wherein
one person controls all the decisions and takes very little inputs from other
group members and also make choices or decisions based on their own beliefs
and do not involve others for their suggestion or advice.

If I was Jeff Bezos, I would use democratic leadership style where everyone

is given the opportunity to participate, ideas are exchanged freely, and
discussion is encouraged. I tend to focus on group equality and the free flow
of ideas as well as provide support and offer guidance and control. Research
has found that the democratic leadership style is one of the most effective
types and leads to higher productivity, better contributions from group
members, and increased group morale. The article clearly reflects the absent
of proper communication among the management team and the employees.
As being the chairman of the company, I will ensure that there will be proper
flow of information and two-way communication which help to minimize the
misunderstandings and conflict in the organization. We all know that human
resource are the assets of any company, equal respect and love should be
provided to all individuals working in every department and workforce
diversity should be promoted. Democratic leadership focuses on innovation
and creativity which can be done by encouraging group members and
coworkers to share ideas and opinions and engaging them in the process.
When the employees are engaged in decision making process, they feel value
in the organization which increased the satisfaction towards their jobs. Being
the leader of the organization, one shouldn’t always concern about the profit
of the organization but also provide safe and proper working environment to
the employees. Employee health and safety should always be in the priority of
the leader and should ensure the all the employee are working without any
fear and pressure in the organization. Too much pressure in the employee can
also be one of the factors of less productivity in the organization. When team
leaders choose to use the democratic leadership style, their team members are
more likely to be satisfied with their job. This is because democratic
leadership allows for everyone's thoughts and opinions to be shared and
valued. As being a democratic leader, employee’s grievances and queries
should be listened and work on finding solution as soon as possible. With
more minds working on a problem, the number of potential solutions
increases. While decisions may be reached less quickly than under other
leadership styles.

Herzberg's two-factor theory of motivation would be use to mitigate the issue

in Amazon warehouse. According to Herzberg, there are some job factors that
result in satisfaction while there are other job factors that prevent
dissatisfaction. According to Herzberg, the opposite of “Satisfaction” is “No
satisfaction” and the opposite of “Dissatisfaction” is “No Dissatisfaction”.
Herzberg classified these job factor in two categories:

a) Hygiene factors- Hygiene factors are those job factors which are

essential for existence of motivation at workplace. These do not lead
to positive satisfaction for long-term. But if these factors are absent / if
these factors are non-existent at workplace, then they lead to
dissatisfaction. In other words, hygiene factors are those factors which
when adequate/reasonable in a job, pacify the employees and do not
make them dissatisfied. These factors are extrinsic to work. The
hygiene factors symbolized the physiological needs which the
individuals wanted and expected to be fulfilled. Hygiene factors
include:

 Pay - The pay or salary structure should be appropriate and reasonable.

It must be equal and competitive to those in the same industry in the
same domain.
 Company Policies and administrative policies - The company policies
should not be too rigid. They should be fair and clear. It should include
flexible working hours, dress code, breaks, vacation, etc.
 Fringe benefits - The employees should be offered health care plans
(medi claim), benefits for the family members, employee help
programmes, etc.
 Physical Working conditions - The working conditions should be safe,
clean and hygienic. The work equipment should be updated and well-
maintained.
 Status - The employees’ status within the organization should be
familiar and retained.
 Interpersonal relations - The relationship of the employees with his
peers, superiors and subordinates should be appropriate and acceptable.
There should be no conflict or humiliation element present.
  Job Security - The organization must provide job security to the
employees.

b) Motivational factors- According to Herzberg, the hygiene factors cannot be

regarded as motivators. The motivational factors yield positive satisfaction.
These factors are inherent to work. These factors motivate the employees for a
superior performance. These factors are called satisfiers. These are factors
involved in performing the job. Employees find these factors intrinsically
rewarding. The motivators symbolized the psychological needs that were
perceived as an additional benefit. Motivational factors include:

 Recognition - The employees should be praised and recognized for their

accomplishments by the managers.
 Sense of achievement - The employees must have a sense of achievement.
This depends on the job. There must be a fruit of some sort in the job.
 Growth and promotional opportunities - There must be growth and
advancement opportunities in an organization to motivate the employees to
perform well.
 Responsibility - The employees must hold themselves responsible for the
work. The managers should give them ownership of the work. They should
minimize control but retain accountability.
 Meaningfulness of the work - The work itself should be meaningful,
interesting and challenging for the employee to perform and to get motivated.

As a conclusion, we can say that managing the human resources is one of the
most challenging jobs in the organization. Human resources have a huge
impact in the success and failure of the organization. As a manager one should
always try to empowered their employee that helps to create the positive
environment in the organization. As well as employee should be provided with
better and safe working environment so that their job satisfaction will be
increased and minimize the turnover rate in the organization.