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Inside the Life of an Amazon Warehouse Manager
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Inside the Life of an Amazon Warehouse Manager

Drinking through the firehose, underwater, while a group of people try to prevent you from coming up for air

Eugene Kim and Katherine Long
Business Insider UK, 2022
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Amazon warehouse managers face corporate pressure to meet unrealistic metrics that the company increases when managers achieve them and that explode during the holidays. Business Insider reporters Eugene Kim and Katherine Long interviewed nine current and former Amazon managers about claims in an internal December 2020 manager’s memo. From daily performance meetings that often end in confrontation and tears to required additional work shifts, the memo said, managers have no time to train new hires and often earn less than those they manage. For many of these managers, the pressure and pace simply aren’t worth it.

Summary

An Amazon warehouse manager’s memo about work conditions caught management’s attention.

Working at Amazon can be a dark and relentless world, according to a December 2020 warehouse manager’s memo to company leaders. Amazon HR vice president Ofori Agboka expressed concern about the memo, but the company changed no policies in response.

A few thousand Amazon warehouse managers are in charge of hundreds of thousands of packers and shippers. Managers are responsible for reaching the company’s defined productivity goals.

Nine past and present warehouse managers gave interviews about their jobs, some on the condition of anonymity. Amazon itself declined to comment. The managers cited required excessive work, chaotic data and a wearisome culture.  One former manager eventually created his...

About the Authors

Eugene Kim is the Chief Tech Correspondent for Business Insider. Katherine Long is a senior tech reporter for the publication.

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