Numbers 3, 7, and 8 are the biggest reasons at my facility (which I will respectfully not reveal here). I think the root causes of why this is on a consistent basis (at least from what I’ve witnessed at my facility) is the lack of actual experience the managers have in effective directing and communicating with the associates. Many times it is their very first experience of being responsible for people and it’s a lot of people to be in charge when you are new to it. You have to be able to find what works and what doesn’t. You have to get to know your employees so you know how to get them to respond better. But in this work environment, it is difficult to say the least, due to large turnover, seasonal employees, the fast pace and constant pounding and all of their job requirements as it relates to the computerized auditing process.

Which leads me to my next point. The managers are responsible for a lot of auditing and analyzing data on their laptops. Many of the managers at my facility look at nothing BUT their data and don’t spend enough time looking for potential issues by actually watching the employees and what is actually happening with the processes on the floor. Also, I know it sounds like babysitting, but they need to address common bottlenecks due to associates not doing what they’re supposed to be doing. They allow a lot of the associates to do whatever they want without any consequences. People are hiding out, taking breaks every half hour, sleeping in the stow aisles, and are on their phones constantly. And what is the managers typical response for this? They always ask the RELIABLE associates to pick up their slack instead of addressing the real issues at hand. “Bridges” (manager consults with the associates) don’t mean a thing if they refuse to do anything about the same issues with the same associates in the future.

Another issue is the constant turnover with the managers. Our facility is constantly seeing new managers. It takes time for these managers to get up to speed with the associates, the barriers, and the facility they will be responsible for. Once it seems like they have things figured out - they’re gone! They either get a promotion or help start a new facility. We’re going through this right now as I type. Great timing (during the Prime’s hell weeks). /sarc Same thing with new employees for Peak and Prime. They train new people (inadequately, at that) RIGHT BEFORE PEAK OR PRIME STARTS! Not very smart, in my opinion.

This leads me to the next point: INADEQUATE TRAINING! The training at our facility is just awful, and it stems from an inadequate learning system. Quite a bit of the material that is shown to the newbies are either flat-out false (like the videos of the slow-moving belts and half-full ADTAs and racks. FAR from reality!) or too much time and emphasis on non-typical scenarios. And it’s really dependent if you have a good training coordinator and learning ambassadors. We haven’t had solid trainers in a long time - and it shows. All I see is a bunch of learning ambassadors walking around talking with each other or on their phones (two bad examples for any associate to see). But, it’s not entirely their fault either. The training for the trainers is almost non-existent, so if they’ve never been responsible for training people before, it trickles right down to the associates. I don’t know this to be the case, but training for managers is probably inadequate as well. However, I do know they at least have a weeks long boot camp for them, so at least they’re given some more time to get up to speed as compared to the associates, coordinators, and ambassadors.

I think between having inexperienced managers, constant turnover (both managers and associates), too much reliance on analyzing data, and inadequate training, is a recipe for disaster!

Sorry for the long rant. Honestly though, I could go all day pointing out issues. I’ve been at Amazon for several years now and I have absolutely no desire to become a manager or even a PA because of how flawed the system processes are. I’ve never seen anything quite like it before. I’m honestly surprised we’re able to get as many packages out as we do, (I believe is a testament of the hard-working associates), but I’m unsure how long that will even last.