An email sent to Jeff Bezos from an Amazon warehouse worker began an internal investigation that found that the e-commerce giant falls behind when it comes to supporting its 1.3 million employees, according to The New York Times.
From unjustified terminations to losing benefits with no warning, the employees inside the warehouse and the ones administering the leaves found themselves on the brink of burnout and sacrificing their lives to make up for countless HR issues related to paid and unpaid leave. Employees struggled to reach case managers, and doctor’s notes seem to simply disappear as paychecks were docked.
To add to the dysfunction, Amazon’s team didn’t have any policies to accommodate local laws like one in its home state. An employee filing for unpaid leave under a Washington state legal protection of domestic violence victims was terminated from the company for missing deadlines. The Washington state attorney general that took on her case called her termination a “failure” and retaliation that violated state law, according to the NYT.
You can go read the New York Times article right now. It will remind you that Amazon’s attention on consumer experience and technology doesn’t extend to the employees who keep the machine running.
