Since Amazon was founded in 1994 by Jeff Bezos, it has become one of the most successful companies in the world. As of current, Amazon is still rapidly growing, marking a 220 percent profit increase a year into the pandemic in 2021.
However, with rapid growth comes higher expectations from customers. The rise of consumers on Amazon has grown so much, they had to hire more workers, pushing their workforce to about 1.2 million globally to keep up, only slowing down recently at the end of 2022.
Amazon’s Productivity Quotas and Workplace Injuries
Lately, Amazon has been in a lot of scrutiny over the rise of workplace injuries since the start of the pandemic. The reason for the rise of injuries is due to the high expectations of productivity within the Amazon warehouses or fulfillment centers, as they refer to them by. At Amazon, they include a productivity quota that employees are expected to meet.
One way that Amazon ensures employees are being productive is by surveilling an employee is on task by recording whenever the employee is scanning products or boxes and how fast it takes them to finish processes. This is done by recording the time in between processes to see how quick they worked. According to an anonymous Amazon worker, this quota is packing at least 160 boxes an hour, which would equal to two boxes a minute.
Due to the productivity quotas, employees need to work under high pressure as well as intense speed. This can lead to quick, repetitive motions that can tire people out, leading to injuries such as carpal tunnel, tennis elbow, or back and shoulder injuries.
No Breaks and Long Hours
Along with the productivity quotas, Amazon employees typically have 10-hour shifts with only one 30-minute lunch break and two shorter breaks. Amazon workers have stated that bathroom breaks can be no more than 10 minutes long as Amazon will mark your time as “time off task,” which is inputted into the worker’s records. In doing so, this would cause employees to rush during breaks without being able to sit down, which can further lead to fatigue, stress, and other injuries.
Injuries in the Warehouse Workplace
Within the warehouse workplace, there are many dangerous equipment and tools that employees use. Some warehouse equipment include forklifts, conveyor belts, and more. While these equipment can help improve efficiency and productivity for Amazon and their employees, they can also contribute to injury in the workplace.
According to HRM America, Amazon accounts for 49% of all injuries within the warehousing industry in 2021. Putting together the dangerous and speedy expectations Amazon has along with the dangerous equipment, employees are constantly working in a dangerous workplace.
Some causes of injuries that Amazon employees have reported to have gotten included slip-and-falls, machinery-related injuries, and strains and sprains from repetitive tasks. In a study about workplace injury statistics, being caught in running machinery and equipment is first on injuries reported and along with that, slip-and-falls are fifth.
With the growth of workplace injuries at Amazon, they have constantly been through a federal workplace-safety investigation to ensure the warehouses were safe and have constantly been fined for unsafe work environments.
Amazon’s Role of Decreasing Workplace Injuries
Due to the constant scrutiny against Amazon’s rise of workplace injuries, Jeff Bezos has addressed the concerns, by stating they would work on making Amazon a safer place to work at. Some ideas they could do to create a safer workspace include:
Increase Employee Safety Training
By increasing safety training, employees could learn more about what to do in certain situations that could potentially be dangerous or identify workplace hazards. Through training, employees could also learn how to properly use equipment such as the forklifts and other devices.
Reduce Employee Workload
With employees constantly being pushed to meet quotas and take shorter breaks, they are going to be tired out quicker and need more breaks and time in between finishing tasks. In doing so, employees could stop taking safety short-cuts to finishing a certain task plus, lessen the rate of repetitive movement-related injuries.
Improve Workplace Environments
By keeping the workplace cleaner and more maintained, the workplace could be a safer place for all employees. Keeping the floors clean could lessen the amount of slip-and-fall accidents while adding safety structures could prevent Amazon employees from being caught within the machinery.