What’s It Like Working for the Leader of e-Commerce? Journey to the Roots of Amazon
Published in Polityka
(Poland) on 16 September 2014
by Adam Grzeszak (link to original)
(Poland) on 16 September 2014
by Adam Grzeszak (link to original)
Translated from
by Marta Danon.
Edited by Gillian Palmer.
The American e-commerce giant Amazon has entered Poland. Right now, it is not looking for customers in our country, but for spacious warehouses and cheap labor.
“At Amazon we believe that every day is still day one. A day to take a first step. A day to look forward to new challenges. And today is that day for you. It's your day to be part of something great. A day to make your ideas come to life. And your day to join a company that redefines itself every day,” is how Amazon encourages people to apply for work. These are its first days in Poland, too. It needs an army of workers — 6,000 permanent employees and an additional 3,000 to 5,000 or even more before Christmas, when Amazonians have the most work.
There has not been such a recruitment effort in our country for years. Amazon has built three fulfillment centers in Poland — two in Bielany Wrocławskie and one in Sady, near Poznań. They are real giants, each occupying 95,000 square meters — that is 13 football fields. Situated next to motorways and close to the western border, they are aimed at western European customers. Amazon chiefs, despite saying that Poland is nice, for now do not plan on opening an e-shop here. They admit, however, that more and more Poles are shopping through foreign Amazon websites.
Success Propaganda
“Work hard. Have fun. Make history,” is the company's motto, which you can find on the wall of each Amazon warehouse. Jeff Bezos, the founder and CEO of the company, is not the only one convinced about the creation of history, but also Deputy Prime Minister Janusz Piechociński. He called the Amazon investment a milestone for the Polish economy. However, not everyone shares his enthusiasm. Professor Krzysztof Rybiński sees it as the propaganda of success. Poland among the Organization for Economic Development countries shows the lowest yearly worker salary, he reminds us on his blog. He ironically said, “It's a big achievement, because it brings foreign investments in here, such as the Amazon warehouse, where 2,000 packers will find work and won't have to go to wash dishes in London.”
At the same time, Amazon opened two similar depots in Prague. It wanted another one in Bratislava, but the Slovaks, normally very open to investments, said no. They prefer car factories to warehouses. Although Amazon is a world leader in e-commerce, its logistical centers are strongly rooted in the 20th century. They are huge package factories. Although they use the newest technology methods, they require the painstaking physical work of thousands of people. The materials here are tons of cardboard to make packages, into which the millions of items of Amazon e-shopping offers are put. Once it was an online bookstore; now, it is a multi-branch megastore.
“Our overall mission is simple: we want Amazon to be the place where our customers can find, discover and buy anything online ... With your participation Amazon can help people even better,” is how the American employer encourages candidates applying for the "Non-Inventory Receiver" position.
It's dropping a hint that there is no time for fun: “It is very intensive work that encourages development and changes, that requires cooperation with all departments and is based on crucial effectiveness ratings.”
First, the management and specialists were recruited. They are responsible for the professional and effective operation of the fulfillment centers. Particularly sought after were traffic maintenance engineers because the heart of the center is an automatic assembly line, as well as human resources experts, because managing such a huge army of employees requires special qualifications. Information technology people were also essential because the secret of efficient e-commerce lies in the information system. Those hired went to the U.S. for training. After that, physical worker recruitment began.
Stower, Picker, Packer
Ordinary Amazonians all over the world are divided into a couple of specialties. The stocker unloads the incoming stock and places it on the shelves; the picker walks around with manual scanner that shows him a list of articles to be found. In the jungle of metal shelves, he looks for ordered goods. He is helped by the computer navigation system that tracks his position and directs him to the right place. You cannot just rely on your memory because the items don't have permanent locations. Amazon uses a chaotic method of stocking: Goods are put in any open place, which makes the unloading easier and faster, and the space is optimally used.
When the picker finds the right shelf, and the item, he places it in a plastic container while scanning the bar codes — both of the shelf and the item. The system is informed that another task has been completed, and then deletes it from the list. The picker then pushes his trolley in search of the next item. When the order is complete, a plastic box with the content goes to the assembly line, and a new list, sent by the computer system, appears on the picker's scanner.
That device controls him all the time; if it thinks that he is too slow, it hurries him up — and lets the management know. During a shift, one needs to walk dozens of kilometers, sometimes even more. There is no time to sit down, and there is nowhere to sit in order to save money and discourage laziness. Sitting is possible in the social areas during statutory breaks, after going through quite onerous anti-theft control.
Goods collected by the pickers are taken by the packers. Ready boxes with a smiling Amazon face and address stickers go to sorting, where shipping companies take them to customers. However, if the picker failed, something is missing, the goods cannot be found, or it turns out that they are faulty, a runner is needed. His task is to quickly replace a missing item, often by consulting the IT specialists. It may not be the picker's fault, but the person's that enters product data into the computer system.
Faster and Faster
Polish Amazonians will be working shifts — 10 hours, four days a week, one month of night shifts, and one month of day shifts. How much the management and specialists earn is the company's secret. Physical workers’ earnings are public and included in the job ad: around 13 zł per hour for the ordinary warehouse worker and 16 zł for team leaders. Employees in Bielany Wrocławskie will earn slightly less than those in Sady because the company took into consideration the local payment rates. However, in both places, the monthly salary is quite low — around 2,400 to 2,500 zł. Amazon claims that their offer is competitive and in accordance with market rates, and to the earnings can be added a 15 percent bonus for good results, as well as other additional advantages, like medical care or cheap meals.
However, receiving a bonus is not that simple. The norms at Amazon are excessive, and the pace of work is very fast. “It started at 75 items per hour, then 100, then 150. I constantly heard: faster, faster,” said one picker working in a U.S. Amazon warehouse on the American website Salon. He lost the job because he was too slow.
Jeff Bezos likes to save and is fascinated by scientific work organization. A famous item in the company is a door-desk. It is a desk with a worktop made from huge doors. In 1994, in Seattle, Bezos was starting his then garage business at such a desk. Today, it is the symbol of the inventiveness of the founder’s father, and a symbol of reluctance for unnecessary spending. It is to be a constant inspiration for more than 100,000 Amazonians working all over the world.
Bezos himself is inspired by the creators of modern work organization — Henry Ford and Frederick Taylor. However, he is fascinated the most by the Japanese philosophy of "kaizen." It is based on a constant strive to quicken and improve the work process in cooperation with the workers. Everyone can suggest what could be improved, made easier or cheaper. The best ideas are rewarded.
Amazon is not a generous company to its workers, and not only in Poland. A picker in the U.S. gets $11.49 per hour, in the United Kingdom 7.10 pounds. Poles know something about it because a majority of workers in European centers are foreigners. Amazon used some of our countrymen who work in the U.K. in its online recruitment campaign in Poland. They explain in short videos how they started at Amazon, how they progressed, and how happy they are.
On online work search forums, one more often finds warnings than praise. Not only Poles, but also Americans, the British, French and Germans complain. The warehouses are also of interest to the media that eagerly publishes reports by journalists who worked as pickers or packers, and describe or film quite shocking scenes with a hidden camera. A BBC documentary and a book by a French journalist, Baptiste Malet, ironically titled “Inside Amazon: Infiltrating the Best of Both Worlds,” made a huge impression. The author feared that he would get into trouble with Amazon’s lawyers. Instead, he had to deal with businessmen. The book is on sale at Amazon. Amazon does not worry much about criticism.
War with Germany
Union members from the German Central Union Trade of the Worker Services sector Ver.di are at particular loggerheads with the American giant. They claim that Amazon, by paying 10.99 euros per hour, breaks the collective wage agreement for shipping companies, which as a minimum requires 11.39 euros. The Americans say that they are not a shipping company but a logistical one, and they will not pay more. They have eight fulfillment centers in Germany. Employees in some of them have gone on strikes before — during the most important period for the company — just before last year's Christmas.
That is why the new warehouses next to Poznań, Wrocław and Prague are regarded as an attempt to blackmail the German unions. Representatives of the company claim that it is not true because Amazon opened another fulfillment center near Berlin, but it is obvious that in the event of protests in Germany, the Polish and Czech centers will ship more items with no problems. Anyways, Americans don't hide the intention to open an AmazonFresh e-grocery store in Germany — so far, it operates in some U.S. cities — so it cannot be ruled out that some warehouses will change their specialization: especially because competition follows thick on their heels — Google Shopping Express is starting up.
Jeff Bezos belongs to the visionaries of the Internet era. Like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon surprises with constant new ideas: parcel delivery with the help of drones or Amazon Dash, a clever scanner/voice recorder, to which you can say what you need, or scan the code from an empty box, and the device will place an order in the e-store for you. Probably, sooner or later, robots will take over pickers' and packers' jobs. Technically, it is possible even today, but way too expensive — and Bezos does not like to lose money.
200 Million Items on Shelves
Amazon.com is the biggest e-store in the world, with a yearly revenue of $74.4 billion. It is listed on Nasdaq — with a net worth of $160 billion — and controlled by Jeffrey P. Bezos —who is 50 years old, founder, CEO and the main shareholder. It was founded in 1994 as an e-library under the name Cadabra — quickly changed — offering books, music, films, physical games, and later online games. With time, it expanded to other items, like electronics, furniture, household appliances and audio/video devices — large items will be managed by the warehouse near Poznań — clothes, sports equipment, etc. All in all, there are more than 200 million items, and recently, it broke into the grocery market.
It operates in the dozen richest countries — the United States, Japan, Germany, France, Italy, U.K. — and also the most populous ones — China, India, Brazil, Mexico — but it is available to the citizens of many more countries. In June 2014, Amazon employed 132,600 people. Its biggest rival is the traditional commerce giant Wal-Mart — with a net worth of $247 billion — which is coping with Amazon and expanding online. Amazon is known for its own devices, which make it easy to use its services. The best known one is the Kindle, an e-book and newspaper reader — Polityka was the first Polish weekly available on Kindle.
“At Amazon we believe that every day is still day one. A day to take a first step. A day to look forward to new challenges. And today is that day for you. It's your day to be part of something great. A day to make your ideas come to life. And your day to join a company that redefines itself every day,” is how Amazon encourages people to apply for work. These are its first days in Poland, too. It needs an army of workers — 6,000 permanent employees and an additional 3,000 to 5,000 or even more before Christmas, when Amazonians have the most work.
There has not been such a recruitment effort in our country for years. Amazon has built three fulfillment centers in Poland — two in Bielany Wrocławskie and one in Sady, near Poznań. They are real giants, each occupying 95,000 square meters — that is 13 football fields. Situated next to motorways and close to the western border, they are aimed at western European customers. Amazon chiefs, despite saying that Poland is nice, for now do not plan on opening an e-shop here. They admit, however, that more and more Poles are shopping through foreign Amazon websites.
Success Propaganda
“Work hard. Have fun. Make history,” is the company's motto, which you can find on the wall of each Amazon warehouse. Jeff Bezos, the founder and CEO of the company, is not the only one convinced about the creation of history, but also Deputy Prime Minister Janusz Piechociński. He called the Amazon investment a milestone for the Polish economy. However, not everyone shares his enthusiasm. Professor Krzysztof Rybiński sees it as the propaganda of success. Poland among the Organization for Economic Development countries shows the lowest yearly worker salary, he reminds us on his blog. He ironically said, “It's a big achievement, because it brings foreign investments in here, such as the Amazon warehouse, where 2,000 packers will find work and won't have to go to wash dishes in London.”
At the same time, Amazon opened two similar depots in Prague. It wanted another one in Bratislava, but the Slovaks, normally very open to investments, said no. They prefer car factories to warehouses. Although Amazon is a world leader in e-commerce, its logistical centers are strongly rooted in the 20th century. They are huge package factories. Although they use the newest technology methods, they require the painstaking physical work of thousands of people. The materials here are tons of cardboard to make packages, into which the millions of items of Amazon e-shopping offers are put. Once it was an online bookstore; now, it is a multi-branch megastore.
“Our overall mission is simple: we want Amazon to be the place where our customers can find, discover and buy anything online ... With your participation Amazon can help people even better,” is how the American employer encourages candidates applying for the "Non-Inventory Receiver" position.
It's dropping a hint that there is no time for fun: “It is very intensive work that encourages development and changes, that requires cooperation with all departments and is based on crucial effectiveness ratings.”
First, the management and specialists were recruited. They are responsible for the professional and effective operation of the fulfillment centers. Particularly sought after were traffic maintenance engineers because the heart of the center is an automatic assembly line, as well as human resources experts, because managing such a huge army of employees requires special qualifications. Information technology people were also essential because the secret of efficient e-commerce lies in the information system. Those hired went to the U.S. for training. After that, physical worker recruitment began.
Stower, Picker, Packer
Ordinary Amazonians all over the world are divided into a couple of specialties. The stocker unloads the incoming stock and places it on the shelves; the picker walks around with manual scanner that shows him a list of articles to be found. In the jungle of metal shelves, he looks for ordered goods. He is helped by the computer navigation system that tracks his position and directs him to the right place. You cannot just rely on your memory because the items don't have permanent locations. Amazon uses a chaotic method of stocking: Goods are put in any open place, which makes the unloading easier and faster, and the space is optimally used.
When the picker finds the right shelf, and the item, he places it in a plastic container while scanning the bar codes — both of the shelf and the item. The system is informed that another task has been completed, and then deletes it from the list. The picker then pushes his trolley in search of the next item. When the order is complete, a plastic box with the content goes to the assembly line, and a new list, sent by the computer system, appears on the picker's scanner.
That device controls him all the time; if it thinks that he is too slow, it hurries him up — and lets the management know. During a shift, one needs to walk dozens of kilometers, sometimes even more. There is no time to sit down, and there is nowhere to sit in order to save money and discourage laziness. Sitting is possible in the social areas during statutory breaks, after going through quite onerous anti-theft control.
Goods collected by the pickers are taken by the packers. Ready boxes with a smiling Amazon face and address stickers go to sorting, where shipping companies take them to customers. However, if the picker failed, something is missing, the goods cannot be found, or it turns out that they are faulty, a runner is needed. His task is to quickly replace a missing item, often by consulting the IT specialists. It may not be the picker's fault, but the person's that enters product data into the computer system.
Faster and Faster
Polish Amazonians will be working shifts — 10 hours, four days a week, one month of night shifts, and one month of day shifts. How much the management and specialists earn is the company's secret. Physical workers’ earnings are public and included in the job ad: around 13 zł per hour for the ordinary warehouse worker and 16 zł for team leaders. Employees in Bielany Wrocławskie will earn slightly less than those in Sady because the company took into consideration the local payment rates. However, in both places, the monthly salary is quite low — around 2,400 to 2,500 zł. Amazon claims that their offer is competitive and in accordance with market rates, and to the earnings can be added a 15 percent bonus for good results, as well as other additional advantages, like medical care or cheap meals.
However, receiving a bonus is not that simple. The norms at Amazon are excessive, and the pace of work is very fast. “It started at 75 items per hour, then 100, then 150. I constantly heard: faster, faster,” said one picker working in a U.S. Amazon warehouse on the American website Salon. He lost the job because he was too slow.
Jeff Bezos likes to save and is fascinated by scientific work organization. A famous item in the company is a door-desk. It is a desk with a worktop made from huge doors. In 1994, in Seattle, Bezos was starting his then garage business at such a desk. Today, it is the symbol of the inventiveness of the founder’s father, and a symbol of reluctance for unnecessary spending. It is to be a constant inspiration for more than 100,000 Amazonians working all over the world.
Bezos himself is inspired by the creators of modern work organization — Henry Ford and Frederick Taylor. However, he is fascinated the most by the Japanese philosophy of "kaizen." It is based on a constant strive to quicken and improve the work process in cooperation with the workers. Everyone can suggest what could be improved, made easier or cheaper. The best ideas are rewarded.
Amazon is not a generous company to its workers, and not only in Poland. A picker in the U.S. gets $11.49 per hour, in the United Kingdom 7.10 pounds. Poles know something about it because a majority of workers in European centers are foreigners. Amazon used some of our countrymen who work in the U.K. in its online recruitment campaign in Poland. They explain in short videos how they started at Amazon, how they progressed, and how happy they are.
On online work search forums, one more often finds warnings than praise. Not only Poles, but also Americans, the British, French and Germans complain. The warehouses are also of interest to the media that eagerly publishes reports by journalists who worked as pickers or packers, and describe or film quite shocking scenes with a hidden camera. A BBC documentary and a book by a French journalist, Baptiste Malet, ironically titled “Inside Amazon: Infiltrating the Best of Both Worlds,” made a huge impression. The author feared that he would get into trouble with Amazon’s lawyers. Instead, he had to deal with businessmen. The book is on sale at Amazon. Amazon does not worry much about criticism.
War with Germany
Union members from the German Central Union Trade of the Worker Services sector Ver.di are at particular loggerheads with the American giant. They claim that Amazon, by paying 10.99 euros per hour, breaks the collective wage agreement for shipping companies, which as a minimum requires 11.39 euros. The Americans say that they are not a shipping company but a logistical one, and they will not pay more. They have eight fulfillment centers in Germany. Employees in some of them have gone on strikes before — during the most important period for the company — just before last year's Christmas.
That is why the new warehouses next to Poznań, Wrocław and Prague are regarded as an attempt to blackmail the German unions. Representatives of the company claim that it is not true because Amazon opened another fulfillment center near Berlin, but it is obvious that in the event of protests in Germany, the Polish and Czech centers will ship more items with no problems. Anyways, Americans don't hide the intention to open an AmazonFresh e-grocery store in Germany — so far, it operates in some U.S. cities — so it cannot be ruled out that some warehouses will change their specialization: especially because competition follows thick on their heels — Google Shopping Express is starting up.
Jeff Bezos belongs to the visionaries of the Internet era. Like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon surprises with constant new ideas: parcel delivery with the help of drones or Amazon Dash, a clever scanner/voice recorder, to which you can say what you need, or scan the code from an empty box, and the device will place an order in the e-store for you. Probably, sooner or later, robots will take over pickers' and packers' jobs. Technically, it is possible even today, but way too expensive — and Bezos does not like to lose money.
200 Million Items on Shelves
Amazon.com is the biggest e-store in the world, with a yearly revenue of $74.4 billion. It is listed on Nasdaq — with a net worth of $160 billion — and controlled by Jeffrey P. Bezos —who is 50 years old, founder, CEO and the main shareholder. It was founded in 1994 as an e-library under the name Cadabra — quickly changed — offering books, music, films, physical games, and later online games. With time, it expanded to other items, like electronics, furniture, household appliances and audio/video devices — large items will be managed by the warehouse near Poznań — clothes, sports equipment, etc. All in all, there are more than 200 million items, and recently, it broke into the grocery market.
It operates in the dozen richest countries — the United States, Japan, Germany, France, Italy, U.K. — and also the most populous ones — China, India, Brazil, Mexico — but it is available to the citizens of many more countries. In June 2014, Amazon employed 132,600 people. Its biggest rival is the traditional commerce giant Wal-Mart — with a net worth of $247 billion — which is coping with Amazon and expanding online. Amazon is known for its own devices, which make it easy to use its services. The best known one is the Kindle, an e-book and newspaper reader — Polityka was the first Polish weekly available on Kindle.