Amazon reviews

Where do I start? The infrastructure is all but non-existent. Management is a mess and the turnover is constant. Tenured employees are hop from role-to-role to avoid burnout and so Amazon can keep them within arms reach. Employees are encouraged to undermine others and essentially snitch and stab each other in the back to further their own careers. The sense of camaraderie is boiled down to team-building events that turn into competitions. They pay is not worth sacrifice. For me, it cost me my sanity and my soul. I had panic attacks everyday that I was there and I was told to suck it up because it was "Amazon and it's the promised land."

As for the insurance benefits, for a company the size of Amazon.com, and with as many subsidiaries that they own, they should have been able to hire someone who could have negotiated a much better deal for their group insurance rates for anyone with a family. I've worked at smaller employers, with nowhere near the employee capital leverage that Amazon.com can command, and they provided much better insurance for families or Parents w/children, at much lower rates. again, as long as you're single, or only have a spouse/domestic partner...and that spouse/domestic partner is able to/willing to move. If you have children, or your spouse/partner can't/won't move for whatever reason, then you better have a college degree to move up within any real time frame. In my 4 years of being at Amazon.com, I knew of many Tier 3's who had been at Amazon for 5 years, maxing out their pay, before they were promoted. For me, that's just too long to be in one place, with less than a dollar raise per year, to be on one position.....Unless you were some one if the opposite sex of who wanted you to fill a Tier 3 role (that's right, sexist behavior) or Unless you have a degree...Add that in and I've known of a dozen or more who were promoted within 18 months or so. That doesn't count the number of newly hired Area Managers that were only able to do the job because of the Tier 3's in the area, and then still fail and before being fired, start going on write up spree's to prove they can be better managers. Amazon doesn't have a formal policy for having to have a college degree to be promoted, but even if you have more than a decade in direct management, don't think you'll be promoted to an actual AM position, at Tier 4 or above, unless you have a degree. The shares of stock (Stock Bonus) that you receive, only twice, as a Tier 1 (or even after being promoted to Tier 3) employee is nice, but tons of employers offer far better bonus options, however, tons of employers also offer NO bonus options. As for the monthly bonus that you MAY receive, it's far from guaranteed, and seems to be skewed to benefit employees who don't have children to take care of (single parents), or a handicapped/sick spouse, parent, or have to have another main priority other than Amazon. If you use your Unpaid Personal Time, then the small monthly bonus that you MAY receive is docked by 50%. Use that time twice and you lose it. As for Leave, different facilities may have different requirements for approving the leave, forget that some states and federal laws require that it is provided in certain instances. Even if you have the correct documentation, then you can still be denied FMLA. I know, it's a serious accusation, but it's completely true. And their Ethics line complaints? well, maybe i depends on who deals with your complaints, but no one that I knew of ever was able to have anything happen (unless it was a Tier 1, who were sometimes fired as a result of theft) As for the Tuition/education program, it's not bad, but changing it to allow for earning, at least, an Associate degree, since you can actually earn it from some programs, or with some college (from before Amazon), and it would really be great. the Pay structure is somewhat odd, I've worked with temps, who have less experience, and knew than me, but made $2.00 per hr more than I did..Why? I had more responsibility expected of me but I actually made less than someone who was able to skate by doing as little as possible, making as much as possible. Amazon makes an attempt to vary pay increases by looking at other employers in the area and calculating other benefits, giving an extra quarter (sometimes less, or more than that). And one more thing...if you think that once you're promoted to a higher position, (Tier3 or up,) you could ever skate by with only getting your regular 40 hours, forget it, as an AM or higher, you hae to put in a TON of extra hours, so kiss your kids, wife, and anyone else in your life goodbye.