These folks walk between seven and 15 miles per day, and given picking quotas, those are by no means walks in the park. Employees’ productivity is tracked using handheld devices, so there is a stressful, “watched” element to this labor-intensive job.
Some point out that this is the way that warehouse work is, regardless of one’s employer. This Mental Floss piece describes the good, the bad, and the ugly regarding work in Amazon’s fulfillment centers, and specifically points out in one bullet that “not everyone has a horror story.”
Still, since when has Amazon been interested in “that’s just the way it is”? This is a company that convinced people that an online bookstore made sense (yes, boys and girls, there was a time when people didn’t believe that), and today, it’s working on drones, for goodness’ sake.
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Given the fact that Amazon shares recently hit a new 52-week high, at least I feel I’m bidding this stock goodbye on a high note.
Alyce Lomax is a columnist for Fool.com and an analyst for Motley Fool One. Since 2010, she has managed the real-money Prosocial Portfolio, which integrates socially responsible investing factors into stock analysis.
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