Even more info on Amazon’s attrition problem.

Last year, only a third of Amazon’s new hires stayed with the company for more than 90 days before quitting, being fired, or getting laid off

The report, which is based off internal research papers, slide decks, and spreadsheets from Amazon, claims that workers are twice as likely to leave by choice, rather than because they were laid off or fired. It also says that the issue is widespread throughout the company, not just with warehouse workers; from entry level roles all the way up to vice presidents, the lowest attrition rate for one of the company’s 10 tiers of employees was almost 70 percent, with the highest reaching a staggering 81.3 percent.

    • GoebbelsDeezNuts [any]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Wouldn't you eventually just burn through your entire labor pool? Like how long would that even be sustainable?

      I think at the very least they've burned though their "goodwill" so to speak, at least anecdotally amongst people in warehousing in my area. I've worked in warehouses for a while, Amazon opened a warehouse close to where I live a few years ago. The opinion pretty quickly went from "Can't wait till Amazon opens up here so we can finally get paid" to "It's good you just gotta keep your pace up" to "FUCK AMAZON AND FUCK BEZOS FOREVER"

    • marxisthayaca [he/him,they/them]
      ·
      2 years ago

      They use some algorithmic tracking that makes working there completely unsustainable. Anybody that stays there for too long is probably addicted to painkillers - A BeLabored podcast episode talked about how an employee couldn't use tylenol because she developed a tolerance.

      • Aryuproudomenowdaddy [comrade/them]
        ·
        2 years ago

        I've worked in construction for years and Amazon was the first job where I felt obligated to bring some kind of painkiller with me. They even dispense packs of them in the employee supplies vending machines.

          • Aryuproudomenowdaddy [comrade/them]
            ·
            2 years ago

            Like you scan your ID badge and can get certain items periodically, such as work gloves or tylenol. You were only able to get one two pill pack a day, gloves were around 3 days, I collected them and had several dozen fresh pairs by the time I quit.

              • Aryuproudomenowdaddy [comrade/them]
                ·
                2 years ago

                I actually smuggled out a decent amount of stuff, including some RAM sticks that retail for like $150 when they had the metal detectors shut off and weren't searching people's bags on their way out of the building.

    • UlyssesT [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Corporate ghouls call it "churn" as a good thing.

    • Aryuproudomenowdaddy [comrade/them]
      ·
      2 years ago

      It is the philosophy, I was at a warehouse for about a year and there were I believe two people left who started around the same time as me, if I had to guess 10% stay past 6 months, 5% past a year. Unless you live in a low cost of living area where other businesses are paying federal minimum wage there's not much keeping anyone there. They try dangling a carrot saying you could make assistant manager within a year but they're much more likely to hire people with 4 year degrees than promote from within, all of the assistant managers had been there for a few years minimum waiting for a management position to open up, which start at like 21/hr.

    • usernamesaredifficul [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      yeah but people who worked for them often don't want to go back. It's warehouse work they aren't the only game in town

      eventually Amazon managers run out of people willing to put up with them