Neisha France, Yousuf Goni, Prabhleen Kaur, Nicholas Martin, and Kristen Regan

BUS 326 Final Presentation ‘15

FROM A to Z- WHat is AMazon?★Founded on July 5, 1994, by Jeff Bezos (Net Worth: 46.7 Billion)

★Largest shipping online website.

★Wide selection of Books, Electronics, and etc.

★Current Stock Price: (67.9)

FROM A to Z- HISTORY OF AMAZON ★ Amazon found by Jeff Bezos was

first launched in 1995, as a website that solely sold books.

★ Jeff Bezos initially desired to name the company the magical sounding name “Cadabra.”

★ Today, Amazon is the most profitable and well known online shopping site.

FROM A to Z- PROBLEMS AT AMAZON ★ Amazon warehouse has a drill of once

a worker’s shift is over, they must stand in line and wait to be screened for stolen goods before leaving.

★ The process can take 20 minutes or more depending on how busy the warehouse is, and no one gets paid a dime for the wait.

★ “The argument is that once your shift ends, the employer has the ability to require you to do other things on the pain of dismissal and does not have to pay you.”

FROM A to Z- Amazon Expose on Company Culture★“Amazon’s employees are at a point of disengagement and

are calling out their leaders publicly”

○ Disconnect between employers and leaders

★No employee engagement data:

○ Employees were pressed on numbers but yet the data wasn’t saved to say who did actual work

★On the Verge of Burnout:

○ Chronic stress and no balance in work/life takes over.

FROM A to Z- What the Employees have to say

FROM A to Z- What the Employees have to say

★ “The company is conducting an experiment in how far it can push its white-collar workers to get them to achieve its ever expanding ambitions.

★ Fresh recruits are lined up and told to forget the “poor habits” they learned from previous jobs. The job mentality is “when they hit the wall” the only solution is “climb the wall”.

★ Workers are encouraged to tear apart one another’s ideas, toil long and late (emails arrive past midnight that they must respond to).

★ There is an internal phone directory that instructs colleagues on how to send secret feedback to one another’s bosses.

FROM A to Z-What the Employees Have to say (cont)★ The “All toughness, all the time” culture of Amazon is taking a toll on its employees.

★ “Nearly every person I worked with, I saw cry at their desk.”

★ Workers who suffered from cancer, miscarriages, and other personal crisis who have been evaluated unfairly or cut out from the company rather than given time to recover in a company that could not slow down.

★ “The joke in the office was that when it came to work/life balance, work came first, life came second, and trying to find the balance came last.”

From a to z- What employees are making★ Average salary range(depending on job title):

○ Around $20,000 - over $ 200,000

■ Men making an average of $102,209

■ Women making an average of $81,746

★ Average hourly rate range(depending on job title):

○ Around $11.45 per hour - $29.97 per hour

■ Men averaging about $15.75 per hour

■ Women averaging about $15.50 per hour

FROM A to Z- OLR: Organization and Leadership Review

★Bezos has codified his beliefs within his company in the form of a custom called the OLR, for organization and leadership review.

★OLR is supposed to identify future leaders and prepare employees for next challenging roles.

★OLR actually seems to be a system where could either help or hurt your career, as people are just bringing up their case to be promoted just to be denied.

FROM A to Z-Recommendation★Motavation

○ Make sure the employees have confidence and self esteem

○ By rewarding for their hard work

○ Make the employees feel human

■ This can make the workers at Amazon feel less like a machine

■ Equal rights and fairness to all employees

-Maslow’s Hierarchy: Amazon should not forget to build up their employees “human needs.”

FROM A to Z-Recommendation★Incentive

○ If employees are working around the clock and giving 110% give something to work for

○ Amazon may implement some reward systems that if employees or teams achieve a certain level of work within a given time period than those employees can receive:

■ With small bonuses

■ extra vacation time

■ pick their schedule

■ recognition in the company (“employee[s] of the month”)

REFERENCES D'Onfro, J. (2014, May 10). 14 Quirky Things You Didn't Know About Amazon. November 28, 2015, from http://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-jeff-bezos-facts-story-history-2014-5?op=1

Jamieson, D. (2014, October 7). Amazon Warehouse Workers Head To Supreme Court Over Unpaid Theft Screenings. November 28, 2015, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/07/amazon-warehouse-supreme-_n_5946464.html

Streitfeld, D., & Kantor, J. (2015, August 17). Jeff Bezos and Amazon Employees Join Debate Over Its Culture. November 28, 2015, from http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/18/technology/amazon-bezos-workplace-management-practices.html?_r=0

Kantor, J., & Streitfeld, D. (2015, August 15). Inside Amazon: Wrestling Big Ideas in a Bruising Workplace. November 28, 2015, from http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/16/technology/inside-amazon-wrestling-big-ideas-in-a-bruising-workplace.html

Stone, B. (2013, October 15). Careers at Amazon: Why It's So Hard to Climb Jeff Bezos's Corporate Ladder. Retrieved November 28, 2015, from http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/articles/2013-10-15/careers-at-amazon-why-its-so-hard-to-climb-jeff-bezoss-corporate-ladder

FROM A to Z...Thank you!

Questions and Comments?