Amazon’s warehouse woes are not limited to the United States. Recently, it was uncovered that 602 reports had been made with England’s Health and Safety Executive, with concerns such as trauma, bleeding, electric shocks, lack of inclusivity among the LGBT, and concerns with pregnant women having to stand for several hours (Agnihotri & Bhattacharya, 2022). When it comes to the working climate within Amazon warehouses, stories of hardship are not limited to those who load boxes. Managers have also stated that Amazon drives them to keep a high-pressure workplace. Several employees’ occupations have become unduly stressful due to modern monitoring equipment that meticulously tracks every second of every day (Park et al., 2021). This paper is based on stress, lack of confidence, and unfairness towards the sexual orientation of various workers at the Amazon warehouse.
Findings
Stress
With the mismatch between the aspects of the work at the Amazon warehouse, the demand for the job, the ability to work successfully, and the wants and desires of the employees, it is worth noting that the majority of stress-inducing variables are workplace-related. Among the workers at Amazon, women or the female gender are more committed to supporting the well-being of their employees while at the same time subjecting themselves to higher stress levels. According to Gordon (2021), low income remains the leading cause of job stress among Amazon workers. There have been several instances among Amazon employees who have been undergoing psychological torture after finding out they were being paid less than the workload due to the fact that they are of LGBT families. Stress always escalates because of the fear of opening up to the relevant authorities, an act that would come with worse consequences; for instance, the worker could lose the job.
In Amazon warehouse, the existing workforce is male-dominated, which is very challenging to the female workers at the company. Women face challenges in climbing up the corporate ladder due to a lack of support for women’s personal and professional growth on top of their everyday obligations at home. Lack of flexible work arrangements, lack of equal access to career-making responsibilities as males, and exposure to sexual harassment by predatory male coworkers are just a few challenges women face (Ellsworth et al., 2020). Women also suffer from more severe burnout than males, as they struggle to balance their careers and their responsibilities as mothers. Chronic stress can cause immune system damage, migraines, digestive problems, anxiety and depression, heart disease, sleep, and cognitive problems, and weight gain, among other things (Gordon, 2021). Furthermore, persistent fear of losing their jobs elevated the likelihood of bad health by a more significant percentage.
Lack of Confidence
Several situations among the LGBT group like discrimination and depression may disengage an employee from work; disengagement is one factor that discourages confidence. In most workplace environments such as Amazon, there exist confidence disparity; most men’s abilities are overestimated compared to those of women who, in return, sell themselves short. At times because of unique sexual orientation, the LGBT of color are often fired in case of any mistake. In some scenarios for women in various workplaces, such as Amazon, it sometimes becomes hard for them to set back from the drawbacks; such incidents can include sexual harassment (Gordon, 2021). Fear of failure is another situation that kills workers’ confidence; with the existence of tight surveillance and constant monitoring of the workers by the Amazon management, workers are afraid of failure. At Amazon, rampant and continuous failure is likely to contribute negative scores on ratings of an employee, and with that, they stand a high chance of being fired; it is because of such that they lose confidence.
Unfairnesses
Amazon has been sued several times by its employees on race and gender discrimination. Recently, five women have claimed that their bosses retaliated against them after they complained internally about discrimination or harassment. The women are between the ages of early twenties and mid-sixties. They claimed that when they complained internally about racial discrimination, gender, and sexual harassment, white superiors punished them (Alimahomed-Wilson & Reese, 2021). Two of the females are black, one is Asian-American, one is Caucasian, and the other is Latina. Three of the females are currently Amazon employees, while the other two are former employees. Complaints of discrimination and harassment against women and people of color at all degrees of Amazon have been ignored.
Discussion
Conclusion
When employees are treated unfavorable and unethically by the employer, long-term effects are likely to occur; this includes stress, lack of confidence, and unfairness. Stress is caused by significant factors such as unequal pay for work done; the employee’s salary may be subjected to several deductions that are only aimed at exploiting the workers. Unfairness results when an employee is treated following the origin and skin color; in this context, most women are usually harassed sexually.
Limitations
The limitation of this research is that there is no provision of possible solutions to the problem facing various workers at the Amazon warehouse, especially the women. Additionally, there is no discussion on the improvement and steps that Amazon has taken towards the betterment of its employees (Agnihotri & Bhattacharya, 2022). Relevant labor authorities should be informed, and measures are taken to respond to various allegations made by several workers despite gender.
Where and Why
Further research is necessary, to find out how the challenges experienced by various individuals of different sexual orientations can be solved. This research should be done on various sectors and departments within the Amazon warehouse, its branches, and other warehouses. The U.S. Department of Labor is responsible for this action to ensure that heterosexual and homosexual individuals are not subjected to stress, humiliation, and unfairness at work.
References
Agnihotri, A., & Bhattacharya, S. (2022). Addressing Poor Working Conditions at Amazon, Inc.: Challenges Before, During, and After COVID-19. SAGE Publications: SAGE Business Cases Originals.
Alimahomed-Wilson, J., & Reese, E. (2021). Surveilling Amazon’s warehouse workers: racism, retaliation, and worker resistance amid the pandemic. Work in the Global Economy, 1(1-2). Web.
Ellsworth, D., Mendy, A., & Sullivan, G. (2020). How the LGBTQ+ community fares in the workplace. McKinsey & Company, June, 23.
Gordon, J. L. (2021). Under Pressure: Addressing Warehouse Productivity Quotas and the Rise in Workplace Injuries. Fordham Urb. LJ, 49, 149. Web.
Park, H., Ahn, D., Hosanagar, K., & Lee, J. (2021, May). Human-AI Interaction in Human Resource Management: Understanding Why Employees Resist Algorithmic Evaluation at Workplaces and How to Mitigate Burdens. In Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1-15).