Gisela Hausman When she worked as a frontline employee in the company’s distribution center in South Carolina in 2019, she had a unique view of Amazon.
She is from Vienna, Austria Have many years of professional experience in logistics, lWon the industry from the ground up at FedEx and worked for a large shipping company. As an independent author, she has been following Amazon closely for many years, using its platform to publish books.
To say that she speaks highly of Amazon and its founder Jeff Bezos is an understatement. Based on her experience as an early author on the Kindle and CreateSpace platforms, she particularly admires Amazon’s influence on publishing.
“I see what they do [authors] I can hardly dream of it, because this is so amazing, no one wants it to happen-Bezos did it! “Housman said. “He is a god in my eyes.” I call him New Gutenberg. “
Working at an Amazon delivery station did not give her the same feeling.
As she explained, the job itself is not a problem. After speeding up her work to load packages, she was able to exceed Amazon’s productivity benchmarks. She did not see or encountered common problems in Amazon warehouses, such as workers not going to the bathroom to rest in order to keep up with the progress.
But she was surprised by the lack of training she described, the lack of clear best practices, the apparent inability to translate well-meaning employees’ opinions into operational improvements, and the overall disconnect between Amazon’s leadership principles and the reality of fast-growing delivery networks.
After 468 days, Hausmann decided to leave because she described the frustration she described.
She said she didn’t plan to write a book when she started working. Her main goal is to work in the logistics department of a company she admires. But after realizing that her first-hand experience combined with her background could provide some unique and potentially valuable insights for people interested in the company, she changed her mind.
Her book, Inside Amazon: My Story, Including thoughts on Amazon. She hopes that these ideas will attract the attention of Amazon executives, as they are working hard to realize the company’s latest leadership principles to become “the best employer on earth.”
The following is a summary of her five recommendations:
- Develop a world-class training program and strictly focus on best practices to ensure that everyone completes each task in the best way known to the company.
- Look for employees who want to build a long-term career in the company, those who think it is more than just a job, focus on their career development, and promote the best of them, instead of focusing mainly on those young college graduates who work in the company According to data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, it only takes 2.8 years to change jobs.
- Implement clear practices and procedures to receive, evaluate, and implement employee feedback on operational improvements down to the finest details.
- Use concepts that are more relevant to frontline employees to adjust or supplement the company’s leadership principles and mantras. Amazon’s proverbs such as “always the first day” and “work hard, have fun, make history” may inspire people in the creative office environment, but in the service industry they may fail and become the subject of jokes And a source of frustration.
- Amazon could have provided employees with free Prime memberships as rewards during the pandemic, treating them as heroes and generating goodwill among employees, making them more likely to advocate Amazon as the company’s goodwill ambassador in the community.
But can Amazon really become the best employer on the planet? Hausmann is still a fan of the company, and she says she is “100% sure” that it can.
“They will always be on my pedestal,” she said. “But I hope they live up to what they say about themselves and what they can do. If they finally realize how great the logistics is, or hold the people who see it accountable, then they will get there.”
Hausmann talked about her experiences and observations in this episode of Day 2, GeekWire podcast everything about Amazon.
Listen to day 2 above, and Subscribe in any podcast app.