Question for Amazon Employees about personal time off.?

Former picker and packer at Amazon. Your Personal Time is free to use whenever you like, no questions asked. You won't get in trouble. Managers understand that new hires will take a few weeks to get used to everything. You will get used to it. Don't be afraid to invest in a good pair of shoes and give them time to break-in. Also, pace yourself through the day, and drink lots of water. Hydration goes a long way to help with pains and aches.

Further, don't listen to the comment saying how bad Amazon is to work at. Sure, there were a few horror stories (what company doesn't have them?), but it's not that bad. Amazon has taken huge steps in keeping up with employee comfort and moral.

Regarding problems with Amazon.

The real problem seems to be the fact that the company s rules and training cater to incompetent individuals

while restricting competent one s.

You have to sit through 10 hours of power points, tests, and silly demonstrations to train you on something they could probably go over in 3 or 4 hours. (After your 6th job, it gets really old. Same routine, every company).

The limitations on how one may or may not lift a box, for example, are nonsensical. Say, a large 3 or 4 pound box over the shoulders, for the sake of comfort and stability. This is easy, it s as light as the wind. However, this would be in violation of Amazon s lifting policy, which outlines specific steps for lifting all boxes requiring bending at the knees, where to place one s hands, and where to hold one relative to the body (I know what to lift with my back and what not to lift, I m not 50, I m not going to hurt myself; I don t understand why companies outright ban lifting with your back, and even go so far as to prescribe guidelines to do so, even for light objects, when a person s ability to lift varies on an individual basis). Because it s considered a safety concern.

Employees seem to think they re managers, clearly managers (leadership/ambassadors) aren t authoritative or proactive enough. 3 employees in a week once told me to turn the lights on my PIT off in an extremely impolite manner, as though they were my superior. That s harassment. They even went so far as to claim is was, again, a safety concern, and a rule violation; and when asked, the leadership member stated it was, effectively, "common practice, expected courtesy" (who the hell is dumb enough to stare at bright lights?) but was unsure of whether or not it was actually a rule (that s a problem, bosses that don t know company policy).

Lastly, their scanner gun application, as an IST major who has studied Interface Design, User Experience Design, and how they are to imitate, facilitate, and ease the performance of business processes, is one of the most shoddy, difficult, and impractical professionally-made or corporate applications I have ever used.

On the flipside, they re really lenient with vacation time usage, fair break times, and their PIT training has you dive in head-first in a safe environment, pretty cool.

Quite possibly, yes. NOT a good idea to take time off right off the bat.

I wouldn't work for amazon for all the tea in china. There are loads of horror stories around about them as a company.

http://www.salon.com/2014/02/23/worse_than_wal_mar...

http://gawker.com/amazon-warehouse-workers-are-tre... (be sure to follow the links in this article.)

http://www.ibtimes.com/amazoncoms-workers-are-low-...

http://www.businessinsider.com/brutal-conditions-i...

Learn good body mechanics and Check out New Balance shoes.You will pay for a lifetime for the care you take of your feet and back.I recently paid more for a pair of these shoes than I paid for the last car I bought(used,many years ago) and don`t regret one cent of it.Tell your boss what you are doing about having to leave work early.Jobs are precious.If you cannot afford the shoes reply to me and we`ll see what we can work out.

Congratulations and welcome to the amazon family of slaves.