Amazon's company culture under fire

The online giant is the world's biggest retailer with a market value that is nearly $250 billion. The New York Times is raising questions about Amazon's work culture, as reporters Jodi Kantor and David Streitfeld spoke with more than 100 current and former employees. Kantor and former White House press secretary and current Amazon Senior Vice President for Corporate Affairs Jay Carney joins "CBS This Morning" to discuss the report.

[laramiefrench]

I worked at Amazon and i can safely say I never met anyone who enjoyed working at Amazon.Amazon is a soulless, dystopian workplace where no fun is had.Any laughter you hear is not from workers enjoying what they do.All you are is a tool and your treated as if you can easily be replaced.The CEO would claim this is a lie.How does he know?Has he ever for weeks, months, or years done all the jobs that Amazon has?Does he spend all his time observing his workers in every warehouse?

[SenkaLunette]

I loved working for Amazon because of its but the management and pressure makes me sob in a corner every other day. Im getting a new job soon and Im never looking back.

[elizabethstrate]

i worked for amazon for 4mnths and i have to say that it is a brutal place to work, not every station has a fan or radio, things falling from shelves, mixing chemicals with kids and adult products, robots crashing into one another Kiva workers with straight up attitudes, bosses always stressed and leaning over stuff when giving a talk, managers that are inconsitant, the second level is super dark and way hotter, the company uses your incase of emergency contacts only, to get a hold of you, they tell you that you need to bring in a doctor note if you need to be on light duty but then turns around and refuses to accept it when you do, which is against the law, just a horrible place to work

[Daoistify]

My wife worked for Amazon. She is very intelligent, totally loyal and dedicated, lots of work experience, terrific personality. She completely lost it, freaked out and turned into one nervous Nellie. After a short time, she turned into someone I could not recognize. I made her quit before she became suicidal.

[JessicaAhibo]

As I am writing this I have tears in my eyes. I beg you to please understand there are no exaggerations in employee complaints. Warehouse workers have unbelievable rates, you bathroom time is monitored and limited. I worked in HR we were so disrespected, pushed beyond belief. We come in at 4pm and work until 5am. After 10 hrs it's off the clock. We don't eat lunch. You come in daily with 400 emails. After rules and filters you have 125 emails you actually have to read. Not including any work. You have 2000 employees at the facility, everything is reports and data. Reports more reports more metrics....that no one reads. I just cant explain. You go to the bathroom and cry for 10 mins then come back and continue. Once a week. At your 1 on 1 meeting they tell you are the most incompetent employee.

[chriso]

Does a former White House Press Secretary have any credibility what so ever?

[bertosterberg]

I made my wife quit Amazon. She came home hurt everyday. She was routinely top performer but was under pressure every day to go faster. Faster faster faster. And so much stress. They begged her not to quit but she couldn't take it anymore.

[James-lp]

I've noticed over the years after the economy basically went under that companies started treating their employees with a lot less respect because they knew job loss was high and their employees didn't have a lot of options when it came to the job market so companies started getting tighter with payroll and started asking more from less people, even if a company is doing as well as Amazon they still didn't want to give more for more work done with less people. Sad how businesses see their employees as nothing more then another time card taking money from a company that has more then they can spend on them self's. The company I work for tells us once a month how well the company is doing and how it's thanks to us and yet our paychecks don't seem to reflect our efforts. Cost of living will always go up, that's just how the market works but companies need to pay to match cost of living and their not...

[mpenny]

most bosses are so full of garbage when it comes to the workplace.  Always playing so clueless when it comes to what's going on.

[daimyo]

"Amazon is a place where people are excited to come to work" hahahahahaha

[RLMUD]

I worked for AMAZON for a total of 5 weeks, I could not wait to get in and start, after 4 weeks I could not wait to get out. There was a total of about 24 people in my group that were hired. when I quit after 5 weeks there was only 4 people still working there that were in my group. Yes 20 out of 24 people quit after 5 weeks. AMAZON SUCKS.

[anthonytobin]

That guy from Amazon didn't answer a single direct question, only evaded and obfuscated.

[timetreker]

Bull crap. I worked in receiving inbound and the quota system is brutal. You are working on your feet for 10  or more hours and doing the must labor intensive and dangerous work in the warehouse and are expected to receive, scan and redo incoming pallets of merchandise at 7 pallets an hour which comes to 70 pallets a day. It is a very hard quota to achieve, as there are always problems with incoming pallets and the restacking of pallets takes time and you are written up or transferred to another department or let go if these quotas are not met. God help you if you are seen standing still for more than a minute as you will be yelled at and cautioned. Pickers must work under pressure walking 12 to 15 miles a day again meeting a quota. The conditions yes are very mentally stressing and physically demanding and are jobs for younger employees and not for the faint of heart or older people wanting to get back into the work force.

[eugenejohnson]

only if ppl really knew how brutal and hostile and the stuff they sweep under the carpet...

[llh]

Jay Carney works at Amazon now? Sends a cold chill down my spine. Hard to tell corporate America apart from the US govt.

[m.c.m]

It will only get worse cause people need jobs and as long as people will work for low wages they won’t change.

[PrinceChris]

Amazon is honestly an awful place to work I guarantee you the CEO himself wouldn't last a month. You get micromanaged, people constantly quit, you're on your feet 13 hour's a day straight with two or three breaks, You get written up for just about anything, there are videos out there on YouTube showing just how awful it was to work there. People work at Amazon not because they like it but because of money. They pay weekly especially during peek time. Such as holidays when they need more people and that's about the only decent thing

[brianwalker]

I use to work @ Amazon SDF8. I STARTED FULL TIME AS AN AMAZON EMPLOYEE! I worked there for 2 years and then they started sending people home early A LOT!!! Day after day! Then they offered a buyout of like $2, 500. So I took it and EVEN ASKED THE HR LADY IF I COULD COME EVER COME BACK? She said not for at least 1 After over 1 year, I tried to come back and they told me no since I took the So they are either liars, or they have HR EMPLOYEES THAT ARE LIARS THAT DON'T KNOW THEIR JOB!!!

[currentphonograph]

I've heard they are the single worst company to work 4

[MrMusiclover]

Jay Carney evaded answering the questions posed.  Completely useless.