College Degrees STRONGLY preferred (if you want to be promoted), no matter the Location
Pros
Your hard work gets noticed, by Managers and Tier 3s alike (Tier 3 is a position that is somewhat equivalent to an Assistant Manager at other employers, but they directly manage the bulk of resources in the areas that they're assigned). You can be trained in other areas in your working area if those above you think you can handle it. At date of hire, you receive up to 4 days off, in the form of -1-10 hr block of Vacation Time, 1-10 hr block of Paid Personal Time, and 20 hrs of Unpaid Personal Time.Vacation time must be submitted for approval no less than 24 hours before the time you wish to be off, the Paid personal time can be used whenever you like, and the same with the Unpaid Personal time. You get up to two weeks , 1 week of vacation and 1 week of paid personal, and every quarter, you accrue 2 extra unpaid days. You can have up to 80 hours of unpaid time accrue before you max out, you lose all of your 1 week personal time if you don't use it by the end of the year, and my understanding is that vacation time can be accrued for an unlimited amount of time. After your first year, you receive double the amount of vacation time to accrue throughout the year. Remember, all of that time takes the whole year to accrue, so every pay period, you get a little more that you can use in whatever type of increments you decide. Insurance Benefits aren't too bad, if you're single, or have a spouse/domestic partner... If you have a family, still not the worst that I've seen, but fairly standard...(See Below) For advancement and promotional capabilities, Amazon.com is also great if you're single and/or have a specific type of spouse/domestic partner...(See Below) 401 K is pretty standard for the industrial warehousing industry. After being there for predetermined amounts of time (2 years, then 3 years), you receive a few units of stock at both intervals, which is nice...(see below) You MAY receive a small monthly bonus, based on the whole facility performance, so that's definitely good..(See Below) Amazon.com also has tons of Leave types available for emergency situations or personal issues, but really could benefit from enforcing the laws concerning certain types of leave...(See Below) They also have an Ethics Line, for employees who feel like they're being slighted, or have seen something they feel or know is wrong. (See Below) Tuition Reimbursement - WONDERFUL... Amazon has a pretty good tuition program. You have to be an Amazonian for over a year before it can be used, but they'll pay up to 12k for certain college courses, usually a technical certificate, or Certificate of some kind. It's supposed to be up to 3K, spread out over a years time, but they're pretty flexible on that because of the limited number of available programs that you can finish over a few years time period... And they also pay for your text books related to the program/classes you're taking. Really, really nice. Pay isn't bad, for a warehouse, unskilled, position either...starting out.(See Below) In the end, Amazon.com isn't a bad place to work, it's really great for hardworking, high achieving, single people, or people who don't have families, or people with a college degree BEFORE you start at AMAZON.
Cons
As for the insurance benefits, for a company the size of Amazon.com, and with as many subsidiaries that they own, they should have been able to hire someone who could have negotiated a much better deal for their group insurance rates for anyone with a family. I've worked at smaller employers, with nowhere near the employee capital leverage that Amazon.com can command, and they provided much better insurance for families or Parents w/children, at much lower rates. again, as long as you're single, or only have a spouse/domestic partner...and that spouse/domestic partner is able to/willing to move. If you have children, or your spouse/partner can't/won't move for whatever reason, then you better have a college degree to move up within any real time frame. In my 4 years of being at Amazon.com, I knew of many Tier 3's who had been at Amazon for 5 years, maxing out their pay, before they were promoted. For me, that's just too long to be in one place, with less than a dollar raise per year, to be on one position.....Unless you were some one if the opposite sex of who wanted you to fill a Tier 3 role (that's right, sexist behavior) or Unless you have a degree...Add that in and I've known of a dozen or more who were promoted within 18 months or so. That doesn't count the number of newly hired Area Managers that were only able to do the job because of the Tier 3's in the area, and then still fail and before being fired, start going on write up spree's to prove they can be better managers. Amazon doesn't have a formal policy for having to have a college degree to be promoted, but even if you have more than a decade in direct management, don't think you'll be promoted to an actual AM position, at Tier 4 or above, unless you have a degree. The shares of stock (Stock Bonus) that you receive, only twice, as a Tier 1 (or even after being promoted to Tier 3) employee is nice, but tons of employers offer far better bonus options, however, tons of employers also offer NO bonus options. As for the monthly bonus that you MAY receive, it's far from guaranteed, and seems to be skewed to benefit employees who don't have children to take care of (single parents), or a handicapped/sick spouse, parent, or have to have another main priority other than Amazon. If you use your Unpaid Personal Time, then the small monthly bonus that you MAY receive is docked by 50%. Use that time twice and you lose it. As for Leave, different facilities may have different requirements for approving the leave, forget that some states and federal laws require that it is provided in certain instances. Even if you have the correct documentation, then you can still be denied FMLA. I know, it's a serious accusation, but it's completely true. And their Ethics line complaints? well, maybe i depends on who deals with your complaints, but no one that I knew of ever was able to have anything happen (unless it was a Tier 1, who were sometimes fired as a result of theft) As for the Tuition/education program, it's not bad, but changing it to allow for earning, at least, an Associate degree, since you can actually earn it from some programs, or with some college (from before Amazon), and it would really be great. the Pay structure is somewhat odd, I've worked with temps, who have less experience, and knew than me, but made $2.00 per hr more than I did..Why? I had more responsibility expected of me but I actually made less than someone who was able to skate by doing as little as possible, making as much as possible. Amazon makes an attempt to vary pay increases by looking at other employers in the area and calculating other benefits, giving an extra quarter (sometimes less, or more than that). And one more thing...if you think that once you're promoted to a higher position, (Tier3 or up,) you could ever skate by with only getting your regular 40 hours, forget it, as an AM or higher, you hae to put in a TON of extra hours, so kiss your kids, wife, and anyone else in your life goodbye.
