Amazon fulfillment
Source: Amazon

Leaked Amazon Memo Warns Company Is Running Out of People to Hire

SHARE

A leaked memo from Amazon allegedly details how the eCommerce giant is concerned about running out of people to hire for its warehouses. This perhaps isn’t surprising as in June 2021 the New York Times ran a piece detailing the results of an investigation that put the Amazon staff turnover rate at 150%.

The memo leak has been outed by Recode a part of the Vox Media family in an article where they dive deep into the worker crisis. They allege that the leaked memo states “If we continue business as usual, Amazon will deplete the available labor supply in the US network by 2024,”

One former warehouse manager had the following to say about the genuine worry around staff levels at their warehouses.

“They were so concerned about attrition and losing people that they rolled back all the policies that us as managers had to enforce,”

“There was a joke among the … managers that it didn’t matter what [workers] got written up for because we knew HR was gonna exempt it. It was almost impossible to get fired as a worker.”

Michael Garrigan, Former entry-level warehouse manager, Amazon.

The Amazon Slow Down Adding Slight Respite

The only good news is that the memo is allegedly from mid-2021 and since then there has been a noted slowdown across the Amazon business. Earlier this year when Amazon announced its Q1 results for 2022, Wall Street analysts were quick to note the missed earnings expectations, with the company slowing down in terms of its income.

This even led to some news reports in early 2022 stating how the eCommerce giant was actually overstaffed and they were holding back on some previously held expansion plans.

Whilst Amazon consistently wins awards for its role as a leading employer in the US, those are for its positions in offices and home-based roles and not those in its warehouses. Amazon has had a number of reported issues with its working conditions in warehouses leading to the most recent unionization in Staten Island.

There are a number of ways the marketplace can help out its warehouse staffing issue in the long term, whether that be increasing wages, further automating using robots, or making working conditions better for its workers.

If you liked this article and would like to engage with other small business entrepreneurs selling on marketplaces, join our . You can also find us on , , , and or sign up for our newsletter below.

SIGN UP. BE INSPIRED. GROW YOUR BUSINESS.

We do not sell your information. You can unsubscribe at any time.

2 Comments

  1. Dave..are u aware of any computer data issues at Amazon due to the turnover of Whole Foods. I am an Amazon employee just terminated because my attendance stats were one point too high. But I was told their systems were off by some employees. But I want to prove it somehow. Stats vary from the shopper app to the big system at ERC. I get very conflicting numbers and believe I was wrongly terminated. Any info about this would be great.

    1. Hey Chris,

      I haven’t heard of anything along these lines. You got fired because your attendance was too high? feel free to drop us an email with any info you have on this and we can try and investigate.

      Dave

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *