Amazon.com Reviews in Lexington, KY Area

Pros

Always new challenges and things to learn
A company you can be proud of the way they treat their customers
A company growing is alway more fun

Cons

Work life balance becomes an issue. At Amazon you get the job done period and that can come a cost to your family balance. You have to love working here. You will either love it or hate it.

Pros

Tremendous ability to make changes. Increasing use of lean production principles creates a great laboratory to master LEAN. Work with the smartest group of people imaginable and move at breakneck speed. Make an impact bigger than yourself.

Cons

Managers are servants and garner much less respect than the hourly employee, a good thing up to a point that is often surpassed. Meanwhile the hours can be quite long and there is tremendous ambiguity matched with a high degree of accountability.

Advice to Senior Management

Appreciate your managers, trust their judgement, and assume they intend to do the right things.

Pros

I wrote a review exactly one year ago, so I felt it was time to write another one. The pros are pretty much the same; good salary considering you don't need a college education, and it is easy to get hired here, so if you want to work and you work hard, then you will be hired. The insurance is really good and you have a 401K. Amazon really is customer centric,to a fault. My FC got AC for the summer!

Cons

Working hard is a Pro and a Con. The bad side is the harder you work, the more they expect. They take everything you have and you do not get a whole lot back. Sometimes your reward for working hard is mandatory overtime. Over the last year, our perks have changed for the worse. We used to get $10 and $20 Amazon gift cards, and last peak that turned into $5 gas cards. When I found this out it was pretty discouraging. As much as this company makes you would think that the perks would be getting better, not worse! We just had a rate increase for my department, which is no big deal, but there was no compensation for it. As far as work/life balance, that is still pretty bad. For associates it's not near as bad as managers, as Amazon will suck your life away. As I said in the Pros, Amazon is customer centric to a fault. The company needs to compensate for the hard work of the employees. I believe that if they did this, then the attitude of alot of the employees would change for the better, as there is quite a bit of behavioral problems and negativity. As I mentioned in the Pros, my FC got AC for the summer, so at the least we dont feel like we are working in a sweat shop.

Advice to Senior Management

My advice would be, reward your employees. Make them feel like the work they do is worth it. Being customer centric is fine, but when the employees suffer so much for it, it is going too far. People who enjoy working in an area should be allowed to work there, instead of constantly putting people in areas they do not like. This is one of the major complaints in my FC. People who enjoy what they are doing will be more productive.

Pros

A lot of room for growth so you can make a large impact on the company even when a lower level position.

Cons

Communication is essentially nonexistent between upper management and associates. Many problems have been overlooked because of such explosize growth and many foundation pieces have been thrown together hastily. There is a lot of room for improvement, but a lot of upper management is unwilling to make the necessary changes to strengthen the foundation of the business because they don't want to scare off FBA sellers and customers.

Advice to Senior Management

They need to start communicating long term goals with associates and make some changes to strengthen the foundation. Growth needs to be scaled a little better.

Pros

Its Amazon a wonderful company

Cons

Long hours work over 55 hour weeks
Management is dissorganized

Advice to Senior Management

Be there for your employees and be more understanding.

Pros

Great benefits, 401k, stocks each year. All the work is very easy to learn and perform. This may be important to some, but background checks are irrelevant there.

Cons

Very child-like atmosphere. Lots of rules created every day that prevent you from doing your job. Very little chance of being promoted. When it comes to be a manager, you have to have a 4 year degree in business and must have military experience, There is lots of favoritism when it comes to promotions. The salary surveys are compared to irrelevant companies in the local area.

Advice to Senior Management

More communication. Look to promote more from within than going outside of the company. Treat employees like adults and stop with the childish safety rules every day.

Pros

Good Pay & Benefits
Management treats employees with respect

Cons

Monotonous work
Too many hours during holiday season.

Advice to Senior Management

Hire more people during holiday season so employees don't have to work 60 hour work weeks.

Pros

Salary is better than most other places that don't require a college degree. The big upside is insurance and a 401K. I have had three managers in three years and they all have been very good to work for. All completely different personalities and how they do things, but they have been willing to listen and work with you to get better. I have enjoyed the friendship of the associates around me.

Cons

I don't see myself working here until I retire, because the environment isn't really good for your health. You walk on concrete all day, there is lots of book dust, and it's extremely hot in the summer. Turnover happens on a consistent basis, and you never know when you will have a new manager/PA until almost the last minute. In the summer with the extreme heat, you are still expected to make rate and they push you pretty good, which I think is unfair. My manager has also been talked to about my rate two weeks ago, the same week I was training three people. Apparently I am still supposed to make rate WHILE I am training. Go figure. Even though I enjoy working with the other associates, there is alot of complaining that is both unfounded and also founded.

Advice to Senior Management

Leadership above manager level needs to know how to work the floor and also DO the work. I believe that would help them understand what we go through, and what can get accomplished everyday. Rules need to be enforced to correct the many behavioral problems of associates. I believe floor managers need to have more support in enforcing the rules to correct bad behavior.

Pros

Innovative company
Good compensation and benefits
Room for professional growth and advancement

Cons

- Priorities are constantly changing so that you don't know what you should be focusing on and you are not able to accomplish much because you get pulled from one project or priority to the next
- Work is piled on you so that you learn to manage NOT doing things and ignoring requests just to keep you head above water - this is not something I felt good about in trying to do my job
- Performance feedback and professional development advice was inconsistent from one of my superiors to the next
- Their motto is "work hard, have fun, make history" - the fun part s definitely not there. As managers we were afraid to talk to eah other on the shop floor and be seen smiling or enjoying ourselves for fear that a senior manager would see us not being serious & professional enough.
-Work/life balance - that is practically non-existent.

Advice to Senior Management

Pick a limited number of priorities/focuses for the year and STICK to them! Don't change them or add on more. The work environment needs to be more fun and more positive - we're shipping books & toys to customers for pete's sake - not doing brain surgery! Work/life balance needs to start from the top with senior management demonstrating and encourgaing it for their managers.

Pros

During peak season there is opportunity to work a large amount of overtime. The pay is reasonable for the job. Although not all of the bosses are good, my boss is amazing. I feel a sense of accomplishment when I leave work.

Cons

During peak they sometimes require mandatory overtime, and this can interfere with personal obligations. People steal, so there is tight security. Lots and lots of walking.

Advice to Senior Management

Don't wait so long to convert temporary associates that they leave the company. Currently there are a number of excellent employees seeking employment elsewhere, because management has not made the move to hire these excelling individuals on.