Amazon reviews

There is absolutely no work / life balance. It does not matter if you work for Corporate in Seattle or at a Fulfillment Center. I did see people cry at their desks and I even cried myself due to the stress and non-stop workload that you will face all day, every day of the week. This is specially worse if you work in the night shift as you will get calls during the day while you are asleep or enjoying your time off. Vacation at Amazon means you have to bring your laptop with you and run daily reports. Also, they will call you while you are off and ask you to work remotely. Be ready to work holidays including July 4th and Thanksgiving. The only Holiday that my Fulfillment Center was closed was on Christmas Day. I met plenty of Area Managers who were counting the days until they could resign since they received Sign-In Bonuses or they received Relocation Assistance. This is how Amazon puts handcuffs on you to stay with the company. I only recommend working for Amazon if you are a recent college grad or someone in their 20s with no significant other nor children. If you are a single mother, this is not the place for you since Amazon demands schedule flexibility. One day you may come in at 1pm and leave at 1am, another day you may need to come in at 3pm and leave 2am or come in at 9am after working until midnight the night prior. I only saw my kids on the weekends and even then I would gets calls from Amazon to do some work.

Partnering with Ops and Area Managers can be frustrating and difficult at times. Make sure you build a solid relationship with them as early as possible. You will be in constant contact with them. Associates will hit you with all sorts of different questions/problems that no amount of training can really prepare you for. Some problems are as simple as "I can't hit ctrl+alt+delete" and some are very complex and can even take an emotional toll on you (i.e. an associate being run over and killed in the parking lot by another associate). Be prepared for anything. As with many HR positions, the vast majority of employees are women. I don't perceive this as a bad thing, but if you are a straight white male, be prepared to be the only one in your entire team. High attrition. This is to be expected with entry-level associate positions, but very rarely will you find people who have worked there for longer than 2 years, including leadership. Attrition within HR university hires isn't as bad as Area Manager university hires, but it is something to be mindful of. 401k plan is awful. Amazon will only match 2%.