Essential Workers: The Mental And Physical Perspective Of An Amazon Employee

Graphic by Edward Andilema / SOC Images.

In our society, essential workers in various fields play a crucial role in keeping everything running smoothly—even if the everyday person doesn’t realize it.

Among them are Amazon employees who work behind the scenes to process, pack, ship and deliver countless orders every single day, no matter the weather. Slice of Culture interviewed a local Amazon worker to gain insight into their experiences, the challenges they face, the realities of the job and what it means to be an essential worker in today’s economy.

Ty-Rell Dickerson is an Amazon employee who has been with the company for seven years so far. For the last seven years, he has played a vital part in catering to the 161.7 million Amazon Prime users and the 98.07 million users who access Amazon at least once a month, and even more so during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Q: What is your role at Amazon?

My main role at Amazon is to receive and sort packages so that we can get it to customers as fast as possible. My other role as a Learning Ambassador is to train employees new or current to carry out the everyday processes at our Amazon Building.

As you may imagine balancing these responsibilities must require both adaptability and efficiency, especially in a fast paced environment such as a warehouse, however the challenges of such positions are not just mental, but physical too.

Q: What challenges do you face in your position, and how do you overcome them?

I think a big challenge I, and many other Amazon Warehouse workers face, is sometimes the physical aspect of the job.

For five days a week, we’re constantly on our feet for [more than five] hours a day with only one 15-minute break, lifting boxes up to 50 pounds, and there’s even some duties that require us to walk around the building for most of the day.

A lot of it can be physically stressful sometimes, however I think me and most of my co-workers overcome this by working together as a team like helping each other out with lifting boxes or even switching duties to give someone else a break from doing the tiresome duties.

Even with these exhausting physical demands, the workers who get these jobs done keep the fast paced environment running smoothly.

Though workers know they’ll have to handle a lot of packages per day, they never know how much because the volume of packages varies from time to time, with the workers handling about 1.6 million packages every day, according to ParcelPath Amazon. That is roughly over 66,000 packages an hour and more than 1,000 packages a minute.

Q: Can you describe a typical day at work and the pace of the job? [Roughly how many packages you’re handling a day, hundreds, thousands, etc]

A typical day at Amazon during the non-holiday season we’re processing around 60,000 to 80,000 packages a day as a shift, but during the holiday season or when we have our Prime Week seasons, it’s roughly 110,000 to 150,000 packages a day as a shift.

For the most part, the work it’s a decently fast pace when it is a normal day, but the pace can be doubled when we have heavier workloads.

With such a high volume of packages moving through the facilities every day there is no doubt these workers’ contributions are essential to ensuring packages are going where they need to be.

However, as their work is done behind closed doors, not many people realise how much work goes into having packages delivered at our convenience. Especially when it is largely done at their own [in]convenience.

Q: Do you feel that your contributions as an essential worker are recognized and appreciated, both within the company and by society at large?

I feel that my contributions are recognized within the company for sure, however, I feel as though sometimes our contributions are not 100% recognized by society.

I think that sometimes we’re not looked at as essential workers by most people in society.

The term “essential workers” came to light at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, “essential workers are those who conduct a range of operations and services that are typically essential to continue critical infrastructure operations,” and Amazon workers are just that.

Often coined as “the invisible essential workers,” many people might not consider the impact it would have if there were no people to package and assess our items—the processes that packages have to go through before they get to delivery drivers and then to our doorsteps.

Q: Do you feel like people not appreciating the work you do could be attributed to the fact that most of the time, the everyday person is unable to see the work that goes into ensuring they get their package?

I believe that.

I think most of our credit is overshadowed by our Amazon Delivery drivers that are actually seen going door to door, putting packages on customers’ doorsteps.

[It’s like customers] never question how the packages got to the delivery driver; when a package is damaged, who fixes the box before the box is sent out? What steps did it take to make sure that packages get to our delivery driver fast so that they can meet their numbers and that customers can get their packages on time?

When a customer hits the button to get their package ordered, they never see the behind the scenes on how they’re getting their package.

When ordering a package in modern times, it’s as easy as clicking a few buttons and waiting for the delivery date with some items available to come overnight. With the convenience of online shopping—the term “out of sight, out of mind” may be very apt.

Q: What advice would you give anyone considering a job as an essential worker, particularly in your field?

I would say just know everyday you work at Amazon, you’re making an impact.

Without you, Amazon would not be the company that it is today and people would have to resort to other alternatives to get the things they want and or need.

If you ever feel discouraged, look to your fellow co-workers. They will help you if you need anything, you don’t have to do the work alone.

As Jumana Abu-Ghazaleh of Fast Company wrote in 2020, “[COVID-19] has made it clear that these workers who’ve long been mistreated are utterly essential not just to keeping society going during a pandemic, but also to enabling Amazon’s entire brand of convenience.”

Next time we place an order, let’s remember the people who work behind the scenes to ensure we get our packages on time.