Over the years, Amazon has been hit with numerous accusations about hazardous and inhumane working conditions. One of the most infamous is that time constraints are so rigid that employees urinate in bottles during work to avoid taking bathroom breaks, which Amazon has denied.
Hazardous conditions, a toxic environment, and excessive monitoring are other common complaints. Amazon insists that it treats employees well.
In May, the company was widely mocked when it unveiled a small booth for overwhelmed employees to “focus on their mental and emotional well-being.”
A viral TikTok has added another charge to the long list of claims about working for Amazon: In at least one facility, it publicly tracks employees’ breaks. User giointimor posted the TikTok, captioned, “Can’t even take a decent break.”
“Amazon tried pulling this bull today,” a narrator says as “Bezos” by Bo Burnham plays.
The camera zooms in on a dry erase board with times and what appear to be badges under them. Some listed times are mere minutes apart. It’s not clear how long breaks last. One column reads, “Late.”
“They started putting our badges under the times we ‘took’ our breaks,” the narrator then says.
“Everything you hear about Amazon is true,” they add, as the camera shows the interior of a warehouse.
An Amazon spokesperson told the Daily Dot that the company was working on a response.
As of this writing, giointimor’s TikTok has been viewed 1.3 million times in the two days since its posting. Roughly 7,000 have commented on it.
Plenty of commenters are appalled by the idea of a manager publicly posting employees’ break times. They feel it was intended to embarrass or treat them like robots. Many referenced ongoing efforts to unionize Amazon workers, which the company has aggressively fought.
“People shouldn’t order anything anymore. Just out of respect for the employees,” one person replied.
Many of the top-rated comments had a wildly different take that essentially amounted to: suck it up. “Work or quit. It’s a free country,” said one. Others suggested that people who took issue with this policy wouldn’t last in fields like construction.
giointimor is unbothered by such criticisms. “This ones for the old angry men: the more you interact with a video, the more similar ones show up in your feed” he commented on Tuesday, after the TikTok crested 1 million views.
“So if you don’t like my video, just scroll. I know yall probably didn’t know that since you’re pretty much just dust so ima cut yall some slack.”