Floor workers at Amazon have many justified complaints about their jobs. Workers describe a fast-paced environment that leaves many employees feeling exhausted and, in some cases, ready to quit after just a few days.
This isn’t to mention alleged on-the-job hazards, such as one study’s claim that “Amazon warehouse workers suffer serious injuries at twice the rate of rivals,” per CNBC, or incidents like last year’s warehouse destruction that killed six employees.
However, some on-the-job restrictions that may feel like overkill actually have a purpose, as TikTok user and warehouse employee Niy (@niymartinezz_official) recently learned.
In a video with 106,000 views, Niy alleges that she accidentally packed her phone into a customer’s order when sending it out.
“When you work at Amazon and now realize why they tell us ‘DON’T USE YOUR PHONE ON THE FLOOR,’” she writes in the text overlaying the video.
@niymartinezz_official FUNNY but NOT FUNNY 🥲 #fyp #viral #trending #parati #dayinmylife #itiswhatitisss #funny #relatable #foryou #sad #citygirls #life ♬ Oh No – Kreepa
The video then displays Niy’s Find My app, which shows that the phone has been shipped from Las Vegas to California.
“at least it wasn’t to like turkey LOL!!!,” she wrote in a comment. “since we are WORLD WIDE, we ship EVERYWHERE.”
According to commenters, this experience isn’t terribly uncommon.
“Same happened to me while trying to watch a [YouTube] video [then] boom it was gone,” remembered one user.
“This happened to this super sweet woman I worked with. Slipped out her apron, fell in a tote, when she noticed at the END of the day and tracked her phone it was already on a truck,” said another. “She said it ended up in Nebraska before it died and she never saw it’s location again.”
“That happened once with a girl at my facility,” claimed a third. “she told management and they found her phone then fired her.”
“This happen to my ex, we lived in SD and his phone went all the way to Florida,” recalled a further TikToker. “he got it back like a month later.”
Someone even appears to have documented this phenomenon from the receiver’s end. In a Reddit post, user shananiganz claimed they received a package that contained a Zebra TC56 Rugged Scanner.
“I think someone from the warehouse accidentally dropped this in my package,” he wrote in the post’s title.
Commenters noted that, while Amazon’s shipping process is supposed to detect errors like these through weight measurements, sometimes, incidents like these can slip through the cracks.
“I work at SLAM mostly and occasionally workers will come up to me saying if I’ve seen their phone come down the line,” shared a Redditor. “Sometimes it just comes down the line and kicks out but other times it’s within the weight threshold and gets shipped out.”
The Daily Dot reached out to Amazon via email and Niy via TikTok comment.
