Amazon Employee Reviews for Area Manager

"I interned at Amazon for 8 weeks during summer 2020 as part of their operations intern program. During my brief time at the company, I learned a great deal and truly believe it has been a great eye-opening experience. To be working for one of the world's leading companies was fascinating to experience especially in my role as Robotics Area Manager, I got the opportunity to work with the high-tech and sophisticated Amazon Robotics system."

"Working for Amazon is fast paced and intense. It's a great active working environment that gives you many opportunities if you're willing to put in the hard work and execute."

"I worked for Amazon for 2 years. I was promoted twice to Area Manager within exactly 1 calendar year so I must have been doing something right. The overall environment of the Fulfillment Centers is very challenging in positive and negative ways. If you value pushing yourself to areas you did not know were possible then you can come out with a positive experience that can be used for any walk of life. However, if I think about the overall experience, I would confidently say that the culture is extremely toxic. There is no better way to say it than just say it. There are way too many people who are in positions of leadership that are insanely under qualified. I had Operations Managers who had no idea how to talk to people. Managers who would sit in an office all day on YouTube and make their supervisors run the shift. The HR representatives (that are remote/not on site) give you ZERO CONFIDENCE when slippery issues arise. They also have a track record of paying external talent INSANELY MORE than associates who were promoted from within. I was making $10-15k less than my fellow managers who were external applicants. You get less stock units and less salary. Everybody talks. The competition revolves around a toxic culture of taking credit for anything and everything as simple as hanging a sign on a door. You absolutely can't just get the numbers and results with this company, you have to be able to play serious politics with a bunch of people who are terrible at their job and are terrible at communicating with other humans. The running joke/theme was you have to play the game of CYA (cover your ass). The micromanaging from Ops is brutal as well. You are a manager yet are rarely trusted to manage without someone hawking over your shoulder. I take everything as a learning experience, I have the right attitude and anything I learned will be used to forward myself and others. Sometimes negative experiences are the most valuable ones."

"My experience at Amazon has been good. I've learned and grown so much since working there and learn how to balance out my time management as well. Entering the company with no knowledge of the company internally was overwhelming, but I learned a lot in the process of starting until where I am today."

"I have worked for Amazon since January of 2019, this company has nurtured me and taught me 80% of my knowledge regarding my professional career. They have great work ethic, sense of team work flourishes within the company and it is very fast paced. We have trainings almost every other week which enables us to learn different skills. The biggest setback about Amazon would be the high turnover of managers as no one tends to stick around, and the main reason would be long work hours(13+) and always increasing metric goals to which we submit reports which are tedious, long and reiterating. The way Amazon does process improvement is fantastic and I believe it is only a matter of time before they create new process for reporting metrics as well. But great company to work for overall."

"I’ve worked for Amazon since August. It’s a great company, but the work environment and compensation are not ideal for the long hours and type of work that is done."

"Amazon is a company that creates many opportunities for growth and development in a variety of areas ."

"I worked for Amazon for 2 years beginning in 2008."

What do you like about working at Amazon?

"Amazon paid the managers well. The opportunity to grow was great."

Do you have any tips for others interviewing with this company?

"Ask a lot of questions before you sign on. It is important because you will have to work an astonishing amount of hours."

What don't you like about working at Amazon?

"The hours were outrageous. There is no work-life balance. There seems to be no way to switch from night shift!"

What suggestions do you have for management?

"Create a better description of the way the company actually works before you sign on!"

What do you like about working at Amazon?

"I felt empowered by Zappos to lead our team and make a difference in the facility daily."

Do you have any tips for others interviewing with this company?

"Have examples of projects that increased efficiency and the net gains achieved."

What don't you like about working at Amazon?

"Senior leadership is way too inconsistent in the direction given during transition from Zappos to Amazon."

What suggestions do you have for management?

"Do not simply forward messages with see below written. Send out communication with the why included, and not just the what, so that area managers can communicate the value of decisions to the team uniformly."