Mistreatment of Amazon Workers During Pandemic: A Case Study

This report discusses the mistreatment of Amazon workers during the pandemic period, which negatively impacted their well-being and health. It provides interventions to tackle such criticism and improve the work environment.

A Report on the Mistreatment of
Amazon workers.

Table of Contents
ABSTRACT.....................................................................................................................................3
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
METHODS......................................................................................................................................3
RESULTS........................................................................................................................................3
DISCUSSION..................................................................................................................................3
PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS......................................................................................................3
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................3

ABSTRACT
The abuse or mistreatment at a workplace is usually a common factor through which the
workers are facing issues. The mistreatment can be in the form of any particular physical harm,
mental health impacts and many more. The mistreatment can be particularly in the form of
bullying, harassing, or discriminating and so on. In this, there is a case study given which
specifically illustrates that the managers or the leaders of the Amazon generally do mistreatment
with their workers during the pandemic period. This particular mistreatment can negatively
impact over their well-being, health and so on. These particular abusive behaviours or not
treating positively the employees can ultimately leads to the employees leaving the organization
along with their negative health impacts. There were a lot of criticism was reported in the
pandemic period through which the employees are dealing or facing (Sharma, Batra and Nahar,
2020). And, to overcome this particular issue there were some of the interventions which can
effectively aid the employees or the employers to tackle with such criticism.

INTRODUCTION
In an organization, the abuse at a particular workplace is generally a behaviour which
particularly causes the emotional as well as the physical harm towards the employees. In this, the
abuse in a particular workplace can be in the form of harassment, bullying, discrimination as
well as violence and many more. In this, the harassment can be a discriminatory, and the
bullying can be a little form of harassment and the any of these behaviours can generally lead
towards the violence at workplace. In this report, there is a discussion about the mistreatment
with the employees at the Amazon which is generally an American multinational organization.
The main aim of developing this report is to aware the managers or the leaders of Amazon that
they are actually doing wrong with their workers. During the pandemic, the workers of the
organization had faced many issues as well as a lot of criticism and this ultimately impact over
their health and well-being (Ricciardelli, McGarity and Nackerud, 2020). The rationale of
developing this report is to make the workers understandable that if such things happen again
then what will be the solution to deal with such situations.
METHODS
In this, to know the concept as well as deal with the condition with specific interventions
will need some additional information’s which can be achieved with the help of secondary
database such as the Journals, articles or the research databases. It is analysed from some of the
articles or the searches that the unhealthy work environment are generally more prevalent. In
this, the workers are generally more likely to experience a slew of mental as well as their
physical well-being issues. It can involve the anxiety, stress, hypertension, depression and many
other negative issues that can impact the health of the employees. In this, the harassment at
workplace and abuse especially among the females can occurs with the very high frequency
across worldwide. It is determined that many of the females can experience the sexual
harassment during their working lives. The mistreatment at particular organization as well as the
stress are associated with the negative or poor mental well-being consisting the sleeping
disorders, anxiety, depression, the post-traumatic stress disorders as well as the various
psychological distresses (Houston, Grandey and Sawyer, 2018).
An exposure towards the stress at an organization has also been linked with the enhanced
injuries in musculoskeletal as well as the disorders and a elevated risks of cardiovascular can
specifically score among the employees or the employers working at Amazon company. In this,

the Amazon has also faced some intense public investigation that is generally tied to its treatment
of the warehouse employees throughout the pandemic. The employees at the warehouse
generally argued the Amazon that the company specifically didn't do enough to to keep them
safe as well as protected from the contamination or virus as the workers are continued to pick,
pack as well as ship the order with a dizzying speed. In this, the regulators, lawmakers as well as
the employees’ rights the group and some of the corporate employees of the Amazon generally
called the organization to take few actions to overcome this situation (John and Kuruvilla, 2021).
The Amazon organization said it is implemented more than 100 processes updates inside its
warehouse to stem the virus transmission, from improved cleaning as well as the measures of
social distancing, to mask needed. The company can also ramp up testing for the virus infection
among its employees and was testing the workers at nearly a dozen in the warehouse. In this, the
pandemic generally expressed that the decisions of the Amazon to move its fulfilment operations
almost entirely in the house can be both a curse or a blessing. In this, the fulfilment of the
Amazon can let the employees’ sellers can ship their products to an Amazon warehouse and then
the Amazon ships its product to their customers for a cut of each sale. The particular program
can enable the Amazon to give a consistent experience to their prime members.
There are some of the Interventions which are used to overcome the mistreatment or
abuse among the workers or the managers so that they can also work with the more positivity as
well as their mental health or physical health also remains healthy (Murphy, 1995). In this, it
involves generally five interventions that are detailed as below:
Training interventions: In this, the training interventions can generally involve the
providing the effective trainings to the workers or the employees so that they can effectively deal
with the novel coronavirus contamination. The training interventions here involves the various
programs or the campaigns that are specifically conducted by the company. It can involve the
trainings regarding how to deal with the situation when someone have the contamination.
Behavioural therapy: In this, the behavioural therapy can effectively act as an
intervention towards the employees to decrease the abuse of the workers during the peak novel
coronavirus outbreak. It is generally an evidence-based psychotherapy which has been broadly
used in the treatment as well as the prevention of the both psychological as well as the physical
distress among the society (Alam, Adnan, Baten and Bag, 2021). The cognitive behavioural
therapy is generally a series of the methods consisting the reconstruction of the cognitive,

behavioural modifications as well as the social encouragement with the aim of aid the people or
workers to determine the stress level as well as modify the negative cognitive beliefs as well as
its behaviours.
Coaching interventions: In this, a coaching intervention generally involves when an
individual particularly steps into a coaching activity to either highlights something which was
done well or to fix something which an individual would like to see done more better. The
coaching interventions will generally be associated towards the session of the topic or the one of
your key session objectives. In this, the coaching model is generally a method that is particularly
designed to guide the people through a process from where they are currently to where they want
to be (Barbarin and et. al., 2021). In this, the main purpose of a coaching model is generally to
create a framework for guiding another person through some of the steps such as establishing a
desired goal.
Job re-design: In this, the redesigning of the job generally involves the recollecting as
well as revising of the job-related data or information to analyse the inconsistency among the
person and the job as well. in this, it generally involves the restructuring of the elements
consisting the tasks, responsibilities as well as the duties of a particular job to make it more
supporting as well as can inspiring for the workers is specifically called a job re design. The re-
design of the job can involve the revising, analysing, reforming as well as the reshuffling of the
content that is specifically a job related as well as the dimensions to enhance the several forms of
an assignments as well as the functions to motivate the workers as well as can make them feel
good so that they can effectively feel that they are also an essential part of an organization. It can
particularly involve the various processes such as the revising of the job content, analysing the
job-related data or information, altering the elements of job, reformation of description as well as
the specification of the job, the reshuffling the tasks as well as the duties of the job
(Parthasarathy, Jaisoorya, Thennarasu and Murthy, 2021). These such processes can effectively
aid the employees to overcome the types of abuse at the workplace such as Amazon during the
novel coronavirus outbreak.
Open communication: In this, having an open communication generally facilitates the
collaboration as well as the participation of the workers. The employees are specifically engaged
in as well as informed about the current situations and the important decisions which generally
play an active role in detecting as well as effectively solving the issues. They are more often to

firstly determine the issues as well as the challenges which are particularly associated to the
newly implemented measures as well as the practices. In addition to this, the most general
feelings of the belonging as well as the sharing the same goal can effectively contributes towards
preventing as well as decreasing the stress of working. Having an experience generally express
that the extensive media coverage of the novel coronavirus is quite important to support the
precautionary as well as the very preventive measures, but it can also impact over the most
psychological responses towards the threats of the contamination that is spread across worldwide
(Alqahtani, 2021). In this, the enhanced amounts of the fake information’s as well as the fake
news that is surrounding the crisis of the novel coronavirus is detrimental towards the mental
well-being of the people as well as their health. In this, the fake information can generally
enhance the stereotypes, prejudice as well as the discrimination. It can also lead to the confusion
over what the information is about false or it can be true, impairing the adoption of an adequate
preventive measures as well as exposing the people towards the behaviours which may endanger
their well-being.
RESULTS
The employee abuse is generally a result of various complex interactions in between the
factors at an individual, relationships, the community as well as the societal levels that can
generally be conceptualized by using an ecological perspective. The factors from every level can
generally interact, putting the employees at the risk of abuse. During the novel coronavirus
infection, the low social encouragement, loneliness, the social isolation as well as the lacks of
social networks in between the employee further perpetuate the abuse. In this, the total 526
workers in the study generally indicated that they have experienced the harassment, hurt opr
bullying during the novel coronavirus outbreak. In this, the overall employees who have worked
in the Amazon organization were significantly more likely to believe that they have or had the
contamination of coronavirus infection than that of the workers who did not work in the Amazon
organization (Trappen and McLean, 2021). In fact, the workers who work in the Amazon
organization are also significantly more likely than the other employees to have actually tested
for the novel corona virus.
DISCUSSION
The impacts of the novel coronavirus on the workers as well as the workplace across the
nation have been dramatic. In this, the novel coronavirus is generally both a global well-being

crisis as well as the international economic threats. The lock down across nation of the particular
industries as well as the businesses such as Amazon which were implemented as well as
mandated to curb the spread of the infectious virus that is being generated a wide array of the
unique as well as the fundamental challenges for both the workers as well as the managers across
the world. Apart from Amazon, at the individual level, the people of the shutdown generally
impact the workers were specifically turned overnight into a work from home workers, an
essential as well as the life sustaining workers such as the emergency room medical personnel as
well as the supermarket staff (The Impact of Workplace Harassment on Health in a Working
Cohort, 2019). In this, from being organizationally, the economic shut downs as well as its
associated governmental activities are appearing more likely to modify the some of the
companies fundamentally, can accelerates the specific trends which were already underway in
the others and many others. In this, the violence as well as the harassment generally may have
consequences over both the mental as well as the physical health and it can may enhances the
level of stress. In turn, the stress in the situation of the novel coronavirus can generally lead to
the frustration as well as anger. Thus, it can be itself an antecedent of the violence as well as the
harassment at a work. In this, the harassment as well as the violence such as both the
psychological as well as the physical can tends to grow during the outbreak of the contamination,
in addition to an enhance in the social stigma as well as the discrimination. Hence, the enhanced
mortality rates which are generally linked with the epidemics, the distress coupled with the
uncertainty about the symptoms, the unavailability of the screening as well as tests and the
absence of the vaccines and the treatment as well can specifically leads to an act of harassment
and the violence as well against the employees (Ross, Schneider, Muneton-Castano, Caldas and
Boskey, 2021).
PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS
The practical implications here for the workers at Amazon during the peak days of infection
spread involves such as the managers must ensure about the effective communication with their
employees. In this, how the managers can behave during the most critical moments can
specifically leaves a lasting mark on the organization and the employees as well (Wu, 2021).
However, a consistent as well as an effective communication and the interaction with the
employees can generally strengthen the following organization as well as improves its specific
culture. It must concentrate upon organizing the safe working environment such as purchasing of

the medical equipment’s or the other products, the self-monitoring equipment’s for the workers
at a particular workplace, so that the regular update about the well-being of the employees can be
effectively done (Caxaj and Cohen, 2021). The managers must ensure about providing the
psychological as well as the financial encourage or support towards their workers or employees
such as an emergency assistance, the extra coverage of insurance and so on. In this, the practical
implications can also include the development as well as communicate the very clear rules as
well as the obligations for the workers who are generally at a developing risk of mistreatment.

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Online:
The Impact of Workplace Harassment on Health in a Working Cohort, 2019 [Online] Available
through: <https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01181/full>