Improving Working Conditions for ASOS Warehouse Workers

This report discusses the current working conditions of ASOS warehouse workers and suggests measures to improve job satisfaction and overall business performance. Issues such as long working hours, unadjustable shift timings, and excessive pressure from management are discussed. Recommendations include reducing working hours or increasing break time to address overwork and burnout.

BUSINESS ANALYTICS
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

Executive Summary
The following report is about the current working conditions of the workers of ASOS, a
cosmetic retail company from UK. According to the study, the workers of the factors have been
facing difficult working conditions which has affected the business overall. The CEO of the
business is concerned about this issues as a well therefore some measures has been suggested to
the CEO so that his business can deal with the ongoing issues and maintain the job satisfaction of
the workers. Therefore this report highlights what can be done to improve the current working
condition of the warehouses and how to attain job satisfaction for those workers.

Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................4
Overview of the Literature...............................................................................................................4
Literature Review.........................................................................................................................4
Theory..........................................................................................................................................5
Research Objectives.....................................................................................................................7
Research Questions......................................................................................................................7
Methods and Results........................................................................................................................7
Recommendations and Conclusion..................................................................................................8
References......................................................................................................................................11

Introduction
ASOS plc or also known as “As Seen On Screen” is an online fashion and cosmetic
retailer company that was founded in London. The business started in the year of 2000 and ever
since then, has gained one of the most prominent spots in the online market. As per the
company’s sales, it deals with more than 800 brands as well their range of attires and accessories
of their own. Currently as of now, the business exports in more than 200 countries worldwide.
Despite its high success rate, the business has gone through issues from within that mainly
involve dissatisfaction from the workers regarding their job roles. This report has mainly been
derived from the workers who operate in the warehouse. These issues include long working
hours, unadjustable shift timings, and excessive pressure from the management and constant
supervision that does not allow the employees to work freely. Therefore, this report highlights
the issues and some counter measures to work on the problem.
Overview of the Literature
Literature Review
According to Zikmund et al. (2013), it is known that long working hours is one of the key
issues for an employee. However, it is to be noted that the assessment based on direct
experiences, an employee’s long hour is perceived by the significant departure from that of the
normal working week. There are factors involve that asserts differences in employees those who
work behind the desk tend to work less than the workers in a warehouse do. There are managers

and professionals those who operate and assemble accordingly to their long hours, there is a
significant difference in the incidents of the effects of long hour working in managerial positions.
However in the case of warehouses, many businesses are concerned about the current situation. It
is not only that the employees are in a hard working condition, however despite that they have to
work in 37.5 hours shift every week (Lu and Gursoy 2016). The reason for long working hours is
due to manual and non-manual reasons. It can due to the fact that the workers are getting paid
extra for their effort or it s jus that the business is going for high rate of productivity to meet their
own respective targets. In case of manual occupation, a very common reason is to highlight
increase pay. Long working conditions can also be due to the fact of job insecurity, the
preference of the employee and the occupational commitment along with the enhancement in
their career (Jain and Kaur 2014). The research findings show that the business with an
international comparison can be misleading in many ways. The average working hour in
warehouses is normally more than 8 hours in 5 days and the employees do. For UK based
business like ASOS, the warehouses have a high proportion of long hours than most countries
that are non English-speaking. There are have many research regarding the fact business can face
inter-country variations (Li et al. 2014). These would involve income inequality and the statutory
regulation where the facts of long working hours are collective and contractual based on the
agreement to reduce the hours. It is not possible to create a conclusive approach where long hour
is beneficial towards overall effects. It is difficult to isolate the fact that reduction in working
hours would affect developmental changes or new investment in capital (Mathieu et al. 2014).
The review in research points how that working hours is related to the health and safety of an
employee.
Theory

In the workplace psychology, job satisfaction can be considered to the most researched
variable or theory. There has also been many psychological issues regarding the subject of job
satisfaction, which can be differentiated from design to leadership. In a general idea, most of the
definition covers the feeling an employee get towards their job. This can range from the role or
even the attitudes centered around it. Two of the most known values of job satisfaction is the
emotional state that would result in achieving a goal or the extent that would allow people to be
interested or uninterested in their designation (Skaalvik and Skaalvik 2014). In regards to the
theories involved, there is of course the need towards motivation that involves the requirements
of benefit, recognition and achievement. This can involve Job demands-recourses theory of
where motivation comes into place (Terera and Ngirande 2014). This theory involves the
imbalance of the demands of an individual and the factors that involves those demands.
In the JD-R theory that acts as a method in order to highlight the wellbeing of the
workers. This theory also states that the factors involved in the business ASOS and how the
theory would highlight the factors involved in it (Cullen et al. 2014). As per the theory, the
factors that are addressed involve physical, psychological, social and organizational factors.
These factors are associated with physiological elements such as work pressure and demands.
ASOS’s workers face many issues such as long working hours, excessive pressure from the
management, which is why the performance and productivity has also decreased in the
warehouses (Belias and Koustelios 2014). By using this theory is can be determined what are
workplace resources and how they are related to the personal resources involved. It can be said
that the effects of continued job strain has affected the health impairment process, by this method
the chronic job demands exhaust an employee’s mental and physical resources which would
allow him to lose interest in the job despite the fact the has a high pay scale. The workers of

ASOS do not have issues with payment too much, the only issue they are facing is that the
business causes strain and they are overloaded with work (Haar et al. 2014). It can be said that
when there is high social and emotional demands involved, the support that the colleagues
involved might get visible and gets more instrumental. The theory also highlights the fact that the
workers of ASOS have shown dissatisfaction in relation to their support obtained by the
interaction between job demands and the resources involved.
As for the managerial decisions, all factors regarding the mental and working conditions of the
employees should be involved. The mangers should also know what are the issues the employees
faces and make a survey according to it. These decisions should be based on organizational
theories and cognitive dissonances.
Research Objectives
- To find out the factors involving job dissatisfaction for the workers of ASOS
- To find out the solution for the job dissatisfaction for the workers of ASOS
Research Questions
- How are the employees facing job dissatisfaction in regards to their job?
- What are they being treated by the management?
- How are the working conditions?
- What kind of changes would they like to see? (Abbas et al. 2014)
Methods and Results

Qualitative analysis is the factor through which the satisfaction of an employee can be
determined. It is the non-quantifiable factors that evaluates the business opportunities and though
which decisions are made. This method does not depend of the income status of the company,
but on the factors involved for taking decisions (Karin Andreassi et al. 2014). The CEO of ASOS
is the one who asserts the employees giving them the recognition they deserve. In the report,
even the CEO is concerned with the harsh working condition that is faced by the employees of
the company (Long et al. 2014). It is known that the employees are the roots of any business as
they are the ones who give productivity. The quickest way to lose that is losing the trust of the
employees.
To assert the information of the employees and the issues that were faced by them, a
complete report was made which would highlight the risks and the problems that were faced by
them regularly while working in the warehouse. The CEO of ASOS took the initiative as this
concern was growing and the result was being reflected on the company’s revenue and
productivity (Cicolini, Comparcini and Simonetti 2014). The management hired a group of 5
individuals who would conduct interview with the workers of the warehouse to know what are
the key areas they are having issues. The management decided to take this step especially
because the turnover of the workers has also been reported to be very high. The management is
concerned that this report might be turned to the media that would ruin the reputation of the
company as a brand.
As per the report from the interview, the working conditions have affected the employees
at an alarming rate. There were employees who have complained about not getting time to drink
water or even use the toilet (Farooqui and Nagendra 2014). There were also reports from the
employees who have complained that the management does not give proper attention to the

workers lives and they do not get to balance their work life culture. There were issues in regards
to the shift timing that the workers are not getting enough time to take rest. There were very few
employee who spoke for the company and most of the workers spoke against the business.
Recommendations and Conclusion
Therefore, from the above discussion it can be concluded that the business of ASOS
needs a proper management who would look after the needs of the employees. As per the survey
that was conducted to know what were the problems faced by the workers of the warehouse.
There were many issues related to overwork and mental dissatisfaction. What can be
recommended to the CEO of the company is that there should be a designing process that is
needed to eliminate the problems involved. First the management should understand what needs
to be done, once that is done there should be the option to explore and how to address the
problems that are identified when analyzing why the workers are getting frustrated. Over here,
the main reason for dissatisfaction seems to be overwork. Therefore, the CEO can either decrease
the total working hours of the warehouse or include more break time. As per the JD-R theory,
the wellbeing of the employees are looked from the viewpoint of the company. However, in this
scenario, the workers do not have wellbeing due to the fact they are faced with repetitive strain
of work and getting burnout. For the development of job strain, interaction is the key demand
and resource. Once there is a different resource involved, there is the potential of buffering the
feedback along with the social support. It can be assumed that when there is the assumption that
every occupation could or might have specific working characteristics. They are to be divided as
per their nature. ASOS does have a brand image to it however if the workers continue to be

affected by the working conditions, not only it would continue to damage the productivity but
also the reputation of the company.
Job satisfaction is the most integral part of the business other than the pay check. An
employee can lose interest in his work within few days if there is no job satisfaction. Research
shows that even if the paycheck is low, an employee would still stick to a company if his
satisfaction is met from all the ends. However even if the pay check is high and the employee
gets overburden with work and does not feel that the company has the slightest attention towards
him, that would cause and immediate setback psychologically. Factors such as the contentedness
along with nature and supervision of the job is measured, other methods include cognitive
evaluation, emotional level and behavioral factors. Once there is engagement-involved form with
the management and the workers of ASOS. Over here, it is not like the workers are unable to put
their full effort to the job but because of the fact that even by putting their full effort they are
getting overburdened. Also what can be suggested to the CEO is to create a motivational factor
that would inspire the workers to work. A business cannot turn down its productivity to meet the
job satisfaction of the workers, in this case both needs to be maintained. Once there is a proper
balance involved in a business, it is only then the business can take the next step.

References
Abbas, M., Raja, U., Darr, W. and Bouckenooghe, D., 2014. Combined effects of perceived
politics and psychological capital on job satisfaction, turnover intentions, and
performance. Journal of Management, 40(7), pp.1813-1830.
Belias, D. and Koustelios, A., 2014. Organizational culture and job satisfaction: A
review. International Review of Management and Marketing, 4(2), pp.132-149.
Cicolini, G., Comparcini, D. and Simonetti, V., 2014. Workplace empowerment and nurses' job
satisfaction: A systematic literature review. Journal of Nursing Management, 22(7), pp.855-871.
Cullen, K.L., Edwards, B.D., Casper, W.C. and Gue, K.R., 2014. Employees’ adaptability and
perceptions of change-related uncertainty: Implications for perceived organizational support, job
satisfaction, and performance. Journal of Business and Psychology, 29(2), pp.269-280.
Farooqui, M.S. and Nagendra, A., 2014. The impact of person organization fit on job satisfaction
and performance of the employees. Procedia economics and Finance, 11, pp.122-129.
Haar, J.M., Russo, M., Suñe, A. and Ollier-Malaterre, A., 2014. Outcomes of work–life balance
on job satisfaction, life satisfaction and mental health: A study across seven cultures. Journal of
Vocational Behavior, 85(3), pp.361-373.
Jain, R. and Kaur, S., 2014. Impact of work environment on job satisfaction. International
Journal of Scientific and Research Publications, 4(1), pp.1-8.

Karin Andreassi, J., Lawter, L., Brockerhoff, M. and J. Rutigliano, P., 2014. Cultural impact of
human resource practices on job satisfaction: A global study across 48 countries. Cross cultural
management, 21(1), pp.55-77.
Li, A., Early, S.F., Mahrer, N.E., Klaristenfeld, J.L. and Gold, J.I., 2014. Group cohesion and
organizational commitment: protective factors for nurse residents' job satisfaction, compassion
fatigue, compassion satisfaction, and burnout. Journal of Professional Nursing, 30(1), pp.89-99.
Long, C.S., Yusof, W.M.M., Kowang, T.O. and Heng, L.H., 2014. The impact of
transformational leadership style on job satisfaction. World Applied Sciences Journal, 29(1),
pp.117-124.
Lu, A.C.C. and Gursoy, D., 2016. Impact of job burnout on satisfaction and turnover intention:
Do generational differences matter?. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research, 40(2), pp.210-
235.
Mathieu, C., Neumann, C.S., Hare, R.D. and Babiak, P., 2014. A dark side of leadership:
Corporate psychopathy and its influence on employee well-being and job
satisfaction. Personality and Individual Differences, 59, pp.83-88.
Peng, J., Li, D., Zhang, Z., Tian, Y., Miao, D., Xiao, W. and Zhang, J., 2016. How can core self-
evaluations influence job burnout? The key roles of organizational commitment and job
satisfaction. Journal of health psychology, 21(1), pp.50-59.
Saleem, H., 2015. The impact of leadership styles on job satisfaction and mediating role of
perceived organizational politics. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 172, pp.563-569.

Skaalvik, E.M. and Skaalvik, S., 2014. Teacher self-efficacy and perceived autonomy: Relations
with teacher engagement, job satisfaction, and emotional exhaustion. Psychological
reports, 114(1), pp.68-77.
Terera, S.R. and Ngirande, H., 2014. The impact of rewards on job satisfaction and employee
retention. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 5(1), p.481.
Zikmund, W.G., Babin, B.J., Carr, J.C. & Griffin, M. Year: 2013. Business Research Methods
Publisher: Cengage Learning Author.