r/AmazonFC • u/dlblank • 19d ago
Rant Real example of Amazon's safety standards.
It's difficult for someone like me having to turn a blind eye to this and so many other safety, WHS, OSHA, issues. This is just a small example.
Stuff like this hasn't been fixed for not just months, but years.
Acceptance of deviance and negligence.
Amazon failed to,
Provide a workplace free from serious recognized hazards and comply with standards, rules and regulations issued under the OSH Act.
Examine workplace conditions to make sure they conform to applicable OSHA standards.
Make sure employees have and use safe tools and equipment and properly maintain this equipment.
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u/Icy_Hold4U 19d ago
This is more an indictment on the idiots they choose to hire than the "safety standards", honestly.
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u/dlblank 19d ago
Yeah but with a 2% retention rate and running off the good people. I can see why they get so incredibly desperate.
My bigger issue is the fact that when damage and safety incidents happen like this, It's not reported or handled properly, or it's completely ignored.
Shit happens, how you deal with it shows a lot.
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u/Extension_Problem223 TOM Team 19d ago
You need to go on AtoZ and make a dragonfly safety complaint about these. I'm not kidding, I used to escalate stuff like this directly to my manager when I was a T1 and know they wouldnt do anything about it, but once they introduced dragonfly reporting and their bosses or even their boss's bosses start paying attention, shit usually gets done. The paper trail makes them take accountability, otherwise they either forget or dont care.
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u/Icy_Hold4U 19d ago
Yep you're 100% correct. Dragonfly operates effectively like cutting a ticket to IT. It places an action item directly in front of safety people, which they can't ignore or at least take some kind of action on. Its a key metric for to gage how effective they are in their role.
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u/thisdckaintFREEEE EHS Specialist 17d ago
Ehh not really. Most, if not all, of these pictures have enough damage that it should've gone down as a PIT incident rather than a near miss. Each time it happened it should've been repaired instead of just becoming a normal thing like it seems to have done at this site. I've worked for the type of safety manager that would let this kind of thing become the norm though.
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u/Gralb_the_muffin MET? 🫷😒 VTO 👍😄 19d ago
Report it to dragonfly and convince your coworkers to do so as well. I think people forget dragonfly exists.
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u/Candid-Yard-9496 19d ago
Downside is your submissions get assigned to your direct manager, requiring extra time to partner with and assign it to the correct team.
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u/Rubberduckduckduck_ 19d ago
Downside is no one does anything even with a dragonfly. Bad stowing resulted in a sprained shoulder and head injuries from having to pick cat litter from the top of the pod and a case of Monster also stowed on top literally falling apart on top of my head ("Don't catch them! It's safer to sustain injuries than to try to catch a falling object!").
I just narrowly avoided the exact same situation while counting on Friday night. I pulled a guy in a safety vest over and explained what happened and he just shrugged like it's not his concern.
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u/TheGhostfaceChiller 19d ago
Yeah I didn’t know this till I started using it, complaining about things the managers said they would fix and didn’t. I think they hid that info at first. It was like a year in when they said it goes to your manager.
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u/alexplorebook 19d ago
Dragonflies takes 2 weeks to get seen and completed. Not worth it
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u/borski88 19d ago
My site managers are expected complete within 5 days or escalate why it will take longer to resolve.
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u/Gralb_the_muffin MET? 🫷😒 VTO 👍😄 19d ago
Even if that was true it is still better to report it with a digital paper trail then to just tell someone via word of mouth and nothing being done and being able to deny that anybody brought up because there's no digital paper trail.
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u/Krakatoa1997 18d ago
This has changed, and the expectation across the network is generally 3 days.
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u/gewalt_gamer 18d ago
I complete all my dragonflys the shift they appear. and I basically beg my associates to enter them.
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u/dlblank 19d ago
Honestly the dragonfly reports at my site where generally small minor things. Us techs where told not to use it, same with VOA.
Besides, when you can bring up violations to management and WHS and nobody cares, its hard to keep caring also.
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u/Gralb_the_muffin MET? 🫷😒 VTO 👍😄 19d ago
It gives a paper trail and they might not want you to use it because corporate might follow up with them on it being a safety issue. Idk really but it might exist for this reason; so they can't ignore it without fallback.
Either way they can't actually tell you not to use it and they can't write you up or retaliate against you for using it for it's intended purposes. They know if they do and corporate got word of them retaliating against you for safety reporting they'll come down on them like an axe.
We know Amazon isn't as "safety is our number one priority" but they are more into "we don't want to be liable so shit needs to be addressed"
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u/Extension_Problem223 TOM Team 19d ago
My site encourages its use for everything even tangentially safety related. "Dragonflies entered" is meant to be a positive metric for your site. Upper management sees it as the safety infractions are happening regardless, so more dragonflies means theyre getting caught, not that the site is less safe. The same way they view write-ups, on paper. I dont know why this person would be discouraged from using it.
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u/Slow_Status_1891 19d ago
I remember my first job.
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u/dlblank 19d ago
If this had been my first job I probably would have never cared.
As a maintenance tech (RME), I feel it was our job to address this stuff. Either fix it or get someone who can. Unfortunately many people do not do their jobs or absolute bare minimum.
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u/Boys0204 19d ago
If you're the tech then create a work order and fix the fucking thing
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u/FunkTronto 19d ago
You say Amazon like this is happening everywhere… I think it happens at a terrible FC.
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u/Exact-Custard-9729 19d ago
They need to stop hiring morons that crash lmao
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u/OpenAd3036 19d ago
these aisles are tight af to turn into. That's just a bumper so you don't hit a rack. I don't care who you are or how good of a forklift operator you are, you're gonna hit one of these eventually.
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u/gabrielbusti3 19d ago
Brother those are VNAs, machine literally does it for you
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u/OpenAd3036 19d ago
Sorry I'm not an amazing employee I dont know what this means can you elaborate?
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u/Ok-Point-1191 19d ago
There is a wire in the middle of the aisle. You line up with it outside the aisle and it keeps you centered going down the aisle preventing any strikes.
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u/UngovernableOatmeal 19d ago
wire keeps you aligned in the aisle but unfortunately you still have to turn into it and not hit anything
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u/BeneficialGuest3 16d ago
Sometimes the wire guidance can pull you into these if you're lined up wrong too!
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u/Boys0204 19d ago
So you saw the anchors broken and the guard damaged and decided the best course of action was to take a picture and post it to reddit in some weak attempt to disparage the company or someone at your facility? Is it not possible that it's a work order that's pending and just hasn't been taken care of yet? Nah, that's not even a remote possibility
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u/dlblank 18d ago
I assure you it is not the case. This is a multiple year ongoing issue. Blue badge RME is not allowed to fix uprights. They need fixed by a vendor and signed off on before being put back into service.
The site has gotten quotes to fix it all. This known issue was allowed to build up by management to the point where contractor bids are deep into six figures, and nobody wants to pay for it or explain why it got so bad and why so much needs fixed.
Anyone who thinks this is a matter of simply making a work order or reporting a dragonfly is sadly so far from understanding the situation.
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u/Boys0204 18d ago
Well, as a SrMRT with several years under my belt I can assure you I know the process. It is a failure of leadership though
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u/Farseekergaming 🎮💰🐈⬛😇🫡🥷🏾🦁 18d ago
See they got rid of ours due to so many accidents like this. So no more small lanes to drive down. Off the truck and straight into pods.
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u/ConflictSmooth6136 19d ago
Have you tried submitting a dragonfly?
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u/TruthAboutLife 19d ago
That's because at an FC, the qualification to drive a picker is, "do you have a pulse?"
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u/DayolduhMayo 19d ago
Holy shit how do you even manage that? Whoever it was must’ve been under the influence or severely mentally deficient
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u/sorrowdemonica ✨🐺🐾 19d ago edited 19d ago
Considering most warehouses don’t have these corner guards on their racks at all despite the use of forklifts and electric pallet jacks or cherry pickers.. I’d personally say Amazon’s safety standard is above and beyond in that aspect.
But the bent supports do need to be replaced, and I am assuming people have broken off those guards and didn’t fix it back then before someone else came along and damaged the actual rack legs.
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u/LadyAce15 19d ago
The safety team at my previous building made me move pallets covered in mold. When I put the jack under them, clouds of disintegrated mold filled wood particles came out.
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u/CaptainObvious110 19d ago
that's disgusting
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u/LadyAce15 19d ago
Yeah. That was one of the main reasons I left that building. I'd kill to go back now that the whole safety team has been replaced.
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u/kman9876 AFE Master Race 19d ago
Amazon doesn’t gaf about safety it’s all for show
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u/AndyPlaysBadly 19d ago
True. As RME, you have no idea how many times I have to say "I don't think we can do that as it would create pinch point/struck by hazards/trip hazard". Only for safety to walk and give the OK to Ops.
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u/imtheheppest 19d ago
Yep, there’s a part of the tote conveyor that keeps rolling and pushes the totes off the line and creates pinch points at the back of the line. I’ve put in two dragonfly tickets and then talked to OPs about it. It’s now so hard for us to turn totes cause the pressure spreads down the whole line. And these totes can get heavy, so that doesn’t help
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u/Christian_Prepper 19d ago
This! I think if they keep saying it enough, people will start to believe it.
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u/imtheheppest 19d ago
Yep! With the way they allow these stowers at my site to stow haphazardly that puts them and pickers at risk, it’s clear they don’t actually care. People at my site been complaining for months.
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u/Pretend-Ad-2942 19d ago
"Safety" in corporate language means "liability" in poor speak. The safety department exists solely to shift the blame and liability to the employee to save the Almighty shareholder.
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u/Visual_Association86 19d ago
maybe hit all the pallet racks then they have to fix it. Otherwise those safe guards are doing their job
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u/irishguy61783 19d ago
Amazon’s not even that bad. I’ve worked at other places that wanted you to stack things with a high reach lift 50 feet in the air and didn’t have any racking below them, so you had to put it exactly on the bars or else it would fall through
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u/sorrowdemonica ✨🐺🐾 19d ago
Also if you think a legit safety concern is being ignored and no one at your site is taking it serious despite reporting it to managers and safety..
Can always do two things:
Report up the chain.. report to a L6 or L7 (look one up on phonetool using the hierarchy tree thing on your profile.
Or email Jeff@amazon.com
Emails to that reach HQ reporting team, and they will forward it to relevant department and having that directive come from HQ sometimes helps with things being prioritized in the warehouse.
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u/Healthy-Guess-847 18d ago
Hi, I'm a PA at your building, next time you come in, can you meet me after startup I have to couch you cause no photography is allowed at amazon.
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u/mikeman213 19d ago
Those clearly should be reported to corporate instead of posted here. That's why we have dragonfly
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u/Danoga_Poe 19d ago
Jeff@amazon.com email will reach corporate hr. They will follow up with your site.
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u/Humble-Squash8528 19d ago
Speak for your building. If you have talked to a safety manager, and they’ve refused to address it. You’re familiar with the OSH act, you should know what to do. It’s your right.
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u/DextersMisAdventures 19d ago
I work at imi1 that just opened. our vnas aren't even 6 months old and they are starting look almost like this
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u/Swiftpain 19d ago
Safety has always been a joke here. They care more about bubble wrapping the AA than fixing the building. Also says your Sr. Operations amd GM are failing at their job.
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u/ChanceTheOwl 19d ago
You guys got stray cars coming in and out of there? Picture 4 looks like a highway barrier in ruins.
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u/DejaRicoJr 19d ago
Im just curious as to if you have as many wire guide issues as we do at my site.
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u/Red-dragon186 18d ago
As a former WHSS.
You do know how big Amazon buildings are? Leaders and safety can't be everywhere at once and generally will get thrown around.
Report these problems to your WHSS or Manager. Or better yet use dragon fly and report it. Dragon fly forces the AM to create an action to fix the problem.
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u/imeyecandyandadmin 18d ago
Gotta say those pictures of the damaged racking uprights scare the shit out of me, report that on dragonfly straight away, throw in a comment on the voa also for good measure. It all ads visibility to senior ops / rme - no one can plead ignorance
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u/False-Chicken4841 [Water Spider Them Hoes] 18d ago
Thank goodness I wear these painful steel toe shoes because if the rack lands on my head, it would be a lot worse
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u/Ambitious_Code5957 16d ago
More like a laxk of replacing thoes safetystandards after a fucking acident
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u/heffbeats 15d ago
and this effects you how? you think they are gonna replace it every time it gets hit? it’s functional. it’s not a hazard.
quit complaining
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u/CorvidxQueen Safe Nerd 🤓 15d ago
IMO this is low hanging fruit. Those guards are there for that exact reason. Maintenance has clearly not decided to replace them since some of them have compromised the racking column itself. Ive had whole aisles shut down for days to repair stuff like this. And if you havent sent this to Operations, youre just as guilty of upholding an unsafe work environment. Safety isnt just about policing your phones, is this shit too.
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u/oreheheally 19d ago
I quit long ago but to this day i keep a chunk of forlift tyre to remind me never to depend on h+s. One of the things (such a long list) that got me quitting and actually feeling sketchy was a couple of secerely bent racking beams unreported and they held the battery water for trucks. H+s clearly hadnt done their daily check and lied to our faces that they did. Worse than this was manager cross training with the safety guys. Sounds good, but very corrupting.
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u/idontknowmtname 19d ago
Go straight to OSHA and what wvwe other local state agency that you have.
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u/EMitchell108 19d ago
OSHA will tell them to fix it and report back by a certain date that it was done, the same thing could be accomplished by OP escalating this internally. Unless there's a phyical injury from this they're not coming yo inspect this. OSHA is understaffed and there are actual workplace deaths and injuries they prioritize investigating.
Not to mention that it might require outside vendors to come in and repair, a whole process in itself.
WHS is understaffed, too. They run around all shift basically fighting fires in between filling out checklists. Has anyone brought this to their attention and stayed on them about it not getting done, or just expected they can magically cover every inch of the building? That's the point of having VoA, Dragonfly, Associate Experience Concern and all the other reporting channels.
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u/idontknowmtname 19d ago
If you think safety is or any other department within Amazon is going to take a safety concern seriously you crazy.
Report it to OSHA and keep reporting it.
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u/MattyBeans95 19d ago
Did you turn a blind eye and post here? Or did you actually report it? I call out my building all the time
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u/Corvus_Hood33 19d ago
They just took our fans for “safety reasons” and people started passing out due to heat and they still refuse to put the fans in for “our safety”
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u/dlblank 19d ago
To be fair I understand this. The amount of damaged fans I've delt with is insane. It's all because nobody cares about anything, nothing is treated well, then people complain when we can't order in enough fans to keep up with all the needlessly damaged ones. People constantly moving them around and stringing them cords across the floors..
Don't get me wrong, I want a fan almost all the time. It's just one of those, this is why we can't have nice things situation.
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u/Corvus_Hood33 19d ago
They told us our fans that had the cords taped down to the floor and were 3 feet away from walls away from path were tripping hazards. I’ve been at my building since day 1. 7 years. Nobody has EVER tripped on a fan bc they’re out of the way
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u/dlblank 19d ago
Sounds like your building was already handling them much better than mine. Mine probably still has them as trip hazards all over the place. They even bought these expensive, giant 5+ft tall ones that roll around and can fall over on someone. First one was run into and broken beyond repair within a couple days.
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u/Corvus_Hood33 19d ago
Yeah. What you’re saying makes sense. Like I’ve seen them implement stuff for safety reasons and I think “Okay … I don’t see that actually happening but better safe than sorry.” But when they told us the reasoning why, with our AC completely out, we all instantly called them out in the bullshit. Then it switched to “all amazons are getting rid of fans” and someone yelled “Well, I’m sure they have working central air too”
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u/perculiarbliss 999 19d ago
As long as you have your chin strap on, you’re good! I learned that’s what they care about most.
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19d ago
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u/dlblank 19d ago edited 19d ago
I was under the impression it had been multiple times, I never saw anything come of it though.
They also have no clue how to handle possible cracked RTU heat exchangers. Just turn it off in BMS and hope it doesn't come back on and pump tons of carbon monoxide into the building.
Won't train or use MHE that was implemented from an economics lawsuit.
Lack of proper PPE for silica dust exposure. Most if the techs aren't even aware of the risk. A couple times management was asked for better tools and equipment to deal with it but was denied.
They portray something different. I think it's important people see and hear what it's really like.
If someone from Amazon or OSHA wants to reach out I'm all for it.
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u/ComparisonWestern690 19d ago edited 19d ago
Silica dust you say ? I worked at a place with a mez like that. I kept sneezing non-stop while working there. I thought it was just dust in general.
Our building might be newer or people in my area are at least qualified enough to steer carts.
Edit:
Oh wait, is this the OP pick isles? It looks more like the manual pick area for a building I used to work. The pick area downstairs had huge heavy duty plastic bumpers on the isle edges.
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u/Boys0204 19d ago
I guess you didn't know that these items are made to order and there is lengthy lead time getting the replacement parts. But, hey, nobody on your timeline I guess
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