Walmart Exec: "This guy saved us at least $30 million!" Boss at yearly review: "Best I can do is a 25 cent raise"

Those two Walmart employees saved the company $30 million that year... and I guarantee you they didn't seem a dime of it.

I wish there was a “Get it here whenever just don’t rush your staff” option when you check out. I’d feel better about that then paying for shipping

"There's no requirements that we provide air conditioning" is possibly the most chilling way to both avoid and answer the question at the same time.

"We aren't anti-unions, we just value our shareholders and top earners more than everyone else."

This is why people once fought so hard for labor unions that they were willing to risk everything.

THANK YOU JON OLIVER!!!! I spent 8 years in warehouse jobs and the ironic part is after all those years I was interested in working for Amazon because they would pay me more than a company then a company that I worked with for 8 years driving trucks. Bottom line is we're grunts, the help, no one cares about us warehouse workers and it's disgusting we're the reason anything gets done for these companies. What I've learned is know your rights and don't ever be afraid to express them, take pride in yourself. They threaten to replace you when you put yourself first and that as well is disgusting I say warehouse workers and truckers need to band together and stand up for our rights as humans. Literally I could give a fuck less if that means stuff moves slower. I as well am in my early 20s and I feel like I'm 80 when I get home I can barely move,sleep, or eat because of the body pain I experience. Again thank you Jon Oliver, it feels good to finally hear some recognition from someone.

I worked for zappos an amazon company. They had a warehouse in Kentucky with no air-conditioning. They would "allow" employees to work in their underwear or bathing suits because of the sweltering conditions. They realized it was cheaper to hire 2 to 3 ambulances to hang outside the facility for when someone fell to heat exhaustion. Not IF, but WHEN. it was cheaper to pay to take a heat stroke employee off campus, dismiss them for failure to perform duties, and move on than to install appropriate chillers or reasonable breaks.

"It's back-breaking labor, and thank God I went to college." Meanwhile, a vast chunk of their warehouse employees are likely breaking their backs to pay off their massive student loan debt.

I recently saw an Amazon ad where a young kid says when they grow up, they want to be an Amazon delivery driver. It was one of the most depressing things I've seen.

This makes me VERY happy with my job. I am Dutch and work in a food warehouse - but a NORMAL one. We don't have rates/targets, we don't clock out for the bathroom, I walk around 10 kilometers so around 6-7 miles MAX a day, the working rate is relaxed, there is free food every day for lunch, I work 4 days a week monday-thursday 9-18, and after work I go home, cook myself, chill and do fun things for like 3 hours, and then sleep... ON A WORKDAY. I *ENJOY* my job. Of course, I can get off for anime conventions and such if I only get back on Monday I can get that day off. If I am sick I don't work and am paid. Warehouses CAN be great places to work like mine - if the company is a good one! And yes, my boss HATES amazon etc. We don't compete with them, but he just absolutely hates these kind of working conditions. We do order there in our private lives, because amazon working conditions are A *LOT* better in the Netherlands, but even then not as our first choice.

"Look, Amazon isn't the worst" That didn't age well lmao

12:00 Thank you so much for including me in this weekend segment! It means the world 🖤🤗

Also, Amazon didn't just up and raise the minimum wage out of the kindness of their hearts. They were forced to do so, and they fought to tooth and nail to avoid it.

"Thank God I went to college!" BA and MA here. All I managed to do in the US was customer service. I managed to start my own business by... leaving the US. And yes, I'm aware of how very lucky I am to be able to do that.

Hi everyone 👋🏻 I’d like to point out that this is the same atmosphere at usps sorting centers. While not as bad, we do regularly walk 15 miles/day, often work mandatory overtime, the turnover rate is incredible. Most of the jobs are working with machines and robots. We even have some of the automated vehicles that Amazon didn’t end up using.

Amazon has a promoted Tweet right now offering guided tours of the warehouses. Someone snarkily replied that North Korea offers guided tours too. ;)

Amazon didn't increase minimum wage out of the kindness of their hearts.. people had to organize.

"...they told me to definitely not say that so I'm not going to..." genius!

“I’m glad I went to college.” 🤣🤣🤣😂😅know someone who just got their second masters degree and even more recently accepted a position in an Amazon warehouse for $18.50 an hour. She’s moving to nowhere in the midwest to do it.

In orientation, we watched an interview about Bezos, in which he said he quit his job on Wall Street because "Why am I working so hard to make someone else money?" My station's nearest bathroom was 6 minutes away, had to pick items every 12 seconds, and had knee problems before age 30. You didn't even joke about unionizing because they'd use the slightest infraction to fire you. We had someone die on his drive home during peak (60 hour weeks for 3 months) because of exhaustion and our managers took that opportunity to lecture us on getting enough rest. I'd drown that man in a clogged toilet given half a chance.

This upload was obviously not delivered by Amazon Prime.

As someone who's worked in warehousing for almost three decades Amazon is absolutely the worst place to work. Yeah they pay $15/hour now, but they also work people hard enough to cripple them permanently then they dump them. They don't care because as far as they're concerned there will always be more bodies to feed into the grinder.

My friends dad who is in his 50s lost his IT job and went to work at a Amazon center and they’re always giving him negative reviews and threatening “performance improvement plans” when he physically can’t keep up because of his age. It’s hung a shadow over their family.

The people who forced their workers to keep working around their co-worker's dead body deserve to have their Human Being Licenses revoked.

As a former Amazon employee I can confirm the accuracy of this. Although I do get a bit annoyed when the media praises Amazon for their $15 minimum wage without acknowledging the fact that Amazon used to give their employees stock in the company and had a monthly bonus program. Both of which were ended when the $15 minimum wage was announced. I remember the GM at my location struggling to explain why one had to replace the other and we couldn’t have both.

I'm 20, and I worked in an AMAZ(on)ing warehouse when I was 19. I'm a cellist now with a chronic shoulder/back injury from that work. I worked in the shipping warehouse (not picking items, just sorting boxes off conveyors and then loading them onto trucks). I have horror stories/many complaints. They had no AC except a portable floor fan. We were not easily able to call out sick (including during COVID19) and I almost got fired after missing 2 days of work home sick with a fever, I had to meet with HR when I got back and work while I was still recovering from illness. That warehouse hires people to wear them down and fire them/have them quit. Shifts were 10-12 hours and you got in trouble for moving too slowly. we had the occasional employee yell and then leave/quit during the shift. During the pandemic, we were not allowed to do team lifting (we still did anyways if no one could see), but that meant that one person could have to lift over 50 pounds on their own. I'm no body builder, but I am an active guy. I did sports in middle and high school and I enjoy being fit. I was a skinny but active 19 year old guy just trying to make enough to pay for university. Most of the other employees were also working there because of the pay or because they couldn't get another job....not very many body builders. When I worked there I worked 2am to 1pm and all I did at home was eat dinner and pass out until I had to get up for work again. It was physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausting. I saw other people get injured as well. I strongly encourage people not to work there, but I understand those who do have to because I have been there. This video is quite accurate.

Anyone notice the black guy wasn’t fazed by bear mace, implying he’s been maxed enough to build an immunity?

My brother worked for Amazon once upon a time, he got fired for "using the restroom too often" and he had documented gallbladder problems. I'm so glad someone's talking about this.

"I am glad I went to college" does he know how many people whit college degree working in this type of places?

Watching this while working at my warehouse job. Fun fact! We don't get breaks here! My boss told me to find time to eat while working. Which works out fine for the people who are in the offices and do paperwork all day, but for someone like me at the bottom of the ladder it means shoveling food into my mouth in the few seconds I have between making bundles and stacking pallets. That is, if I even get to eat at all :)

"Hug the box. Now kiss the box. I SAID KISS THE BOX, JACKIE!"

The Amazon driver who broke down on my front porch, crying, last year was all the proof I needed to see how "great" Amazon is for workers in the United States. She had made 140 deliveries before she reached my house. As she walked across the porch around 4:00 pm , I saw tears streaming down her face. I asked if she'd take a seat on the porch with me for a minute or two to collect herself before going on her way and she did. This is what I learned about one Amazon employee's life: She makes $15.00 per hour. She loads her delivery van herself in the morning. Lunch is eating a sandwich at the wheel. After the 140th delivery she made to me, she had eighty two more to go before she would be "allowed" to turn in the delivery van and go home. No breaks. No overtime pay. After she left, out of curiosity, I looked up the normal daily package delivery rate for UPS drivers and the number was: 82. Per Day. How much do UPS drivers make? There's a link below. Compare for yourself. I'll go get that toilet paper on my own from now on. www.truckdriverssalary.com/ups-driver-salary/

As a former Amazon employee the one thing I will say, do not EVER buy food from them if it is not specifically through Amazon Fresh. They have no issue storing your bag of Doritos next to a leaking bottle of insectide.

John Oliver for president he is amazing

There's an Amazon Fulfillment Center in my area, and during Covid-19 in 2020, the workers complained that they did little to nothing to conform to health and safety policies which would have kept the employees a little safer with regard to catching and passing the virus.

I think it’s worth mentioning that Amazon raised the minimum wage while cutting bonuses and stock options for their workers so many actually make less than before - they are not the model to follow.

I know an older woman who was fired for getting water outside of her break, she was a "scanner". Don't get me started with Amazon, I quit once they told us at a "ALL HANDS MEETING" that the company's Gatorade machine was being removed since it was no longer in our fulfillment's budget.... then immediately wanted us to celebrate Jeff Bozo buying the Washington Post. I walked straight out.

"i really think a union would - " *BEAR SPRAY* "OH JESUS CHRIST!" XD

This is the best show on the net

The raise to $15 isn’t a raise. They took away stocks, changed the yearly raise structure, and took away VCP, which was a percentage given to employees every month for not using unpaid time. It cancels out really.

I remember my time at Amazon, it was during Prime Week... I'm in my 30's and I'm built pretty well, I thrive in terrible working conditions having done yard work my whole life in the desert heat. It's a hell of an experience in those warehouses. Because of my size they would put me where all the big shit is, I never complained, and I killed my rate regularly. Going to the bathroom is a bit more tricky than what was described in Jon's video. Suddenly get that feeling that I gotta take a shit, I go into overdrive and stock everything in my cage fast and correctly, then grab another cage and do the same to ensure I've padded my rate for the hour so I CAN go take a shit. Head to the bathroom I know that doesn't get much traffic, get to a stall, and go to drop a deuce, yet I can't relax. It's like that fight or flight mode when you're working in an Amazon warehouse, so much pressure from making rate, can't goto the bathroom even though I have to go. Myself and the other warehouse associates would joke about that constantly, and if someone came back from the bathroom successfully we would cheer out for the freedom of their bowls. You could be in that situation, can't shit because of the anxiety of the pace, then just pull your pants back up and get back to work, and 15 mins later a Manager would come up to you telling you got selected for VTO(Voluntary Time Off(Unpaid)) And you'd take it in a heartbeat, and funnily enough, the second you clock out of that bitch, the pressure is gone, and your body is like, HEY YOU CAN SHIT IN PEACE HOMEY! And you shit, and life's good, til the next day and you repeat the process all over again. The moment I realized I hated working there was when one of those performance people came down to tell me about my rate. They told me usually people plateau at some point, and I'm well over the required rate expectation, but I'm actually continuing to get faster every week. It wasn't a gradual increase either, I was killing it, improving my rate by 5 and 7 points each week. I was excited to hear that, but then they told me that by doing that I increase the average of the rate in that area. It hit me quickly and I asked, "So by me increasing my rate, I'm fucking my coworkers?" And they nodded yes, and added that if I get to high, they will lock me in my own average, and I could get fired by not killing it everyday too. Fuck Amazon! Oh and when they increased the wage to $15, they took their existing associates stock options away. Amazon is abusing some of the coolest, chillest people I've ever met, Fuck you Amazon. Glad I don't work there anymore.

I was here like, "Wow, this episode released early tonight," then got all the way to the end feeling severe deja vu, only to realise... Ooooh. I watched this two and a half years ago, and it remains entirely relevant.

In pontoon beach, Illinois, in the metro east area outside of St. Louis, where I used to live, there was an Amazon warehouse that was struck by a tornado, with reports of workers being told to keep working even though there was a tornado warning in the area

Whenever a corporation makes a needlessly happy, corny and odd ad about employee work conditions just know that something shady is going on over there.

"It made me thank God that I went to college." I guarantee you, plenty of those warehouse workers have college degrees, and simply can't find work in their field.

a pure gift to the universe John is

I had a college degree and worked at Amazon because I couldn't find a job in my field. I went back to school, and after 1.5 years, my body was destroyed. I had to work with one arm and they didn't care. Then I caught them coming behind me and sabotaging my work so they could put points against me because they needed a reason to fire me. Then my mom died from ALS and I had to fight with them to get some time off. Afterward HR told me I had to pick between school and my job. I made my decision. Bonus fact: Amazon officially refers to warehouses without robots as "legacy warehouses".

You know what would be a good video? Jeff Bezos doing a whole day of work in one of his warehouses--without a bathroom break.

"I am glad I went to college", he said, as massive numbers of people work at Amazon to pay off their student loans.

just the phrase "bear mace" is hilarious. defo gonna work that into my everyday vocab

I'm a veteran of Amazon manual picking. This video is quite accurate.

20:29 Jackie is literally how the average Amazonian feels on the job (that includes corporate staff). Same vibes. This is a company with an evil heart.

that XPOLogistics warehouse that got dangerously hot reminded me of the time i passed out from high heat in the warehouse of a juice bottling plant. fortunately for me, the company, my equipment, and the products, there was nobody around, and it happened after i'd already parked and dropped off my payload. i was about to switch into reverse to back out of the row, and the next thing i knew the horn on my forklift was blaring and my face hurt i worked the night shift. i have no idea how hot it got during the day, but it was at least 110 F in the coolest places of the warehouse that werent actively cooled. we werent allowed to put fans on our forklifts because of the possibility that someone who doesnt have a fan would get jealous and make a complaint. additionally, products have a tendency to... ya know... overpressurize. we'd lose entire pallets of perfectly good juice because it was so hot the air inside the container expanded and broke the containers, collapsing the pallet(s). apparently that, plus risking crashes from fainting drivers, is cheaper than installing even basic air conditioning like fans pulling the hot air out of the buildings at a sufficient rate i lost track of how often i had to park my forklift in the drive-in cooler to cool off its battery in the summer. poor thing would start overheating 10 minutes into my shift, and require a mandatory cool down less than 30 minutes later.

16:17 "We're not anti-union, we're just [lists reasons why we're anti-union]"

I worked at an Amazon warehouse for two months last year and it was the absolute worst, most depressing time of my entire life. I decided I've had it when one day everyone was already packing superfast and a 'supervisor' comes behind us and says "Faster! Faster!" The only thing she was missing was a whip, I thought. Never again. Ever.

This episode always made me scared to work in a warehouse, but when I finally got desperate enough for extra income that I picked up a graveyard shift in an Amazon sortation center I was actually surprised. It is, of course, physical labor that is hard on your body, I walk about 10 miles in an 8 hour shift. But the company actually does a surprising amount to make it more bearable - a program automatically rotates employees between different tasks so you're never doing the same activity for too long, or too many shifts in a row, in an attempt to prevent repetitive strain. I was also surprised to find that scan rates are not stressed in the slightest (specifically at sortation centers). I was never told what the official goal rate is, and they don't bother having us log out for breaks. I'm not trying to shill for Amazon or anything, it's just work, and I can't speak for fulfillment centers vs sortation. I don't know if the company has tried to make positive change since this episode came out, or if I just got crazy lucky and ended up in a great warehouse.

This is why I'm happy to be with the company I'm with. My delivery job actually cares about its employees.

I work at ups and I want to personally thank you for shedding a light on the ridiculous standards and work practices at these warehouses. It’s absurd

I’d say, screw Area 51. Let’s raid an Amazon warehouse. At least we could give those workers a well deserved break with this distraction.

I am happy to say I am clean and sober from amazon for over a year now :)

I once tried working in an Amazon warehouse in 2011. I lasted 3 days until I had enough and quit. One of my coworkers said he could only keep up the work with painkillers.

Lol, John pissed off Amazon so much they had to make a statement regarding this episode. Nice. 🤣🤣

I worked for Amazon warehouse and we didn't walk we ran to get packages with a cart...

Why not try to implement small trucks that can take several orders with a cart and then make a planned loop for the pickers so they don't go back and forth through the warehouse, kind of like a snake slithering shape? Sounds more ergonomic and more timesaving

Thank you And i thought I could not love my warehouse job anymore...... To die for 😁

As a former Amazon Warehouse employee, this hits hard. I worked in the Outbound Shipping docks, basically loading the packages in the trucks for departure. First off, it was a $10/hr. wage for a 10 hour shift. At the beginning of the shift, we were assigned a section of the dock to "look over". Essentially that meant that we were in charge of a certain amount of doors being loaded. I don't think I ever once saw a step stool, even though they told us they were around. Granted, I'm 6'2" so I didn't need them but I was the outlier. Most of my coworkers were under 5'8", and were constantly condemned for not loading the packages in the trucks high enough. After Thanksgiving, we entered the "peak season", meaning it's a time of high demand and product output. This is the time when part-time and seasonal employees were brought in, and even that didn't seem to be enough. The way the trucks were loaded were via conveyor belts that would feed from the upstairs picking and packing area down into the trucks themselves, with us in the truck stacking packages tightly and neatly in the truck. What happens when a metric fuckton of packages came down at once? Well the conveyor would get backed up, and it would shut down the entire conveyor system upstairs, and a blue siren would flash on the conveyor belt, signaling that it was the belt that was backed up. Once that happened, all hell broke loose. Our supervisors would come over screaming and hollering that we were not loading the trucks fast enough, causing the belt to back up in the first place. How fast were we moving? As fast as we possibly could, of course. But it wasn't enough, and pretty much every belt would back up at least 10 times a shift, conservatively. Not only on top of that, I specifically was in charge of running up and down the docks helping fix the "blue light situation" as they called it. I was literally RUNNING up and down a football field length stretch of warehouse all day working my butt off trying to load up the trucks so they wouldn't shut down production. And what was my reward? Not getting reprimanded at the end of my shift. The worst part was after Christmas, when the peak season was over. They terminated all the seasonal and part time employees, some of which were promised full time employment after the season was over, along with some full time employees that were not productive enough for their standards. That left us survivors with only a bare-bones crew to handle a whole ship-dock, and that crew was about 10 people. TEN FOR ABOUT 20 DOORS OR SO! So naturally we were RUNNING around even more than we were during the peak season. All that coupled with the laughable vacation hours (we gained 15 MINUTES of vacation time every pay period) was enough for me to say adios to Amazon. #noregrets

Being "not the worst" slave owners is like being "not the worst" serial killer

They aren’t called “fulfillment centers” because they’re supposed to be fulfilling, happy places where you find your life’s purpose. “Fulfillment” is a shipping term, as in you got your order fulfilled.

LastWeekTonight is really the single-most interesting spectacle of information. Anything they do is just bent to be good. No other place do I see a title and thumbnail "Warehouses" and then click, confidently knowing that I'm in for a ride

I noticed Employees wasn't on the list of people Amazon cares about.

I'm in warehousing (not Amazon). Please dear God let Amazon unionize. The harder they grind their employees the harder the rest of us have to grind just to compete.

“Uh oh BEAR SPRAY!” 🤣

The "even if you were thirsty" got me

"Amazon - Try Not to Think About It" should be the new Prime Day tagline.

I've been a manager/director in warehousing for 15 years, I've literally never had an OSHA inspector visit one of my sites. The issue isn't just laws, it's regulation to enforce those laws. In the case of places like Amazon, they can also easily afford any fine levied against them.

I love how the black guy at the end is immune to the bearspray. Think about that for a second and realize how dark that joke is.

I worked at a CFC (customer fulfillment center) aka Giant Warehouse called MSC Industrial Supply for 5 years. Watching this...its pretty spot on. They time your every move. I walked about 13-15 miles a day.

Worked in an Amazon warehouse two different times, can confirm everything he said.

"You load sixteen tons, what do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt"

thank you i love your subject matter and you steadfast ability to keep us in touch with our sanity. so appreciated.

Working in a local warehouse a couple years ago, I was logging 26 miles a day of walking. 8 hours of essentially non stop walking, sometimes running. Horrible. And the heat was topping 100° daily

Hot damn, I worked for Amazon for 6 years as a picker and watching this brought back nightmares

I do not need people to die of exhaustion on the job in order to get my stuff, I can wait. I'm an adult.

I love John Oliver's long-winded statements/rants... they're hilarious about 99% of the time haha

The Black guy at the end being completely unphased by the bear mace is an excellent touch. Chef's kiss, whoever suggested that joke. Deep ass cut right there.

"That just sounds like slavery with extra steps." - Morty Smith

Smh, this is too real. I'm literally watching this as I crash from my 10hr shift.

This week : Myopic mathematicians.

I work at a Walmart warehouse and we still use the old step stool with two steps

Honestly I'd rather just not have the 1-Day delivery option at all if it meant these workers could slow down. Like legitimately

Apparently Amazon responded to this video, calling it “Insulting” No shit, Sherlock! That was the point

I was a picker at an Amazon Fulfillment Center. Believe you me: it is no fun. Walking up and down stairs around a warehouse that is exceedingly large.

I worked a Christmas season at an Amazon warehouse as a picker. They are right. It was the worst job I've ever had. Ten hours walking on concrete, mind-numbingly boring work, brain dead managers and shin splints were just a few of the bad points. Being treated as a criminal every day by your employer was the icing on the shit cake.

I think this is why we don't have Amazon in Sweden yet. Usually, we're one of the first countries that companies like to test new tech solutions in because we have a very strong IT infrastructure and generally have digitized our lives and economy a lot. But no Amazon in Sweden. I think it's because our regulations and unions would kill their business model of using workers like disposable batteries.

I’m 4 years in Amazon , they took away our bonuses , when they decided to raise the minimum wage, and no longer give people stocks for completeing 2 years. I aslo got a write up for being at 99.9 percent , they told , me I needed to be at 100%. And not to mention that the trailers in arizona warehouses get to 120+ degrees, and they have no ac just bounce house style air blowers, and favoritisms is a pain cause process assistants put easy jobs to the people they like, I think of quitting everyday but I got bills to pay I’m 22

When I worked in the amazon warehouse back in 2019, I worked nightshifts. I remember going to the bathroom which was a mile away from my station, I walked past the 'grave yard' which was exactly what it sounds like. There was just a dark floor under you with bunch of shelves, no lights whatsoever, with all the returned items, including good/working condition, and the opposite. It was really eerie, and it was then when I realized how horrible our consumer society is.

I just started at a warehouse. After the second day I said “oof I gotta go back to school”

Jerk in the pastel: you can have a Ph.D. or a Masters degree, and still end up working in an Amazon Warehouse.

I worked in an Amazon fulfillment center for 5 months.... I can say everything he says is so true!