Employee Would Clock In, Hide In The Break Room All Day & Then Clock Out For An Entire Month Before She Was Fired
Some may call her 'lazy', but it's the company's policies that are the real issue.
PeopleImages.com - Yuri A / Shutterstock With Americans and their immediate gratification at an all-time high, Amazon workers, in particular, are facing a large amount of pressure to keep up with demand. But one woman didn't seem to be stressed at all about it.
A former Amazon employee gained support after revealing how little work she did while still getting paid before eventually quitting.
For a month, the former employee would clock in for work and sit in the break room for the entire shift.
In a TikTok video, Savannah Beneventi recalled all of the different ways she has quit jobs in her life, and while working at Amazon, Beneventi claimed that during her shift, she would sit in her workplace's break room and do absolutely no work.
She explained that she has a habit of quitting jobs over seemingly minor inconveniences, and the same thing occurred while she worked for Amazon.
"I got so tired of working at Amazon because everyone watches you all the time," she began.
As a solution to the annoyance of being watched, Beneventi would "clock in" for her shift at the warehouse, and instead of doing tasks required as part of her position, she'd go into the break room for the 10 hours she was scheduled to work.
Beneventi said she would do this "every single day" for at least "a month," until she was eventually caught. When asked by her superiors to explain why she was sitting in the break room instead of working, Beneventi decided to just quit instead rather than clarify, seeing as she wasn't even enjoying the job as it was.
Beneventi explained how she was able to get away with being in the break room undetected for so long.
In a follow-up video, Beneventi clarified how she was able to get away with not doing any work while employed by Amazon after a user accused her of lying about the entire situation.
"There used to be a feature on the Amazon app where you can clock in and out from home or wherever you were," she recalled. However, she added that Amazon eventually stopped having their workers use that feature because employees weren't coming into work but were still clocking in and out while at home.
"So, [Amazon] stopped it, and you had to physically scan your badge, come [and] clock in, so I couldn't leave the premises because when you leave, you have to scan your badge," she said.
Not only did employees have to scan their badges to leave, but they would also have to walk past security, and if they saw you hadn't clocked out, they would do it for you. As a way to get around the protocol, Beneventi would clock in and just stay somewhere in the building to get out of having to work.
"I have no idea how I didn't get caught in the break room," she remarked. "I would alternate between tables, and I would sit there and watch movies."
Many praised Beneventi for the creative way she managed to avoid working and shared their own experiences.
"I would drive super close to the building, clock in, not even go inside and leave the premises," one user shared. Another added, "A ton of [people] did this when I worked there, but usually they'd walk around the floor pretending to work."
When another user claimed they "could've done that" while working at Amazon, but were unable to due to their every movement being tracked, including "toilet breaks," Beneventi noted that the same thing happened to her.
"They tracked my bathroom breaks too. I used to hide in there but got caught so I resorted to the break room," Beneventi said.
Micromanaging can have the opposite intended effect and make people less productive.
As Beneventi mentioned, her every move was tracked at work, which is partially the reason why she spent 10 hours every day in the break room instead of doing her job. After all, when you have someone breathing down your neck and watching you constantly, it's easy to feel overwhelmed and underappreciated.
Amazon has quite a reputation for their poor treatment of workers. For delivery drivers, it's common knowledge that they often go full days without taking bathroom breaks, and are tracked by the minute, forced to use tracking apps as they work.
“The knowledge that you’re under this level of constant surveillance, that even if you’re doing a good job at your job, an app or algorithm could make a determination that impacts your life or your ability to put food on the table for your kids is... incredibly dystopian,” Evan Greer, deputy director of the digital rights group Fight for the Future, revealed.
For warehouse workers, Amazon's high standards for speediness and over-surveillance of workers have led to dire outcomes.
A 2023 study found that almost 70% of Amazon workers surveyed suffered pain or exhaustion on the job and had to take unpaid time off; 34% had to take time off three or more times. More than 50% of workers said they struggled with burnout, while many reported strains and sprains in their legs, knees, or feet, as a result of the focus on hastiness.
And as far as monitoring goes, the same study determined that 44% of workers weren't allowed to take breaks when they needed to, and 53% said they "feel a sense of being watched or monitored in their work at the company" most of the time.
Aside from having delivery drivers use Monitor as a tracker, Amazon tracks their workers' metrics, including task time, rate, and idle time. If workers aren't meeting the standards set, this leaves them vulnerable to being fired.
As the study concluded, “A key mechanism for workers to maintain a fast pace of work without injury is the ability to take breaks and recover from periods of intense work... We see clear evidence in our data that work intensity and monitoring contribute to negative health outcomes.”
In addition to increased worker injuries and negative mental effects, a report determined that these practices lead to "distrust, micromanagement and, in some cases, disciplinary action against its workers."
The point is that when employees are hired, they expect to be trusted to do their jobs without constant surveillance from superiors or the companies at large. And while many could say that Beneventi's actions were just her not wanting to work, in the grand scheme of things, the practices Amazon uses are very problematic.
Nia Tipton is a Chicago-based entertainment, news, and lifestyle writer whose work delves into modern-day issues and experiences.