Regarding leads, managers and senior managers

Early days

The 1st day was mostly introduction, showing facilities, workplace( operations floor) and meeting your managers, trainers and operations manager. The training was basically of soft skills and process knowledge. Amazon (USA) being the main site is very different as compared to other Amazon sites( India, Japan, China, Italy). The process training was very long and we needed to learn everything as quickly and clearly as possible....

On work floor

On the work floor, it will be mostly packed up not noisy as it was a chat process. In the 1st week, you’ll be only taking 1 chat at a time. After a certain time/ weeks, the management team would shift us to take dual chats at a time which is the amount an associate needs to take once he is comfortable with the process. At some times we used to handle 4 chats at the same time and the customer would be like why is this guy taking so much time? None of them knew that the associate was taking care of 4 issues at the same time and that’s why it’s taking time. This used to happen when there was a huge flow and less staffing. There is a probation period in which you need to maintain certain performance matrices....

Regarding work

There are many different teams in Amazon customer service. Some of them which I’ve worked on are...

Regarding leaves ,shifts , salary and breaks

There are 6 optional leaves, 12 sick and casual leaves, and 16 annual leaves. Salary is decent but not the best. Apart from salary, you get performance bonuses every quarter, food coupons and hikes. But don’t think that you’ll get all the leaves as getting a leave approved is a big headache....

Regarding leads, managers and senior managers

The leads ( supervisor) who will be assigned to you are good and helpful. Some of them are not worth becoming leads as they are dumb and cannot take escalation chats....

Regarding managers.

When the team changes a new manager is assigned and the team as well changes. All get a different shift. Most of the managers have just graduated from business schools and been hired as managers. Normally between the age of 24–29 years. They hardly have any process knowledge. I’ve worked with 8 different managers. Some of them were sweet and helpful while some were worst. When I say worst I mean they do not give leaves, always keep on reminding you of your performance daily, changing their views on policies this becomes irritating and anyone will feel frustrated. There was this manager let’s call him Wolf. He never used to give leaves. So most of my friends never used to inform him and they used to take leaves keeping their phones switched off. But that also had consequences. In my case, I used to lie to him saying my relative was not fine/well stuff and no manager would ever say no. This worked well and I used to take leaves. I don’t like lying but I had no choice. I wish no one gets a manager like Wolf. We also used to get a feedback pop-up once we came to the office during the shift. The feedback questions were regarding the manager, work and facilities offered. All our team members used to give Wolf a negative rating as no one liked him. This feedback could only be seen by HR and senior managers....

Regarding senior managers

These are experienced managers who have their cabins. They used to come for inspection if anyone was doing anything other an work and would end up giving a warning letter. Some super cool ops managers would talk to you like any friend....

Promotions

The process of moving 1 level up was a joke completely. The process consists of a process, aptitude and group interview process. If you do well in all rounds you go to the select level. For me, I prefer promotions based on experience and performance. Some associates were much lesser experienced than me and would end up becoming a lead. This only leads to disappointment for employees who have been in the system for a long time. Some associates were at the same level for more than 5–6 years....

Regarding the experience of interacting with customers all over the globe.

Chatting with a customer from mainly the USA, Spain, Italy, Turkey, South America etc. was a completely different experience. I came to understand how people from different countries chat. Customers who watch famous TV shows would ask the associate about it and if the associate sees it and can relate to it trust me the customer will always give positive feedback. Something like Howdy. Like any other associate, I used to get super cool, rude, racist and angry customers. There were these customers as well who would want to share their experiences, and personal life stories and ask about me. Some of the customers used to assume that I was an American due to my name as my name is a common American lady’s name. There was this customer who would tell me about his boss who had the same name as mine and this customer called me home for a glass of beer and I was like I’m sorry I don’t stay in America. That guy was like the whole time I was assuming I was an American. On the other hand, there was this lady customer who thought I was a lady and after I solved her query and before ending the conversation I told her I had something to say that I’m a guy and she was like hahaha hahaha lol stuff. These are some memories that will always be there and never be forgotten. There are always scamsters present and would have got many of them in a day. There would be some customers who would search for you on social media....