A GLOSSARY OF AMAZON TERMS

Amazonians: People who work for

Amazon.

Amabot: An Amazon worker who can successfully “become one” with the system.

Amazon Fulfilment Engine: Known as the AFE, this is a proprietary hyper-efficient system involving three tasks: sort, re-bin and pack.

From A to Z: An in-house magazine distributed to operations employees in 18 countries. It is translated into eight languages, and offers a peek inside “our innovative and peculiar culture.”

Customer-centric, customerobsessed: Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has said his mission is the make it “Earth’s most customer-centric company.” According to the company’s leadership principles, “although leaders pay attention to competitors, they obsess over customers.”

Fulfilment centre: Orwellian as this term might sound, the term was not coined by Amazon, but has been used for about 30 years as a euphemism for a warehouse where orders are received and products are picked and packaged for delivery.

Kaizen: A Japanese term meaning “change for the better,” this is a method of continuous improvement through identifying waste and streamlining processes.

Making the rate: Being able to complete a task at an assigned level. Workers who fail to “make the rate” face reprimand.

Leadership principles: The 14 articles of faith Amazon runs on, ranging from urging workers to “think big” to accomplishing more with less. The principles also make it clear that leaders have relentlessly high standards, “even if many people think these standards are unreasonably high.”

Stowers: Amazon workers who scan incoming products into a bar-coded shelf location so that the product can be ordered by customers.

Pickers: Workers who pull ordered items from the warehouse into bins. Workers use electronic scanners for information on the items to be picked. The scanner also tells the worker how long they have left to complete the task.

Packers: Workers who scan items and pack them into boxes for shipping.

The Offer: A “pay to quit” proposal made to workers at fulfilment centres, offering them money to leave the company. Reportedly, in the first year of work, the offer is $2,000. It goes up by $1,000 every year until it hits $5,000.

Tier 1: The lowest paid hourly workers, also know as “associates.”

WOCAS report: An acronym that stands for “what our customers are saying.” These reports deliver customer service insights directly to department leaders.