33 Seconds at Amazon

Greg Shaw

Greg Shaw Jul 2, 2025

Feb 6, 2018

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                <h1>33 Seconds at Amazon  </h1>
                <h2><p>The BBC is giving its United Kingdom viewers an undercover glimpse of working conditions in an Amazon warehouse in Swansea, Wales. The BBC story, which the Slog spotted, reports that the worker who got hired so he could film himself on the job had to walk as many as 11</p></h2>
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               <p>By <a href="/author/grshaw-microsoft-com/">Greg Shaw</a></p> 
              <p><time datetime="2025-02-04T05:00:00-08:00">Feb 6, 2018</time></p>
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            <p>The BBC is giving its United Kingdom viewers an undercover glimpse of working conditions in an Amazon warehouse in Swansea, Wales. The BBC story, which the Slog spotted, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-25034598?ref=dev.cascadepbs.org">reports</a> that the worker who got hired so he could film himself on the job had to walk as many as 11 miles in a single night shift, fetching items around the 800,000-square-foot warehouse. The worker was expected to pick up one item every 33 seconds, with a handheld scanner tracking his every movement. Any tardiness caused the scanner to start beeping at him. An attorney tells BBC's "Panorama" investigative show that such physical demands could violate British labor law on night-time work. (As far as we can tell, Panorama isn't shown on BBC America. Just as well since we don't like workplace regulations over here.) — J.C.</p>
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The BBC is giving its United Kingdom viewers an undercover glimpse of working conditions in an Amazon warehouse in Swansea, Wales. The BBC story, which the Slog spotted, reports that the worker who got hired so he could film himself on the job had to walk as many as 11 miles in a single night shift, fetching items around the 800,000-square-foot warehouse. The worker was expected to pick up one item every 33 seconds, with a handheld scanner tracking his every movement. Any tardiness caused the scanner to start beeping at him. An attorney tells BBC's "Panorama" investigative show that such physical demands could violate British labor law on night-time work. (As far as we can tell, Panorama isn't shown on BBC America. Just as well since we don't like workplace regulations over here.) — J.C.

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By Greg Shaw

Greg Shaw is a senior director in Microsoft’s strategy group. He served as publisher of Crosscut and prior to that was a director for the Bill &amp; Melinda Gates Foundation. He writes for Crosscu