MGMT 12e, Ch 16 What Would You Do? Amazon Headquarters, Seattle, Washington, USA. At the beginning of 2020, Amazon had grown to 156 million Amazon Prime customers, 798,000 employees, and 170 distribution centers, with another 62 already planned for the immediate future. Founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, now the richest person in the world, had long-ago divorced him-self from Amazon's day-to-day operations, leaving them to an experienced, trusted top management team. Bezos told Forbes the long term was "pretty much all" that he did. He said, "I very rarely get pulled into the today." That changed in early March 2020 when the coronavirus spread to Western Europe and the United States. The pandemic hit Amazon like a tidal wave, but at least the company saw it coming, unlike most businesses. In early February, an infectious-disease specialist advised the company to start checking employees for fever and to implement social distancing in its crowded warehouses. When searches spiked on Amazon's website for face masks, gloves, and other personal protective equipment, the company reached out to suppliers to acquire what it could for employees. But it wasn't enough. In a companywide email on March 21, 2020, Bezos admitted, "We've placed purchase orders for millions of face masks..., but very few of those orders have been filled. Masks remain in short supply globally and are at this point being directed by governments to the highest-need facilities like hospitals and clinics. It's easy to understand why the incredible medical providers serving our communities need to be first in line. When our turn for masks comes, our first priority will be getting them in the hands of our employees and partners working to get essential products to people." In March, as hundreds of millions of people began sheltering at home, Amazon's online orders rose 30 to 40 percent. Toilet paper orders spiked by 186 percent, cough and cold medicine by 862 percent, and children's vitamins by 287 percent. Its normally efficient warehouses were overwhelmed. Amazon made two major adjustments, announcing the hiring of 175,000 new employees and restricting the sale and delivery of everything but essential goods, such as household and medical supplies. Mother's Day and Father's Day promotions were canceled. Likewise, Amazon's huge annual Prime Day sale, scheduled for two days in July, was pushed back to September. While Amazon's third-party sell- ers, who account for 58 percent of sales, were unhappy, they understood. Steve Simonson, who sells home, office, and electrical products, many of which Amazon stopped shipping, said, "I'm actually kind of a defender of Amazon in this context. Those warehouses are being overrun with outgoing orders for essential items like health-care products, vita- mins, and mission-critical items. It's impossible for anybody to manage this crazy demand... "Former Amazon manager James Thomson agreed, saying, " get it. Amazon is the new Red Cross." Just as Amazon began adjusting, the coronavirus started spreading in its warehouses. Social distancing, introduced in mid-March, wasn't regularly followed. Hand sanitizer containers were often empty, so many workers brought their own. Masks, in short supply but becoming more widely available, were not required. Frustrated and scared employees began speaking out. Walkouts and sickouts in the United States, though limited, attracted news reports, as did strikes in France and Germany. Workers in some locations began exploring union representation. Amazon fired six workers it says violated company policy. Others say the firings were retaliation for publicizing work- ers' safety risks or reaching out to unions. A long-time Amazon vice president in charge of Amazon's cloud business quit in protest over the firings. Tensions among Amazon's 270,000 warehouse workers remained high. Absences rose as high as 30 percent in some locations as scared employees began staying home. On average, an Amazon warehouse has 1,500 employees, comprising unloaders, who unload 50 trucks per day, water spiders, who distribute those goods to initial workstations, stowers, who transfer goods into pods that robots move throughout the warehouse, pickers, who retrieve goods from shelves (put there by robotic pods) for customer orders, and finally packers, who box orders for shipping. The only solution is getting ahead of the virus, but what we can do quickly and effectively to control the threat to employees' health? Let's start by setting a budget. Typically, you'd adjust last year's budget to fit the current situation. But that won't work, so start from scratch. Knowing that Amazon spends $40 billion a year on warehouses and order fulfillment, how much would you budget for virus control efforts? Make an educated guess that you could defend to Jeff Bezos. Remember, no one has ever done this before. Including him. After picking a number, put together a high- level budget plan with a top-five priority list for fighting the virus and taking care of employees. What five things-think broadly in terms of impact-should be on that list? Next, control means establishing standards to achieve organizational goals, comparing actual performance to standards, and taking corrective action when necessary to restore performance to those standards. To address employees' fears, corrective actions to control the virus must be obvious in all areas of Amazon's warehouses. Beginning with warehouse entries, what standards and corrective actions should an employee see or be subject to at the start of their shift, from the front door of the warehouse, to the long walk to their work area, to the workstations where they perform their jobs? Also consider breakrooms and warehouse offices. What virus control efforts should employees encounter in those areas? Finally, what happens if, despite a wide variety of corrective actions, some employees still get sick at work? That could happen because of breakdowns in your new systems. Or because there's still more you need to do. Or because employees got sick elsewhere. Or because asymptomatic employees unknowingly spread the virus even though they didn't feel sick or display outward signs of the virus. What steps or standards will be in place to handle employees who test positive for the coronavirus at work? If you were in charge of controlling the coronavirus at Amazon, what would you do