Buzz
On August 15, 2015, The New York Times unveiled a shocking report on Amazon's workplace conditions. It exposed a ruthless, 'winner-takes-all' environment where Jeff Bezos' employees are pushed to betray each other. In this environment, suffering from cancer or experiencing a miscarriage can lead to disciplinary consequences. Workers are recruited, drained of their energy, and then discarded by an unforgiving corporate system. It's no surprise that former staff have compared it to the horror of homelessness over being employed by the retail giant.
However, Amazon is far from being the only offender when it comes to mistreating employees. Throughout the corporate world, CEOs are steering their companies into practices so appalling they are reminiscent of supervillains.
SEE ALSO: Top 10 Terrifying Realities of Working in an Amazon Warehouse
10. Family Dollar Unpaid Overtime and Intense Labor Demands
Since the Great Recession, dollar stores have surged: Family Dollar, Dollar General, Dollar Tree… How are they able to maintain their business model with such rock-bottom prices? Simple—they exploit their workers.
The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 requires companies to pay hourly employees overtime at time-and-a-half. This provides an incentive for most businesses to limit workers’ hours to 40 per week. Dollar stores, however, have found a loophole. They promote regular employees to 'managers,' offering them fixed salaries, then demand so many hours of work that the 'promoted' employees end up just as poor as they were before the promotion.
Rather than gaining more responsibilities, managers often hold the title only in name. They still carry out all the physically demanding tasks they did before, only now they work even longer hours. In 2013, 14 Family Dollar 'managers' sued the company for being forced to mop floors and stock shelves for more than 60 hours per week without overtime pay. One worker was so overworked that he had to sleep at the store three nights a week. Another, who cut his finger, was denied medical attention until his shift ended.
Equally disturbing was Family Dollar’s policy on shoplifters. Former 'managers' reported that the company instructed employees to confront thieves. Predictably, this led to employees being assaulted. In one case, a worker injured while trying to stop a thief had his contract terminated because he was no longer able to perform heavy labor.
9. Target Union Busting, Relentless Propaganda
Target enjoys a positive reputation among liberals who are too principled to shop at Walmart but can't afford to shop elsewhere. Marketed as 'one of the world’s most ethical companies,' it’s supposed to be friendly, quick, and enjoyable. That is, unless you belong to a union, in which case the company seems to have it out for you.
In the past five years, Target has gone to absurd and often illegal lengths to prevent its employees from unionizing. In every store, workers are forced to attend 'training sessions' that consist solely of viewing antiunion propaganda. In some instances, these sessions are followed by subtle threats aimed at union advocates. One store even distributed a pamphlet ominously titled 'Will the store close if the union arrives?'
Target has acted on these threats. When a store in Valley Stream, New York, came close to unionizing, the company shut the store down for seven months, suspending workers without pay. While they claimed it was for 'remodeling,' some saw it as a convenient cover to fire pro-union employees. A judge later ruled that managers at Valley Stream had illegally threatened and interrogated employees before the union vote.
8. Microsoft Corporate Sabotage and Backstabbing
One of the key criticisms of Amazon in The New York Times article was its use of 'stack ranking.' However, this practice is far from exclusive to the e-commerce giant. In fact, it nearly led to Microsoft’s downfall.
The concept involves ranking every employee in the company from top to bottom and then firing the lowest performers. To make it more manageable, each department ranks its members individually, with teams often doing the same. The lowest-ranking individuals are let go, while the highest earn hefty rewards. It seems like a tough but efficient method to eliminate underperformers. However, it transformed Microsoft into a den of paranoia, backstabbing, and intense office competition.
The problem with stack ranking is its lack of flexibility. You’re either 'above average,' 'average,' or 'on the verge of being fired.' So, if a team has three brilliant minds, with one slightly less exceptional than the others, stack ranking dictates that the less brilliant member will get axed. Since rankings are subjective and determined by managers, the only way to avoid this fate is by constantly undermining your colleagues.
During its implementation at Microsoft, many employees spent more time worrying about office politics than actually doing their jobs. Former staffers say this toxic culture was a major reason why thousands chose to leave. To their credit, Microsoft discontinued stack ranking in 2013.
7. H&M Sweatshop Labor, Deadly Fires
Not every worker in a company’s supply chain is based in the US. Many companies outsource labor to lower-cost countries. While this can sometimes help local economies and create jobs, in the case of clothing giant H&M, it results in child labor in horrific sweatshop conditions.
Earlier this year, Human Rights Watch visited garment factories in Cambodia used by H&M and Gap. In one of these factories, they found that nearly a third of the workforce was children, working illegally. Life in these factories is grim. Frequent fainting episodes are common. When workers demanded a meager $160 a month in 2014, the government responded by violently breaking up protests. It’s the last place you would want to find children.
H&M has outsourced manufacturing to perilous sweatshops. In 2010, a Bangladesh factory they used caught fire, killing 21 people. The factory had no functional fire safety equipment, despite an H&M audit just months earlier that had cleared the building.
6. Euro Disney Shockingly High Accident Rate
Back in 2003, a mischievous rumor began circulating that employees at Disneyland Paris hated their jobs so much that they referred to it as Mousewitz. Over time, things only deteriorated. A 2010 report by The Independent revealed Euro Disney as a company plagued by suicides, harassment, and a shockingly high accident rate.
The article claimed that six-day workweeks were standard for everyone from ticket sellers to those wearing the Goofy and Donald costumes. Meanwhile, wages were barely above the minimum wage, even for highly skilled positions. Harassment was also reportedly widespread, with one militant union tying it to two recent suicides (though the park’s more moderate unions disagreed).
But this was nothing compared to the staggering accident rate. According to the report, at the time Disneyland Paris was experiencing 1,500 workplace accidents annually—about one for every 10 employees. That’s a higher rate than the construction industry, notorious for its high injury rates.
After the article was published, Euro Disney promised to improve working conditions. However, the negative stories didn’t stop. In December 2013, an employee attempted suicide by covering himself in gasoline and setting himself on fire in the middle of the park.
SEE ALSO: Top 10 Bizarre Things You Can Buy on Amazon
5. Walmart Depressed Wages, Reliance On Food Stamps
Walmart is often America’s favorite target. It’s known for selling cheap goods, driving out small businesses, and has been found guilty of environmental violations by the EPA. On top of all that, it pays its workers rock-bottom wages, forcing taxpayers to pick up the tab.
For years, Walmart’s business strategy has been to keep employee wages as low as possible. In 2013, employees organized massive protests demanding at least $25,000 annually. If you don’t sympathize with people struggling on such meager pay, you might be concerned about how this affects your own finances.
That same year, the House of Representatives revealed that a single Walmart store cost taxpayers $1 million per year in food stamps and government assistance due to these low wages. Multiply that by 5,000 stores nationwide, and it becomes clear this is a growing issue.
Thankfully, there are signs that Walmart’s long-standing culture of paying low wages is starting to change. In the summer of 2015, Walmart raised wages for 100,000 employees. While the increase still doesn’t meet the expectations of activists, it’s a step in the right direction. However, it still left many employees who missed out on a raise feeling angry.
4. Merrill Lynch Works Interns Like Slaves
Many people aspire to a career in high finance. They ignore the negative press surrounding bankers and instead envision a world filled with excitement, glamour, and massive financial rewards. However, entering this field requires a level of preparedness, as banks seem determined to push their interns to the brink of a mental breakdown.
This often results in a cutthroat, hyper-Darwinian environment where only the most relentless survive. In London, interns have reported grueling workdays lasting between 16 and 20 hours, with a toxic culture in which their primary role seems to be enduring verbal abuse from their overworked and emotionally frayed bosses. In the most extreme cases, employees experience the dreaded “bad” nine-to-five, where they work from 9:00 AM one day until 5:00 AM the next. Stories abound of taxi drivers picking up workers after these marathon shifts, waiting while they shower and change, so they can head straight back to the office.
Merrill Lynch stands out as one of the worst offenders. In 2013, an intern died after completing three consecutive 21-hour shifts. While his death was attributed to epilepsy, the coroner acknowledged that exhaustion may have contributed to the fatal seizure. This was not an isolated case; a 2012 study by a University of Southern California researcher followed two dozen junior investment bankers for a decade, and every one of them developed a serious, stress-related illness.
3. DJ Houghton Modern-Day Slavers
You may not have heard of Darrell Houghton and Jacqueline Judge, and that's probably a good thing. In August 2015, they became the first people in British history to be prosecuted for modern slavery crimes.
As the owners of DJ Houghton, a chicken-catching business, the couple ran a sordid operation steeped in exploitation and abuse. Their chief gangmaster, Edikas Mankevicius, brought in Lithuanian workers who were bound by debt as soon as they arrived in England. A bonded laborer is forced to work for minimal wages to pay off a loan. However, these workers' meager earnings made it impossible to repay the debt, effectively turning them into slaves. The workers at DJ Houghton were also confined to bedbug-infested housing, given inadequate food, physically abused, and intimidated with fighting dogs.
Their working conditions were even worse. Chicken catching, already a filthy job, became far worse under Mankevicius’s management. The workers endured 120-hour weeks, earning far below the minimum wage. They had little to no opportunity to wash, change clothes, or eat between jobs. The only rest they got was during the van ride to their next job. Injuries were routinely overlooked—one worker who fractured his ribs was denied medical care and had to call for an ambulance himself. Another suffered an untreated eye injury.
When they weren’t working, the workers faced brutal physical and psychological intimidation. They were randomly assaulted and had their already small wages docked for minor mistakes, like forgetting to clean a coffee cup. The level of mistreatment was so severe that it verged on torture, all taking place in the quiet county of Kent in England.
Sadly, the story has no happy resolution. After police intervention, Mankevicius fled to Lithuania. Darrell Houghton and Jacqueline Judge have never faced any legal consequences. Shockingly, when the story broke, local media outlets depicted the couple as the victims. Meanwhile, the modern-day slaves they exploited have not received any form of compensation for their suffering.
SEE ALSO: Top 10 Evil Businessmen
2. Sears Sweatshops, Fires, and Torture
The retailer Sears has gained a notorious reputation for exploiting sweatshop labor in overseas factories. In 2012, it was uncovered that Sears had been outsourcing production to a factory in Bangladesh, where a fire tragically claimed the lives of 112 workers when it erupted in flames. A deeper dive into the company’s past reveals even more disturbing details.
In 2003, shocking working conditions were exposed in a Samoan factory used by Sears and JC Penney for outsourcing purposes. The workers, mostly from Vietnam and China, arrived at the factory burdened by crippling debt. Their wages were slashed for even the smallest infractions, with many receiving just $500 for nine months of labor. Food was scarce, and 251 workers had to survive on a single 1-kilogram (2 lb) chicken for meals. When they voiced their concerns, management retaliated by shutting off the electricity, causing temperatures to soar to life-threatening levels.
The most horrifying part of the investigation revealed that torture was employed as a method to intimidate workers. In November 2000, the factory owner authorized a brutal punishment to serve as a warning to others. A Vietnamese seamstress was dragged from her station and had her eye gouged out with a plastic pipe in front of her coworkers, setting a chilling precedent.
When the scandal broke, JC Penney announced that it would provide financial compensation to the affected workers. In stark contrast, Sears chose not to offer them a single penny.
1. Apple Child Labor in Life-Threatening Conditions
Apple’s reputation for unethical practices is so well-known that we once devoted an entire article to exposing their wrongdoing. That was back in 2013, but in the years since, things have only worsened.
In December 2014, a covert investigation by the BBC uncovered the horrific conditions faced by workers in Chinese factories producing Apple products. Employees were forced to work 60-hour weeks, sometimes going without a break for up to 18 days. There was no option to decline night shifts, and sitting while working was strictly forbidden, no matter how exhausted the workers were. The dormitories were overcrowded, and there was barely any time for sleep.
The investigation also delved deeper into the supply chain, revealing the shocking conditions in Indonesian mines supplying materials to the factories. Despite Apple’s public pledge to ethically source minerals, the BBC discovered children working in extremely hazardous conditions. Landslides often killed miners, and children as young as 12 lived in constant fear for their lives. Apple defended its actions by claiming that purchasing from these mines was an effort to enforce change from within.
