Growing a career
De'Andrea found a supportive workplace and is now eyeing leadership roles
For De'Andrea Romero, COVID-19 "opened my eyes to realize I was too far away from home. Being in Tennessee, I was about seven-and-a-half hours away from my mom, and I lost my dad last year. So, that was a key turning point to get back closer to family."
Along with her 9-year-old daughter, her daughter’s father, and a dog named Nip, she moved back home to North Carolina and found work at an Amazon delivery station. It's the last stop for Amazon orders before they’re loaded into delivery vehicles. Romero makes sure those packages are routed correctly to reach customers’ doorsteps.
"My ultimate goal is to move into area manager, and then operations,” she said. “I’m very good at being hands-on and teaching people, so I may go the leadership route. I’m not sure yet, but the opportunities are endless with Amazon.”
A cleaner delivery
DeCarlos is one of the first to drive Amazon’s new electric delivery vehicles, helping to mitigate climate change
The delivery station door rolled up to reveal Amazon’s new custom electric delivery vehicle, created and designed in partnership with Rivian. DeCarlos Jordan was impressed. “Wow," he said. "We really get to drive these?” Just one year after announcing the purchase of 100,000 custom electric delivery vehicles as part of The Climate Pledge, Amazon has begun testing the new vans on delivery routes. Jordan is among the first drivers to get behind the wheel. The new vehicles feature Alexa integration, state-of-the-art sensor detection, a suite of highway- and traffic-assist technologies, a large windshield to enhance driver visibility, and zero emissions. “What it represents with these electric vehicles is progress,” Jordan said. “I can’t wait to tell my kids about it.”
Landing her dream job
Amazon gave Della free skills training. “It was a game-changer."
”For most of her life, Della Aikins’ hobby of working on cars and machinery was just that—a hobby. Working at Amazon, she heard about the company’s Mechatronics program. She’s now an apprentice, learning the engineering skills necessary to repair and maintain equipment inside Amazon facilities. It’s part of Amazon’s commitment to provide free skills training to hundreds of thousands of employees in the U.S. by 2025.
“It changed my life," Aikins said. "The satisfaction goes beyond words. They’re setting us up for success in every way.”
Ensuring a safe workplace
For Sethe, nothing is more important than keeping her Amazon colleagues healthy and safe
Workplace safety is personal for Sethe Munoz. Living with diabetes and hypertension, the married mother of two would be at higher risk if she were to develop COVID. She was working as a stower at Amazon’s fulfillment center in Sacramento last spring, when her manager came to her with a new opportunity on Amazon’s COVID safety program. She instantly said yes.
“Not only do I want to protect myself [and] my immediate loved ones, but my friends here at work,” she said. Amazon will spend more than $300 million on safety initiatives in 2021, and Munoz is "so happy to do what I do now and make people feel that someone cares for them and they’re not just a number. Being a part of the safety team, I am where I should be.”
Investing in Earth’s future
Lopa’s efforts are helping power Amazon’s operations as we head toward 100% renewable energy
Hurricane Harvey destroyed Lopa Banerjee's family home in 2017 and raised the stakes for her mission to help fight climate change. As a senior manager of renewable energy at Amazon, Banerjee identifies and invests in wind and solar projects on behalf of the company.
Those investments are critical to Amazon reaching the goal of powering its operations with 100% renewable energy by 2025, five years ahead of our original target of 2030. It’s part of meeting The Climate Pledge to be net-zero carbon by 2040.
“Just being a piece of the solution is very important to me,” she said, “and that’s why I do what I do.”
