Amazon's fulfillment centers have been a focus of scrutiny in recent months. AP/Scott Sady 
 
 Amazon is trying harder than ever to combat its growing negative image. 
 
 The company now has a small army of "FC Ambassadors" saying nice things about the company online and engaging in dialogue with average Twitter users. The ambassadors are full-time employees, according to an Amazon spokesperson, and it is their job to share their experiences working at a fulfillment center. 
 
 A quick search on Twitter reveals about 13 such employee accounts, and they seem to be uniform in both their online presence and talking points. 
 
 They routinely engage with tweets from low-profile users discussing a few subjects that portray Amazon in a negative light: pay for warehouse jobs, employee bathroom breaks (#IgowhenIneedto, as Twitter user @AmazonFCCarol tweets), and the temperature of warehouses. 
 
 The ambassadors also seem to back each other up when they face criticism or pushback from users who call them bots. 
 
 In a statement to Business Insider, Amazon said that the FC Ambassadors are all Amazon employees who have worked in warehouses. 
 
 "The most important thing is that they've been here long enough to honestly share the facts based on personal experience," an Amazon spokesperson told Business Insider. "It's important that we do a good job of educating people about the actual environment inside our fulfillment centers, and the FC Ambassador program is a big part of that along with the fulfilment center tours we provide." 
 
 They all seem to be one- to two-year veterans of the company's warehouses, though their daily role has changed since becoming a part of this new program. They continue to get paid as if they were regular warehouse workers, the spokesperson said. 
 
 This kind of coordinated pushback, targeting specific criticisms, shows that Amazon is taking steps to improve its reputation. 
 
 The company has been a frequent target of those on the left, including high-profile figures such as Sen. Bernie Sanders, who see Amazon's growth as abuses of capitalism. 
 
 Sanders' tweets frequently portray Amazon as the biggest villain of capitalism, and they often refer to the company's founder and CEO, Jeff Bezos, who as the richest man in the world has been criticized for giving relatively little away in the name of philanthropy. A frequent theme is Bezos' extreme wealth compared to the relatively little that Amazon's lowest-paid workers make. 
 
 "While Jeff Bezos' wealth has increased $260 million every single day this year, he continues to pay many Amazon employees wages so low that they're forced to depend on taxpayer-funded programs such as food stamps, Medicaid and public housing to survive," Sanders tweeted on Friday. 
 
 Amazon's new Twitter ambassadors often end up engaging with users in Sanders' Twitter threads, most of whom agree with the senator's sentiment. 
 
 Many on Twitter said they would boycott shopping on Amazon's Prime Day in July due to reports about poor working conditions inside Amazon's warehouses and a concurrent strike from workers in Spain. 
 
 Amazon has defended its working conditions. 
 
 "Amazon is proud to have created over 130,000 new jobs in the last year alone. These are good jobs with highly competitive pay and full benefits. One of the reasons we've been able to attract so many people to join us is that our number one priority is to ensure a positive and safe working environment," Amazon said in a statement to Business Insider in July. 
 
 Amazon has also been criticized, fairly or not, for seeking tax breaks for its second headquarters project, HQ2, and for making business conditions difficult for small retailers. ||||| Here is a strange little online community to puzzle at. Amazon has developed an unnerving, Stepford-like presence on Twitter in the form of several accounts of definitely real on-the-floor workers who regurgitate talking points and assure the world that all is right in the company’s infamously punishing warehouse jobs. 
 
 After Flamboyant Shoes Guy called out the phenomenon, I found 15 accounts (please don’t abuse them — they get enough of that already). All with “Amazon smiles” as their backgrounds and several with animals as profile pictures. All have the same bio structure: “(Job titles) @(warehouse shorthand location). (Duration) Amazonian. (2- or 3-item list of things they like.)” All have “FC Ambassador📦” in their name. All have links to an Amazon warehouse tour service. 
 
 And all ceaselessly communicate upbeat messages about how great it is to work at an Amazon warehouse and assuring everyone that they are not being forced to do this. The messages all seem cut from the same cloth, frequently along the same exact patterns: 
 
 Hello! I work in an Amazon FC in WA and our wages and benefits are very good. Amazon pays FC employess ~30% more than traditional retail stores and offers full medical benefits from day 1. Working conditions are very good- clean/well lit- Safety is a top priority at my facility! — Phil – Amazon FC Ambassador 📦 (@AmazonFCPhil) August 17, 2018 
 
 Did you know that Amazon pays warehouse workers 30% more than other retailers? I feel proud to work for Amazon – they've taken good care of me. Much better than some of my previous employers. — Shaye – Amazon FC Ambassador 📦 (@AmazonFCShaye) August 21, 2018 
 
 On the contrary, we Amazon employees get paid very well. 
 
 In fact Amazon pays fulfillment center employees ~30% more than traditional retail stores. On top of that we also get full health benefits that includes dental & vision! I almost forgot to mention…we also get stocks! 💰 — Jeremy – Amazon FC Ambassador 📦 (@AmazonFCJeremy) August 18, 2018 
 
 The workers say that they don’t receive compensation for being ambassadors; it’s a “totally optional role” they have taken on voluntarily (Update: it’s a bit more complicated than that — see below). They also claim to be warehouse employees in the ordinary sense. If so, they’re putting their numbers at risk by taking the time out to bang out long tweets hourly on how great they’re doing. 
 
 Their most frequent topics of conversation are how they get bathroom breaks, the pleasant temperature of the warehouses, the excellent benefits and suitable wages, friendly management and how the job isn’t monotonous or tiring at all. FC Ambassador Carol, for example, is downright elated to be a picker, and is clearly a Bezos admirer. 
 
 I love "couch shopping!" It's ALMOST as much fun as being here at work in the FC. As a picker, we get to see all the unique things people purchase. It keeps the night interesting, waiting to see what is going to come across my screen next. — Carol – Amazon FC Ambassador 📦 (@AmazonFCCarol) August 23, 2018 
 
 Amazon has really developed into something pretty amazing since it's start in 1994. And I, for one, am sure glad it did. I have been with the co just over a year, now and wouldn't trade my time in the FC for anything. — Carol – Amazon FC Ambassador 📦 (@AmazonFCCarol) August 23, 2018 
 
 I can safely say that none of MY ideas have panned out anywhere near what Jeff Bezos has accomplished. I am more than happy, though, to continue working here, at BFI4, in WA. I receive a (more than fair) wage and work with some really good people. Making history, every day. — Carol – Amazon FC Ambassador 📦 (@AmazonFCCarol) August 23, 2018 
 
 You can practically hear the smile on her face. 
 
 I have a friend who worked as a picker for a while, admittedly some years back. He said it was some of the most mind-numbing yet physically demanding work he’s ever done. I understand that some folks may just be happy to have a job with full pay and benefits — I’d never begrudge anyone that — but the unanimous and highly stilted positivity on display in these ambassador accounts really seems like something else. 
 
 It’s no secret, after all, that Amazon has an image problem when it comes to labor. Reports have for years described grueling labor at these “fulfillment centers,” where footsore workers must meet ever-increasing daily goals, their time rigidly structured and room for advancement cramped. Just recently Gizmodo’s Brian Menegus has had a couple of great stories on current — not past — labor conditions at the company, and of course there have been dozens of such stories detailing exploitation or generally poor conditions over the last few years. And not just here in the U.S., either. 
 
 Certainly Amazon may have improved those conditions. And certainly they would want to get the message out. But these accounts are equally certainly not the grassroots advocacy they seem to be. (There’s already a parody account, naturally, or perhaps one of the ambassadors slipped the leash.) 
 
 I’ve asked Amazon for more details on what this program really consists of, and how it comes to pass that warehouse workers are being not paid to monitor Twitter, regularly rebutting critics with clearly canned stats and the kind of forced humor one would imagine they would indulge in if their overalls hid a shock collar. I’ll update this post if I hear back. 
 
 Update: Amazon says these “FC ambassadors are employees who have experience working in our fulfilment centers. It’s important that we do a good job of educating people about the actual environment inside our fulfillment centers, and the FC ambassador program is a big part of that along with the fulfilment center tours we provide.” 
 
 The program just started a couple weeks back; there are apparently 14 total, not 15 — either I can’t count or I mistook an inactive or fake one for the real thing. Several have also disappeared from the original collection since last night. 
 
 An actual former ambassador and three year Florida warehouse veteran Chris Grantham explained it in more detail to Yahoo Finance’s Krystal Hu, who shared the information with TechCrunch: 
 
 When I was there they just got an extra paid day off and a gift card after Peak [pre-holiday season]. This is what I got. A paid day off (that expired in 3 weeks lol) and a $50 Amazon gift card. Plus, they gave us lunch. Coldcuts and sandwich bread. I absolutely did not get paid more to train people. Ambassador isn’t a ‘job’ you do every day, its just something you are trained to do. You go to a 4 hour class and they teach you how to teach others to tie a knot using a set of instructions. This is how new hires a supposed to be taught. You are supposed to teach them right from a script using a set protocol. Becoming an ambassador was a way to get out of loading trucks, or packing boxes for 10 to 12 hrs. You may ambassador 1 day then unload trucks for the next 3. I stopped doing it after the first year I was there because it didn’t pay more. It’s voluntary. Your manager picks them. Generally speaking ambassadors are the “kiss asses” of the department. 
 
 In case it isn’t obvious, Chris is no longer at Amazon and is happy to speak his mind. Thanks for helping us clear this up, Chris.
– Amazon has endured less-than-glowing reports of what it's like to work at one of its warehouses. Enter the company's new "FC Ambassador" program: A number of Amazon fulfillment center employees have been put to work tweeting about how great it actually is to work at an Amazon fulfillment center, Business Insider reports. This Twitter user first pointed out the phenomenon last week, and TechCrunch followed up on it. Both speculated that the accounts tweeting cheery reports of working for Amazon were bot accounts—they all had the same "Amazon smile" as their background image, they all had "Amazon FC Ambassador" in their account name, and their bios were all structured identically, not to mention the fact that they were all tweeting things like "Did you know that Amazon pays warehouse workers 30% more than other retailers?" But Amazon assures Business Insider the accounts are all run by real employees; BI pegs them as one- to two-year veterans of the company's warehouses who are now paid the same amount as other warehouse workers but whose full-time job is finding negative tweets about Amazon warehouse work and countering them. "The most important thing is that they've been here long enough to honestly share the facts based on personal experience," an Amazon spokesperson says. "It's important that we do a good job of educating people about the actual environment inside our fulfillment centers, and the FC Ambassador program is a big part of that along with the fulfilment center tours we provide." There are apparently 14 such ambassadors, and in addition to tweeting about compensation, they also tackle such topics as the temperature inside the warehouses and bathroom breaks—spawning the hashtag #IGoWhenINeedTo.