Amazon’s new warehouse in Baltimore includes a brand new perk for its employees — cages.
The web retail giant’s 30-foot, floor-to-ceiling outdoor cages allow warehouse workers to step outside for a smoke while eliminating the chance that products leave with them, The Baltimore Business Journal reports.
“I asked [project manager David Jennings] when I parked back there, ‘What the hell are these cages back here?'” a lending broker told the Journal Wednesday. “They don’t want inventory going back and forth on the outside, so they secured off in the back somewhere for people who need a smoke break.”
The project manager described Amazon’s security “as more stringent than airport screenings,” and the cages as a concession because the company “wants its employees to be happy,” according to the report.
Workers at Amazon order fulfillment centers have to be thoroughly screened before leaving, so much so that the time-consuming process has led to numerous lawsuits from employees demanding compensation for the extra time — one of which has made its way to the Supreme Court, according to The Huffington Post.