UPDATE, 2019-stylez:
Wow. Something something hindsight, amiright? I don’t think most folks here in two-zero-nineteen would think Bezos cares much of anything for his employees. More than likely, the business reasons I hypothesize were “how can I extract maximum work from this husk of a human being, and what can I automate away from them?”
I'm already a huge fan of Amazon.com but Silicon Alley Insider's short piece on Amazon's CEO, Jeff Bezos, spending a week working in a warehouse with hourly employees made me even more comfortable with the business I give the online mega-store.
I'm sure there are significant business reasons behind the move, but I imagine it will have the added benefit of boosting morale. It's not often that we hear of executives directly participating in the low-level labor of their enterprises.