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Brutal life working in Amazon warehouse

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Re: Brutal life working in Amazon warehouse

#51

Post by colechristensen »

token_throwaway wrote: post #42

This job sounds shitty but have you ever spoken to someone in a domestic role? A postal employee? A trucker? A janitor at your office building? Kitchen staff at a restaurant who do not even have time to take a piss without dropping the ball, let alone timed pee breaks? Lots of jobs are hard. Extremely hard. And often, jobs that are very very hard pay hardly anything. There is a two-way transaction happening here, tho…

This kind of logic lets you justify any behavior as long as there's a market involved somehow.

You're trying to give free agency to people who are very likely choosing between the only job they can find and starvation. That's not a free market, it's wage slavery. Low end employers can do anything they want as long as the alternative for enough of their candidates is starvation.

Re: Brutal life working in Amazon warehouse

#52

Post by madengr »

Asooka wrote: post #24
user5994461 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Treating their employees well is how Google/Microsoft/Facebook are built. It's easy for them, it's office workers who bring super high margins. The business is more valuable by treating people well. Businesses based on grunt work, like Amazon, can't do that. Their existence is based on infinite cheap labor, to execute as much grunt work as cheap as possible.

So why can Costco afford to treat their employees humanely?

Costco has few items compared to a typical big-box or grocery store. Most of the items are in bulk containers, positioned by fork lift, and cost $10+. They don't bag items after check out. The employees don't dawdle around; they are always hustling.

It's hard to get out of Costco without spending $100. They must have a large revenue/employee. They probably have $1k/min flowing out of the store; much more than Walmart.

Sams Club is dingy and poorly lit. It's a reflection of Walmart.

Re: Brutal life working in Amazon warehouse

#53

Post by jjeaff »

fpisfun wrote: post #49

When an Amazon warehouse opened in my area relatively recently it seemed that many people were scrambling like crazy to try to get a job there. These seemed to be people who are poorly educated and low skilled but clearly the Amazon job represented a step up for them. I'm not saying that there aren't issues but clearly working for Amazon is still a better alternative than their other options. I personally know of som…

It's the same for lots of low wage jobs. I know people that work at Walmart that I can't imagine being able to hold down a job anywhere else.

Re: Brutal life working in Amazon warehouse

#54

Post by threatofrain »

dopamean wrote: post #16

You know what would be awesome? If tech was used to not just "revolutionize" how consumers get their products but also how employees were treated at these companies. So often it seems lately that tech giants are built in a super old fashioned way: on the backs of cheap labor.

Is tech supposed to just "solve" political consensus? Like blow bast it like Napoleon or something? At the end of the day, I fear that people sincerely and durably disagree on these matters, meaning that political deadlock is the legitimate outcome.

Tech makes it easy for people to share snappy political prose on Facebook, but what about the non-tech skill of human conversation? Are people any good at talking to each other on political matters?

Re: Brutal life working in Amazon warehouse

#55

Post by strgrd »

token_throwaway wrote: post #42

This job sounds shitty but have you ever spoken to someone in a domestic role? A postal employee? A trucker? A janitor at your office building? Kitchen staff at a restaurant who do not even have time to take a piss without dropping the ball, let alone timed pee breaks? Lots of jobs are hard. Extremely hard. And often, jobs that are very very hard pay hardly anything. There is a two-way transaction happening here, tho…

> Open HN comment section on an article about labor conditions

> Top comment, find a better job

> Every time

Re: Brutal life working in Amazon warehouse

#56

Post by FC_Associate »

I’m currently working at one of the largest Amazon delivery stations in the US and seeing as there probably aren’t too many low level FC associates hanging out around these parts I’d be happy to answer any questions anyone might have.

Keep in mind that I’m at a delivery station, this is a huge warehouse where we receive packages and sort them for delivery, and not one of the warehouses were products are packaged for shipment. Also, I just ended my night shift so I might fall asleep but I’ll be happy to return later to answer any questions.

Edit: I should add that I really enjoy working here but when I was first hired I was unemployed and homeless, and I’m currently semi-homeless, so I probably have an overly positive outlook on working here. I’ll try and not paint too rosy a picture though.

Re: Brutal life working in Amazon warehouse

#57

Post by mriguy »

zemo wrote: post #48
token_throwaway wrote: post #42

This job sounds shitty but have you ever spoken to someone in a domestic role? A postal employee? A trucker? A janitor at your office building? Kitchen staff at a restaurant who do not even have time to take a piss without dropping the ball, let alone timed pee breaks? Lots of jobs are hard. Extremely hard. And often, jobs that are very very hard pay hardly anything. There is a two-way transaction happening here, tho…

this is extremely, extremely tone-deaf. > As long as people are willing to do this job for this amount of money, it will probably not get better unfortunately. child labor didn't stop because parents stopped being willing to sentence their kids to labor, it stopped because of laws. The free market does nothing to guarantee that working conditions are livable or humane. Any suggestion to the contrary is at best naive,…

You are right about the laws influencing child labor, however they are not a sufficient condition. There also needs to be a corresponding increase in returns to child education over and above returns from labor in order for child labor to vanish. For example: India has very strong laws, however child labor still exists.

Re: Brutal life working in Amazon warehouse

#58

Post by jjeaff »

Apocryphon wrote: post #37
user5994461 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Warehouses were always terrible, borderline cruel at some places. Amazon didn't invent them.

I thought labor conditions at Costco were supposed to be pretty good.

Costco is not a warehouse job. It's a fancy, high end grocery store made to look like a warehouse.

Re: Brutal life working in Amazon warehouse

#60

Post by gwright »

Asooka wrote: post #47
token_throwaway wrote: post #42

This job sounds shitty but have you ever spoken to someone in a domestic role? A postal employee? A trucker? A janitor at your office building? Kitchen staff at a restaurant who do not even have time to take a piss without dropping the ball, let alone timed pee breaks? Lots of jobs are hard. Extremely hard. And often, jobs that are very very hard pay hardly anything. There is a two-way transaction happening here, tho…

It's not about being willing, people literally have no choice. It's either starve and be homeless or work this really shitty job. We should regulate the industry so our economy doesn't have to run on brutal human misery. If that means Amazon can't deliver your package in 8 hours, but rather in 2 days, then so be it. Human life comes before profits.

From a public policy standpoint, I'd rather provide some assistance to people working part-time or for low wages than to provide 100% assistance to someone who is entirely unemployed.

Unfortunately many attempts to regulate the workplace result in fewer jobs and thus more people who need 100% support. One example of this is the effort to raise the minimum wage which, not surprising at all, has resulted in more incentive to eliminate or automate low-end jobs. Advocates for a $15 minimum in the fast food industry, for example, should be prepared for a net reduction in jobs in that industry as automation is rolled out or business models are modified to adjust to the higher labor costs.

I'm not saying that all labor regulations are bad but I am saying that the second-order effects of many regulations can make the overall labor situation worse.

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