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Amazon warehouse workers 'peed in bottles' fearing punishment for taking breaks

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Re: Amazon warehouse workers 'peed in bottles' fearing punishment for taking breaks

#101

Post by jld »

aqme28 wrote: post #72
kelukelugames wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bezos. Jeff Bezos is the reason why Amazon treats workers they way they do. Compared to other tech giants, Amazon is incredibly anti-employee. Look at how their stocks vest. I worked at Microsoft during Balmer's reign. The founder/CEO's attitude dictates the work culture. And causes harm if it's bad. I live in Seattle and often hear this joke: Being an Amazon customer is the best. An investor is great. An employee no…

How does their stock vest?

It's backloaded. 5% of the stock grant vests in year 1, 15% in year 2, and then 40% on year 3 and 4.

The argument is that they have a demanding work culture which people want to leave after a year or two, but are then incentivized to stay to earn out the bulk of their grant, or alternatively that they promise huge grants knowing that many people will not get to the point where they are collecting the bulk of it.

Re: Amazon warehouse workers 'peed in bottles' fearing punishment for taking breaks

#102

Post by kmonsen »

j45 wrote: post #59
ghostbrainalpha wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know about that joke anymore. Being an Amazon customer used to be great, but the deliveries are bordering on ridiculously horrible now. I order something on Prime, then it doesn't show up when I expect it to, I get no notification of any delays, and then when I log in to see what's going on they have changed the original expected date so I can't even see what I was originally promised unless I took a screen s…

Deliveries are not done by Amazon where I live - it's usually 3rd party.

That doesn't really change anything. The customer interaction is with Amazon and they own it including paying for it either with Prime or directly.

Re: Amazon warehouse workers 'peed in bottles' fearing punishment for taking breaks

#103

Post by pacaro »

notheguyouthink wrote: post #2

Are Amazon's margins razor thin? I'm trying to understand what compels them to be so toxic in their work environment. Especially compared to the people I know who work at Costco, I struggle to understand why Costco treats employees so well, and Amazon treats their employees so poorly. It's really sad, regardless.

It’s worth recognizing also that the fulfillment part of the business has only one way to impact bottom line, by always cutting costs.

We often talk about the importance of working for a profit center not a cost center within a business. Amazon fulfillment is a great example of this.

Re: Amazon warehouse workers 'peed in bottles' fearing punishment for taking breaks

#105

Post by baby »

noonespecial wrote: post #87
TaylorAlexander wrote: post #47

My fear is that the future of work for most people is not unemployment, but shitty jobs like this. My feeling is that in order to avoid this and prosper, the people need to own the robots that do all the work (Marxism heyy). If robots provide huge productivity gains, then they will provide those gains for their owners. If it’s the big corporations that own them, they will see the gains. But as long as people are trea…

But I do already own some of the robots. I have Amazon stock in my 401k. That's what "the people owning the robots" looks like. What you're getting at is that there are many people right now who are too poor (and are going to be too poor) to ever own any part of the robots. This century's great debate is forming up to be whether or not we should give them some anyway even though they can't "earn" it for whatever movi…

In a few centuries students in history classes will look back and try to understand why we let our people die in the streets.

Re: Amazon warehouse workers 'peed in bottles' fearing punishment for taking breaks

#106

Post by JustSomeNobody »

Typical retail. You're given goals that continue to get higher and higher. Some places give you a handful of goals but the math doesn't work out so you can't ever reach them all simultaneously. This is by design so that they justify paltry raises and/or firings. The only way to play the system is to stay aligned with whatever your immediate report feels are the ones to focus on.

Re: Amazon warehouse workers 'peed in bottles' fearing punishment for taking breaks

#107

Post by isostatic »

j45 wrote: post #59
ghostbrainalpha wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know about that joke anymore. Being an Amazon customer used to be great, but the deliveries are bordering on ridiculously horrible now. I order something on Prime, then it doesn't show up when I expect it to, I get no notification of any delays, and then when I log in to see what's going on they have changed the original expected date so I can't even see what I was originally promised unless I took a screen s…

Deliveries are not done by Amazon where I live - it's usually 3rd party.

Those third parties likely owe pretty much their entire business to amazon. When a company can't exist without a specific client, is it really a third party?

Re: Amazon warehouse workers 'peed in bottles' fearing punishment for taking breaks

#108

Post by louisswiss »

atrexler wrote: post #23

Long-haul truckers have been doing this for decades for the same reason-- they don't have time to pull over and use the restroom-- and no one is upset about that. I'm sure there are many industries, white and blue collar, where similar norms are expressed. Edit to add: I'm not endorsing the practice in any industry at all, just pointing out that its not a unique problem to Amazon. My comment would have been better ph…

Are there no legally-mandated 'rest stops' for truckers in the US?

In Europe there are (quite strictly enforced) regulations in place to ensure truckers/HGV-drivers take a 30min break every few hours.

Re: Amazon warehouse workers 'peed in bottles' fearing punishment for taking breaks

#109

Post by lostapathy »

kevmo wrote: post #90
atrexler wrote: post #23

Long-haul truckers have been doing this for decades for the same reason-- they don't have time to pull over and use the restroom-- and no one is upset about that. I'm sure there are many industries, white and blue collar, where similar norms are expressed. Edit to add: I'm not endorsing the practice in any industry at all, just pointing out that its not a unique problem to Amazon. My comment would have been better ph…

My dad was a long-haul trucker for 20+ years. I did some hauls with him. I can confirm that peeing in bottles is the norm.

I don't think this is so normal anymore.

Now that electronic log books are mandatory, drivers have to take breaks and for the most part should be able to pee.

Re: Amazon warehouse workers 'peed in bottles' fearing punishment for taking breaks

#110

Post by mrfusion »

ghostbrainalpha wrote: post #54
kelukelugames wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bezos. Jeff Bezos is the reason why Amazon treats workers they way they do. Compared to other tech giants, Amazon is incredibly anti-employee. Look at how their stocks vest. I worked at Microsoft during Balmer's reign. The founder/CEO's attitude dictates the work culture. And causes harm if it's bad. I live in Seattle and often hear this joke: Being an Amazon customer is the best. An investor is great. An employee no…

I don't know about that joke anymore. Being an Amazon customer used to be great, but the deliveries are bordering on ridiculously horrible now. I order something on Prime, then it doesn't show up when I expect it to, I get no notification of any delays, and then when I log in to see what's going on they have changed the original expected date so I can't even see what I was originally promised unless I took a screen s…

My biggest peeve is that every time I go to reorder something the price has gone up another 10%.

I never hear other people complain about this though. I wonder if it’s not widespread?

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