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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

#171

Post by ythn »

java_script wrote: post #96
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…

The future of work is shitty jobs like this, but a la Uber you "get your side-hustle on" AKA have no rights or security as an employee ever anywhere. e: Which, speaking of Marxism, this situation will keep you permanently alienated from your coworkers and will forever prevent community bonds from forming with them.

> AKA have no rights or security as an employee ever anywhere.

I get what you are saying, but somehow this attitude also rubs me the wrong way sometimes.

It's like "Hey, I'll pay anyone a nickle per piece of trash they pick up in the local forests"

Soon: "NiceNature is the worst company ever! They exploit their workers to pick up garbage without proper protection, the employees have no rights or securities and are forced to pee on trees because no bathrooms are provided! Worst of all, they aren't even paid a living wage! /u/ythn is the worst CEO ever, he gluts himself off of the labors of the socioeconomicly desperate!"

Like, all I really wanted was to fix a problem I saw with our local forests, not become a human trafficker...

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

#173

Post by nickthemagicman »

philbarr wrote: post #91
jrochkind1 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

wait, you're sure there are many industries, white and blue collar, where workers routinely pee in bottles as a job requirement? Really? In the U.S.? You're pretty sure about this, eh? Many industries? I'd be curious to hear an example of one industry where "white collar" workers routinely pee in bottles as a job requirement, official or unofficial.

My dev team are all forced to use the same bottle to save time. The one who tops it off and has to go off to empty it is docked pay.

Diapers baby!! It's a whole new world of productivity!!

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

#174

Post by saint_abroad »

It seems they don't allow warehouse workers "degraded mode" with "performance targets based on previous worker performance." If a storage array were rebuilding I think most engineers would cut it some slack.

Not meaning to be flippant but I guess the difference is that with stateless processing you get disposable machines. Reminds me of Moon (film).

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

#175

Post by m_fayer »

lr4444lr wrote: post #147
aylmao wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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. Is it though? Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't stock only generates value if it increases in price (or the company decides it wants to pay dividends), and not directly from the productivity of robots? To put it a bit more clearly, your stock only makes you money if Amazon keeps growing…

To put it a bit more clearly, your stock only makes you money if Amazon keeps growing No, I think you have it incorrect. As long as revenue > costs and internal expenditures, you make money by dividends. That's the whole reason we buy stocks. Price growth is ultimately just a projection of the belief in higher future dividends.

Many tech stocks pay very little in dividends or none at all, even if the company is quite profitable. In tech it's all about share price.

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

#177

Post by checkdigit15 »

> Another said: "The target grows every year."

Whenever I see examples of impossible-to-meet goals I'm reminded of reminded of this classic "I Love Lucy" bit [0] with the chocolates on the conveyor belt.

"Speeeed it up a little!"

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NPzLBSBzPI

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

#178

Post by progval »

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…

> I have Amazon stock in my 401k.

It's weird seeing someone writing this in a thread about how Amazon exploits its workers for profits (ie. in part for its shareholders).

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

#179

Post by decebalus1 »

losteric wrote: post #73
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…

FWIW: I think Amazon's stock vesting schedule for ICs is reasonable considering the sizable hiring bonus (iirc ~$20k for new graduates). Stock grants are intended to reflect an employee's ownership in the company, and rapidly increase with tenure. That said... Amazon is definitely not human-oriented. Leadership within established business units is brutally efficient, with far too much faith in their metric goals. Ask…

> I think Amazon's stock vesting schedule for ICs is reasonable considering the sizable hiring bonus (iirc ~$20k for new graduates)

One can get this bonus basically everywhere else in the area with similar sized companies. Hell, I got way more than that 8 years ago.

The vesting schedule is diabolical:

> 5% 1st yr, 15% 2nd yr, then 20% every 6 months

coupled with the turnover rate: http://www.slate.com/content/dam/slate/blogs/business_inside...

I can't imagine anyone rational and with reasonable technical skills thinking this is a good enough incentive to join the company.

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

#180

Post by toomuchtodo »

piracykills wrote: post #135
baby wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I don't think so, reading real statistics on this kind of thing instead of alarmist and politically slanted headlines paints a very different picture of how the world is doing. https://ourworldindata.org/extreme-poverty

As global average quality of life trends upward, the American lower and middle class are dying quietly in the streets.

https://www.drugabuse.gov/related-topics/trends-statistics/o...

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2017/12/21/5720803...

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