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Are dark kitchens the satanic mills of our era?

theguardian.com

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Re: Are dark kitchens the satanic mills of our era?

#11

Post by Joeri »

rsync wrote: post #3

A portion of the article speaks of an Amazon fulfillment center: “The top floor on which I worked was a gloomy place, with the only natural light coming in through small rectangular windows located far above on the high ceiling,” he writes. “Most of the light was provided by grey steel lamps the shape of rugby balls and about the same size. These were dotted about the ceilings on every floor and cast a peculiar yello…

I find this very odd. Decent lighting is so cheap that even minute increases in efficiency would be worth it. You'd expect all of those warehouses to be bathed in crisp blueish white light to keep people alert and avoid costly mistakes. Maybe amazon isn't as efficient as they're cracked up to be.

Re: Are dark kitchens the satanic mills of our era?

#13

Post by crooked-v »

Joeri wrote: post #11
rsync wrote: post #3

A portion of the article speaks of an Amazon fulfillment center: “The top floor on which I worked was a gloomy place, with the only natural light coming in through small rectangular windows located far above on the high ceiling,” he writes. “Most of the light was provided by grey steel lamps the shape of rugby balls and about the same size. These were dotted about the ceilings on every floor and cast a peculiar yello…

I find this very odd. Decent lighting is so cheap that even minute increases in efficiency would be worth it. You'd expect all of those warehouses to be bathed in crisp blueish white light to keep people alert and avoid costly mistakes. Maybe amazon isn't as efficient as they're cracked up to be.

Bright blueish light is also what I'd expect for that kind of thing, since it's such a simple way to keep people more alert when they're physically tired.

Re: Are dark kitchens the satanic mills of our era?

#14

Post by rpcastagna »

NeedMoreTea wrote: post #9
rsync wrote: post #3

A portion of the article speaks of an Amazon fulfillment center: “The top floor on which I worked was a gloomy place, with the only natural light coming in through small rectangular windows located far above on the high ceiling,” he writes. “Most of the light was provided by grey steel lamps the shape of rugby balls and about the same size. These were dotted about the ceilings on every floor and cast a peculiar yello…

Me. The many warehouses and such I have been to, though not Amazon, and perhaps smaller than an Amazon building, have been lit with artificial daylight levels of brightness. Hard to be sure but it sounds like it's describing sodium lights. I would expect fluorescent tubes, floodlights, or LED equivalents. Even the damn lorry bays and car parks outside such things are usually spitting out far too much light. The one t…

+1000. Working in the warehouse at the bottom of a hospital would get weird sometimes because you had absolutely no indication what time of day it was -- working third shift could feel like the middle of the day since it was always so well lit.

In my experience, good lighting is pretty much the only thing you're guaranteed at various warehouses. Heating huge spaces effectively is basically impossible, rugs and other "soft" surfaces are out since they just wear down too quickly, equipment will be used continuously until it's simply unsafe... but you need good lighting to know what you're doing and keep yourself out of harm's way. As noted, even the parking lots and immediate exteriors will be very well lit as a physical security measure.

Bad lighting is the exact kind of thing people complain about when maligning "hot shots who think they know everything" and all those etceteras. It ends up being penny wise and dollar stupid when you factor in both logistical mistakes and pay outs to worker's comp when people injure themselves on the job. The equivalent in programming would be making all your developers use laptops from 12 years ago running Windows XP because you know someone who got you a really good deal.

Re: Are dark kitchens the satanic mills of our era?

#15

Post by clydesdale »

rsync wrote: post #3

A portion of the article speaks of an Amazon fulfillment center: “The top floor on which I worked was a gloomy place, with the only natural light coming in through small rectangular windows located far above on the high ceiling,” he writes. “Most of the light was provided by grey steel lamps the shape of rugby balls and about the same size. These were dotted about the ceilings on every floor and cast a peculiar yello…

  *Who wouldn't* imagine something like this?
I think the point is that, if you click through a checkout funnel, you should try to keep at the front of your mind, a musty, industrially lit concrete warehouse, and not the graphical elements presented to you within the DOM of an HTML page.

The quote attempts to paint a gloomy picture, but honestly, I don't conceptualize anything more terrible than a Home Depot. As a geek, I've loitered in the unfinished environs of warehouses for longer than might be considered practical, and never found it to be torture precisely. But, you know, some people get really uptight about uncarpeted indoor expanses that don't have windows with fashionable dressings to draw closed.

Not sure what it is about planned interior decor, versus unfinished construction. Some people tend toward comparisons of urban blight, versus parks and recreation.

I will say this, though. Fuck open office floor plans, for entirely different reasons.

Re: Are dark kitchens the satanic mills of our era?

#17

Post by koliber »

Business has always been about putting on a pretty front at the retail side that faces the customer, while squeezing the back end for efficiency.

In traditional restaurants, there is an often repeated quote: if you like a restaurant, don't look in the kitchen.

A retail store will often have pretty displays while the conditions in the warehouse are more, hmmm, pragmatic.

Nowadays, we find that the retail interaction consists of a web app or mobile app for purchasing, and a delivery man for receiving of an order.

Customers will be ignorant of the backend. Rarely are people really aware what is necessary to enable them to buy the things they buy.

There is nothing surprising that there is a discrepancy between the customer-facing side and the behind-the-scenes operation. What is important is to treat employees as people, regardless of whether they work in a stock room 10 feet behind the display, or 1000 miles away in a order fulfillment center.

Re: Are dark kitchens the satanic mills of our era?

#18

Post by cannonedhamster »

rpcastagna wrote: post #14
NeedMoreTea wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Me. The many warehouses and such I have been to, though not Amazon, and perhaps smaller than an Amazon building, have been lit with artificial daylight levels of brightness. Hard to be sure but it sounds like it's describing sodium lights. I would expect fluorescent tubes, floodlights, or LED equivalents. Even the damn lorry bays and car parks outside such things are usually spitting out far too much light. The one t…

+1000. Working in the warehouse at the bottom of a hospital would get weird sometimes because you had absolutely no indication what time of day it was -- working third shift could feel like the middle of the day since it was always so well lit. In my experience, good lighting is pretty much the only thing you're guaranteed at various warehouses. Heating huge spaces effectively is basically impossible, rugs and other…

I know building systems that still run on Windows 98 because the upgraded software license costs too much. When the computer isn't able to boot for whatever reason, the building loses all heat or cooling control. They've lost days of work for hundreds of people (who they don't pay for that lost time) because they refuse to upgrade the software to the current version.
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