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I work in an Amazon warehouse in West Sacramento

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Re: I work in an Amazon warehouse in West Sacramento

#51

Post by komali2 »

ilaksh wrote: post #44
m0zg wrote: post #25

I (and people I directly worked with) have been interviewed a couple of times by what one would call "mainstream press". Once by a NY Times columnist and another time by TechCrunch. The resulting articles bore very little semblance to what we said, omitted crucial facts, and contained the kinds of exaggerations that neither I nor any of the people interviewed would ever make. I'm talking "breaking the laws of physics…

State propaganda is a key function of mainstream outlets like the New York Times. Same in all countries. People just grow up brainwashed into thinking that their country has made a break from history.

What makes you believe the new York Times works with the US government to publish stories that benefit the interests of the US government?

What mechanism do you believe the US government uses to reward the nytimes for publishing propaganda? Do they get a black money payment? Do they get not-jailed (as in China?)

Re: I work in an Amazon warehouse in West Sacramento

#52

Post by MuffinFlavored »

vharuck wrote: post #47

I like the author's take on warehouse work, probably because it squares with mine. I went to high school with almost entirely white peers, was going to college without having to take on any loans, and I got the warehouse job because my dad worked in the offices. I met people who lived in completely different environments and believed completely different things, and it was awesome. One thing I don't agree with: >If B…

Yes and no. I was once in a HR seminar where they welcomed you to the company. When the woman said "we get 19 days PTO a year", you'd be surprised how many people shot up and said "can we start taking them right now?"

Before they had even worked a day! PTO days are accurred by hours worked. For me, it's ~6 hours per 15 calendar days. You think you're entitled to PTO having worked 0 hours?...

Re: I work in an Amazon warehouse in West Sacramento

#53

Post by ibudiallo »

Last year, I was interviewed for a public radio show in Europe. There was nothing more exciting for me to be in the spotlight. A week later they ran the interview and it was eerie to hear myself say things I didn't remember saying.

I mean, I said it, but I didn't say it like that. At first I thought I was crazy and didn't remember the interview correctly. Luckily, I had recorded the whole session on my computer. I was not crazy.

The interviewers questions were rephrased, and my answers where edited to make them more dramatic.

I had received many calls from journalists, and many didn't run the story at all after I said I will only answer some parts Off the record.

Most often then not, the journalists already has a story when they come to you. All they need is a quote of you saying what they already wrote.

Re: I work in an Amazon warehouse in West Sacramento

#54

Post by blueboo »

seibelj wrote: post #48
blueboo wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

> Or it’s the kind of vile right-wing strawman-bestrewn ass-covering FUD typical of Quillete. This is the precise type of commentary that is extremely off-putting to me. I consider myself a critical reader and what you wrote is the type of argument I immediately dismiss.

“Don’t tell me what to think” mere moments after

> we need fair-minded and accurate reporting about the companies we patronize, not scaremongering polemics preaching a black-and-white gospel of tyranny and exploitation

...the author lectured us on why -all- the previous reportage should be unskeptically dismissed.

Context is so...inconvenient if you believe the literal truth is always found on the page.

I for one always believed knowing how something is spun and why is part of being a thoughtful reader.

Re: I work in an Amazon warehouse in West Sacramento

#55

Post by metalgearsolid »

For a second I thought nobody was going to stick up for the bajillion dollar mega corporation.

Every employer I've worked for has had: * Billions of dollars less money than Amazon * Better working conditions

Amazon doesn't need your voice. The workers who fear an extended bathroom break might get them fired do.

Re: I work in an Amazon warehouse in West Sacramento

#56

Post by jkaplowitz »

MuffinFlavored wrote: post #52
vharuck wrote: post #47

I like the author's take on warehouse work, probably because it squares with mine. I went to high school with almost entirely white peers, was going to college without having to take on any loans, and I got the warehouse job because my dad worked in the offices. I met people who lived in completely different environments and believed completely different things, and it was awesome. One thing I don't agree with: >If B…

Yes and no. I was once in a HR seminar where they welcomed you to the company. When the woman said "we get 19 days PTO a year", you'd be surprised how many people shot up and said "can we start taking them right now?" Before they had even worked a day! PTO days are accurred by hours worked. For me, it's ~6 hours per 15 calendar days. You think you're entitled to PTO having worked 0 hours?...

For vacation days, your point makes sense to me. For sick days, people don't get to choose when they get sick. Someone can just as easily get sick on day 1 or 2 of a job as on day 401 or 402.

Re: I work in an Amazon warehouse in West Sacramento

#57

Post by locallost »

the8472 wrote: post #29
locallost wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish this was the only report about Amazon's poor working conditions. But it's not true, is it?

No, the article has multiple arguments. One is reporting on extremely unusual things (working next to corpses), which hopefully don't happen in amazon facilities more regularly than in any other facility but due to amazon's size even a low probability of such a thing happening on any particular day means it's eventually going to happen in one of their facilities. Another is that the undercover reporters come from an…

But I commented on one argument, which is that it's basically a fluke. But for some reason I keep seeing streams of reports of many different flukes. Are they all unrelated?

So if that AMA reddit thread describes working conditions where people don't want to drink water because they don't have time to pee, is it unrelated to reports of warehouse workers defecating thrash cans or drivers peeing in bottles?

One common thread there is that workers seem to have pretty steep quotas that don't tolerate breaks of any kind. Is then the situation of working next to a corpse at Amazon really comparable to a similar unusual situation in Luxembourg?

Re: I work in an Amazon warehouse in West Sacramento

#58

Post by burlesona »

seraphsf wrote: post #12

I love this article. It’s so hard to find moderate voices, especially when algorithmic curation tends to surface outrage first. As the author puts it: “I don’t object to journalists writing about the trials and tribulations of Amazon employees. I only wish they would do so fairly. Just because a journalist has found an Amazon employee somewhere who got sprayed with bear repellant, that doesn’t mean Amazon employees s…

Why would we expect journalists to write fair articles? They’re in the infotainment business and need to sell clicks.

Reporting that working at a warehouse is “hard work but mostly okay,” is not going to advance that reporters career or help the publication make money. But finding a shocking and at least mostly true story, and ignoring whether or not it’s a 1% outlier, just might.

We shouldn’t be surprised by this. What we ought to do is ignore it.

I think the biggest problem is that most people want to be genuinely well-informed, won’t accept that this isn’t actually possible, and thus accept a lot of commercial infotainment because it provokes strong feelings, makes for good shared outrage dinner chats with “in the know” friends, and helps you imagine that you are well informed.

Re: I work in an Amazon warehouse in West Sacramento

#59

Post by throwawayjava »

MuffinFlavored wrote: post #52
vharuck wrote: post #47

I like the author's take on warehouse work, probably because it squares with mine. I went to high school with almost entirely white peers, was going to college without having to take on any loans, and I got the warehouse job because my dad worked in the offices. I met people who lived in completely different environments and believed completely different things, and it was awesome. One thing I don't agree with: >If B…

Yes and no. I was once in a HR seminar where they welcomed you to the company. When the woman said "we get 19 days PTO a year", you'd be surprised how many people shot up and said "can we start taking them right now?" Before they had even worked a day! PTO days are accurred by hours worked. For me, it's ~6 hours per 15 calendar days. You think you're entitled to PTO having worked 0 hours?...

Seriously?

That's the first/only question I ask about vacation policy because it's usually the only detail that isn't included in the first draft of the offer letter. Of course, I also ask before signing the contract.

PTO is a significant part of your total compensation. Not clarifying how accrual works is just irresponsible.

I honestly don't see how this is any different from asking about other time-based things, such as:

- whether your salary is paid every other week or at the end of the month.

- when your signing bonus is paid and how long you have to stay to keep it.

- when your stock units are granted and how long you have to stay to keep it.

- when the company's 401(k) contribution will hit your account.

All of which you should definitely be asking... and preferably before accepting the position.

Re: I work in an Amazon warehouse in West Sacramento

#60

Post by klenwell »

seibelj wrote: post #48
blueboo wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

> Or it’s the kind of vile right-wing strawman-bestrewn ass-covering FUD typical of Quillete. This is the precise type of commentary that is extremely off-putting to me. I consider myself a critical reader and what you wrote is the type of argument I immediately dismiss.

Then let me try. I concede the GP's tone is off-putting. I don't watch John Oliver regularly because I generally find him more entertaining than informative. Yet I still think this piece is largely disingenuous claptrap.

Kevin Mims is not a moderate voice. He's a unique voice. A white man "in my sixties" with bylines with NPR and the NY Times who works a second job at a small bookstore and still finds time to turn out well-written longish-form essays. This is not a balanced piece. It is a piece with a skillfully deployed pro-Amazon shareholder-friendly anti-organized-labor agenda.

As someone who is critical of Amazon and believes it does not pay its warehouse workers a living sustainable wage and works systematically in ways that make society a worse place on balance, I am not surprised by anything Mims writes. I expect most workers get through their shift without getting sprayed with bear repellant or getting physically injured. I expect a lot of Amazon's warehouse employees to be grateful for the work (largely because they're not empowered to expect or demand better). These should be table stakes for any employer, large or small.

How long has Mims worked for Amazon? He tells us:

> I’ve worked about 70 shifts since I started at Amazon, and I still wouldn’t presume to offer myself as an expert on the conditions of the entire workforce.

Between 3 and 4 months?

How much longer does he expect to work for Amazon? Why is he swallowing his "litany of gripes"? What happens to him when one of the injury he acknowledges as inevitable ("warehouses are hazardous environments and, somewhere today, an Amazon employee is likely to be injured") finally strikes him?

Finally, this article misses a critical dimension of this issue. It certainly matters how Amazon treats its employees, especially those with the least negotiating power. But it also matters how Amazon presses the levers of power that help the market and government set constraints on companies' ability to tyrannize and exploit its workforce. Amazon management works aggressively to cripple unions. It is a topic covered by professional journalists fairly writing about the trials and tribulations of Amazon employees.

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