I work in an Amazon warehouse in West Sacramento • Hacker News Board

Re: I work in an Amazon warehouse in West Sacramento

#221

Post by newshorts » Sun, Jul 21, 2019, 5:30 AM UTC

WalterBright wrote: post #113

jkaplowitz wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I once talked to a manager about how he handed out raises. He mentioned one engineer who was sick exactly 10 days out of each year. Coincidentally, the company offered 10 days of paid sick leave a year. He laughed, and said she wasn't fooling anyone, and didn't give her a raise.

Sounds like a horrible manager.

Re: I work in an Amazon warehouse in West Sacramento

#222

Post by buro9 » Sun, Jul 21, 2019, 5:44 AM UTC

WalterBright wrote: post #113

jkaplowitz wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I once talked to a manager about how he handed out raises. He mentioned one engineer who was sick exactly 10 days out of each year. Coincidentally, the company offered 10 days of paid sick leave a year. He laughed, and said she wasn't fooling anyone, and didn't give her a raise.

Wow.

A male manager denies a raise to a female engineer on the basis that the female engineer takes 10 sick days per year that their contract says they are entitled to.

Why is it important to emphasise sex in this? Periods.

The experience is different for each person but the fact that they didn't feel able to take 12 may itself be a problem. And even 10 would only allow the taking of a single day each month during the worst symptoms. Whilst at the same time leaving yourself with no days were you to get a cold later in the year.

Re: I work in an Amazon warehouse in West Sacramento

#223

Post by apexkid » Sun, Jul 21, 2019, 5:50 AM UTC

I for one cannot buy the fact that this article is authentically written by a worker in Amazon warehouse. Seems like a shadowed approach from a different segment of media to just do cleanup or take a shot on Oliver's program.

Re: I work in an Amazon warehouse in West Sacramento

#224

Post by wideasleep1 » Sun, Jul 21, 2019, 6:28 AM UTC

bhl wrote: post #31

Note that the publishing title of the article is “Tourist Journalism Versus the Working Class”, which should be an indication of the author’s bias. The story initially begins with comparing the personal, working experience of the author with what he has seen depicted in the media. I thought it was compelling, even if the author worked in a “sortation warehouse” instead of the “fulfillment center” frequently covered,…

"I don’t know what to think." I believe the author's point was that John Oliver's agenda doesn't match his own personal experience (his own 'agenda', which you now question), so dissonance comes down to who's agenda seems more genuine, who benefits most, who has more to lose, who has more to gain.

Re: I work in an Amazon warehouse in West Sacramento

#225

Post by YZF » Sun, Jul 21, 2019, 6:30 AM UTC

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?...

What if you need to take some time off? Your brother is getting married? Or you just haven't had a vacation in a while? You take your PTO now, and you don't take it later. If you leave the company before that PTO accrued it's taken off your salary.

Yes! you can take vacation before it's accrued in any normal workplace.

Re: I work in an Amazon warehouse in West Sacramento

#226

Post by wideasleep1 » Sun, Jul 21, 2019, 6:42 AM UTC

apexkid wrote: post #223

I for one cannot buy the fact that this article is authentically written by a worker in Amazon warehouse. Seems like a shadowed approach from a different segment of media to just do cleanup or take a shot on Oliver's program.

So, you think this article is some shill..to what end? Just a potshot at John Oliver? Who is this 'shadow' you perceive?

Re: I work in an Amazon warehouse in West Sacramento

#227

Post by rainyMammoth » Sun, Jul 21, 2019, 6:57 AM UTC

The issue is that John Oliver whole business is to try to make humorist exaggerated content look like real life facts.

Every other week there is a John Oliver monologue that gets hyped and it seems that no one looks at it with a critical eye.

John Oliver is to the left what Fox News is to the right.

Re: I work in an Amazon warehouse in West Sacramento

#228

Post by rainyMammoth » Sun, Jul 21, 2019, 7:00 AM UTC

ibudiallo wrote: post #53

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 wa…

I remember the day I realized that most of "journalism" is basically a narrative confirmation machine.

each newspaper or media got a well defined narrative and they make the facts look like the narrative by using the "omission" technique: Basically removing the inconvenient facts and publishing the edited facts that fit their world view.

Re: I work in an Amazon warehouse in West Sacramento

#229

Post by SamReidHughes » Sun, Jul 21, 2019, 7:05 AM UTC

kranner wrote: post #180

WalterBright wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My father once told me that honor is what separates men from animals, and honor is what you do when nobody is looking. We all get to choose who we are. I was also fortunate to attend a university with an honor system, to the extent that exams weren't even allowed to be proctored. Whether you cheated or not was up to you, nobody would know. I appreciated that system, and have tried to live it long after graduation. I…

The honor system should extend to trusting employee's assessment of them being sick enough not to be able to work. No, we don't all get to choose who we are. People don't choose to have depression, or >

Not when they get sick every year the last week of December.

Re: I work in an Amazon warehouse in West Sacramento

#230

Post by rainyMammoth » Sun, Jul 21, 2019, 7:08 AM UTC

nameismypw wrote: post #192

It doesn't seem appropriate to discuss a Quillette article without mentioning that it's an alt-right publication. We must not normalize it, and I strongly encourage people to flag the submission. A preliminary search will turn up plenty of reprehensible authors and plenty more reprehensible articles. Posts like these are low-key attempts for Quillette to legitimatize itself.

Quillette is not an alt-right publication. It probably doesn't feed easily into your liberal world-view narrative, but they are the other side of the spectrum of publications like the NYT and it is more needed now than ever.