Twist, she is also a bot created by amazon and this blew up as side effect. Ex machina !
I feel like im talking to the borg
271–280 of 387 posts
Re: I feel like im talking to the borg
#272Earlier quoted context omitted.
I had to delete Twitter from my phone - I found it would make me angry for no discernible reason, and I'm generally a pretty even-tempered person. Not healthy. Once you detach, you realize quickly that much of Twitter represents a tiny minority of loud, self-righteous people. When "Twitter explodes" in righteous indignation, I feel like the best move would simply be to ignore it and wait for everyone to move on.
Yeah, same. I actually found this with facebook as well. Since I quit both networks about a year ago I've been overall happier and have shifted that downtime to either just not using my phone or reading a book via kindle.
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Re: I feel like im talking to the borg
#273Can someone just summarize the thread? No desire to scroll through to figure out what the hubbub is about. Grammar is a mess, which makes it even harder to make heads or tails of it.
It's a conversation with Amazon "Fulfillment Center" ambassadors, who defend Amazon and say they're very happy. But their Twitter accounts don't follow anyone, they're corporate-branded, they all recite near-identical messages, and they're being paid to represent what it's like working for Amazon, and they "happen to like working for Amazon". The way they speak sounds very scripted and forced, a la The Borg.
Re: I feel like im talking to the borg
#274Earlier quoted context omitted.
Some bad companies: no big deal, no one's making you stay, leave if you don't like it. Some bad unions: all unions are awful and the solution is to not have unions.
If a company is bad you can just switch to another company, if a powerful union is bad you'd have to switch to another industry.
Or convince other employees in your workplace that that union is bad and decertify them (perhaps replacing them with a new union that you and your coworkers form, either independently or affiliated with a better parent union.)
Re: I feel like im talking to the borg
#275Earlier quoted context omitted.
I read the whole thread. I was commenting on twitter as a medium.
Any "medium" without strict moderation is a representation of society. You think twitter is toxic, but what is toxic actually - society, people.
Society has its own moderation for public discourse, ie laws, social norms, and accountability by virtue of being exposed in public to name a few. So no an unmoderated medium is not a representation of society or at least not an accurate one.
Re: I feel like im talking to the borg
#276Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is there anything preventing unions from growing huge and essentially dominating entire sectors in the US?
Yes, that's not how unions are structured by law in the US. Every union is shop-based and organized against a specific employer. They usually throw in with a larger union or an association, but not always. This is where the "Local 404" comes from -- the union itself is the local ###, aligned with the national federation. The union at Powell's Books, for example, is a retail union but they're connected to the ILWU, th…
> The cynic in me thinks, if unions were such a bad thing, why wouldn't the owners let them form, burn the employees, and decertify?
Because unions gets more powerful than any company and can leverage said power against both workers and employers.
Lets take SAG-AFTRA as an example, a union many here at HN says the software industry should mimic. Their contracts with their workers states that the workers are not allowed to work at non-union shops, and their contracts with shops states that they are not allowed to work with non-union workers. This means that you as a worker has to join the union if your workplace unionize no matter if you feel it benefits you or not, and as long as the union control most workers any larger workplace will be forced to join or they will lack workers.
Why would workers not just stop being in the union, since it costs $3k to join and 2% of your salary to stay? Because the entire workforce at a union shop has to quit at once, at the same time the shop has to decide that they are not a union shop any longer. Do you think that will happen? No, of course not, weeding out a union in such a situation is way harder than starting the union in the first place. And even if they organize, the union could organize a picket in return to harass the shop and its worker into compliance.
Edit: Also PR and propaganda could easily make workers believe the union is good for them even if it isn't, kinda like how poor whites think that Republicans are on their side.
Re: I feel like im talking to the borg
#277Re: I feel like im talking to the borg
#278The “ambassadors” are so bad it’s embarrassing. Which leads me to think they are not actually PR professionals (they would actually not talk in such a robotic way), but really low level employees that are paid extra to talk good on social media, and are repeating from some officially sanctioned book of “what you should and shouldn’t say” they don’t sound like Borg, they sound like McDonald’s cashiers, just doing thei…
I do believe they are actual fulfillment center employees like they say. What's astonishing to me is that Amazon thought this was actually a good idea.
Re: I feel like im talking to the borg
#279Earlier quoted context omitted.
They are assuming the German sector based model here.
Is there anything preventing unions from growing huge and essentially dominating entire sectors in the US?
> Is there anything preventing unions from growing huge and essentially dominating entire sectors in the US?
The structure of labor law makes it just as possible for workers with a particular employer or in a particular job class with an employer to decertify—and, if they wish, simultaneously replace—a union (or for a union local to dissociate from a parent organization) as it is to organize one in the first place, which doesn't prevent parent union organizations from getting large, but does limit the success of ones that, in doing so, fail to meet the needs of their members in particular workplaces.
Re: I feel like im talking to the borg
#280Earlier quoted context omitted.
Last Week Tonight isn't real news, it's comedy. Not to mention it's heavily biased. Also, it's not really that funny :p
So I post a video in response to someone using anecdotal evidence as a counterpoint to Amazon treating their workers poorly. Included in the video are testimonials from actual Amazon workers and your response is to dismiss the video because it's not real news, not funny and heavily biased. None of the things you listed have anything to do with the evidence presented. And now I see in your other response in this topic…
Honestly, I was just trying to be silly ;) But you don't really expect us to watch your 20 min video do you?
Obviously if folks have bad working conditions, I want them them to improve. But how are 'anecdotes' from people I personally know who work in Amazon FC's any different than 'testimonials' from people on TV. I know at least 2 people who work or have worked in these FC's and they never complained. They worked hard & collected their paychecks.
That doesn't mean this is everyone's experience, I'm sure many have been treated poorly. But it goes both ways, we can't assume because some were treated poorly that it is all FC workers experience.
I have never worked for Amazon, but I have worked for FedEx unloading trailers by hand. It was back breaking work. The things I hear these workers saying remind me of that job. We were expected to throw boxes nonstop until it was finished, and our boxes per minute thru-put was closely monitored & expected to be kept above a certain level.
That type of work is not for everyone, and the 6 months I worked there, I watched countless people try and fail at the job. It was too hard and they quit within days. So, I can imagine what the amazon workers go through.
I don't wish poor working conditions on these people, but I also imagine that some of this is getting blown out of proportion.