Would be interesting to see a comparison of Amazon's tactics and Walmart's. Traditionally Walmart has gotten a lot of bad press for its working conditions and its destruction of small businesses across the US. Amazon has thusfar had far less scrutiny.
Amazon locks down internal employee communications amid organizing efforts
31–40 of 158 posts
Re: Amazon locks down internal employee communications amid organizing efforts
#32Amazon is interesting because there is a rift in the company; on one side you have upper middle class engineers, and on the other working class warehouse labourers. It's easy to dismiss union organisation coming from the former side, but the real tragedy is the thousands of workers working in dangerous conditions. They won't get their union.
Yea this something I realized recently with the VP guy leaving. As a upper-middle elitist working engineering/ML/management how do you reconcile the cognitive dissonance? I have been considering a career changing and one of the things is studying for interviews at the FAANGS and I have trouble working for the "man" as it is and this whole affair is just turning me off more.
Re: Amazon locks down internal employee communications amid organizing efforts
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
Trump hates Bezos enough to try to shut USPS to get to him. I'm sure he'd love to get the double whammy of screwing over Bezos and a boost from working class voters in swing states.
If that's how he feels personally, his appointments to the National Labor Relations Board don't show it. And if it would take legislation, he'd never get it past Mitch McConnell.
Your first point aside, Republicans have been trying to privatize the USPS for decades (though it's definitely the case that many Democrats are in favor of this too for whatever reason). The White House has been actively rejecting the idea of providing aid to the USPS over the last month or two despite the fact that the situation has demolished their revenues.
I think it's at least quite plausible that the WH could try to do this since it aligns with their priorities, and that McConnell would be fine with it. The House, probably not.
Re: Amazon locks down internal employee communications amid organizing efforts
#34Why does anyone work there? What a nightmare.
>Why does anyone work there? What a nightmare. Money. Lots and lots of money. Amazon also operates at a scale unimaginable for most of us, which I imagine is enough of an interesting problem for some people to look past everything else.
Therein lies the problem. As the machine scales larger and larger, the cogs at the bottom have worse and worse conditions. Almost as if 'software is eating the world' is not the key to unlock Utopia, as techno-optimists would have you believe.
Re: Amazon locks down internal employee communications amid organizing efforts
#35Amazon is interesting because there is a rift in the company; on one side you have upper middle class engineers, and on the other working class warehouse labourers. It's easy to dismiss union organisation coming from the former side, but the real tragedy is the thousands of workers working in dangerous conditions. They won't get their union.
Why is it easy to dismiss HQ organizing? One of the biggest obstacles to warehouse workers organizing is the tacit acceptance of their mistreatment by those at HQ. Were that calculus to change, HQ employees organize in solidarity with them, I’m not sure how much execs could do to stop them.
Re: Amazon locks down internal employee communications amid organizing efforts
#36Why does anyone work there? What a nightmare.
If you figure out how to find an employer without issues, please let me know.
Pre-2008 Google was like that. I had the pleasure to work there at those times. We couldn't imagine how lucky we were to be able to work there. Sadly it changed a lot with the aggressive growth of number of employees compared to the slightly slower revenue growth.
Re: Amazon locks down internal employee communications amid organizing efforts
#37Why does anyone work there? What a nightmare.
They pay extremely well, don't they? And a huge number of people just don't care about these issues like you do.
They are on the lower end of big tech salaries. And the vast majority of their employees are warehouse workers, and they are paid very poorly.
Re: Amazon locks down internal employee communications amid organizing efforts
#38Why does anyone work there? What a nightmare.
It seems hard to find an ethical, large tech company. Amazon? Mistreats warehouse workers. Microsoft? Antitrust, baked-in telemetry. Facebook? Privacy, cambridge analytica. Capital One / credit card companies? Profiting off financial illiteracy / people in need. Apple? Anti-competitive app store practices. Google? Ban people with no visible justification or reasoning, no customer support, benefits off lack of privacy for ads. Oracle? Sleazy vendor lock-in. Comcast? Too many to list.
Re: Amazon locks down internal employee communications amid organizing efforts
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
They pay extremely well, don't they? And a huge number of people just don't care about these issues like you do.
They are on the lower end of big tech salaries. And the vast majority of their employees are warehouse workers, and they are paid very poorly.
> the lower end of big tech salaries
This is for most people a life-changing fortune.
Re: Amazon locks down internal employee communications amid organizing efforts
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
>Why does anyone work there? What a nightmare. Money. Lots and lots of money. Amazon also operates at a scale unimaginable for most of us, which I imagine is enough of an interesting problem for some people to look past everything else.
Therein lies the problem. As the machine scales larger and larger, the cogs at the bottom have worse and worse conditions. Almost as if 'software is eating the world' is not the key to unlock Utopia, as techno-optimists would have you believe.
I think technology certainly is a key to a more 'Utopian' (desirable) society. The underlying problem is how we leverage the technology.
If technology is simply used to displace and concentrate wealth and power through private ownership without adequately sharing the benefits of growth in technology with everyone (reduced labor, more free time to pursue personal goals, etc.) then yes, it absolutely isn't helping (basically the situation we have now).
Can a Star Trek like economy ever exist? I'd love to be apart of one, but it seems unlikely given many underlying human behaviors.