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Amazon Is Forcing Its Warehouse Workers into Brutal 'Megacycle' Shifts

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Re: Amazon Is Forcing Its Warehouse Workers into Brutal 'Megacycle' Shifts

#81

Post by plandis »

khalilravanna wrote: post #56

From the article it sounds like the spirit behind this decision is to better serve the customer by hitting fast delivery times more. Is this really such an important thing for people? I for one would rather wait an extra day if it meant there weren’t countless workers having their schedules destroyed. I’d be interested to see the percentage of people complaining about slow delivery times vs the percentage of people w…

> Is this really such an important thing for people?

Yes. Ideally, I’d buy things and get them instantly but to my knowledge nobody has created a teleporter for general goods.

Re: Amazon Is Forcing Its Warehouse Workers into Brutal 'Megacycle' Shifts

#82

Post by dominotw »

Dma54rhs wrote: post #79
dominotw wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

my current job is 3*10. That won't be allowed in germany ?

Pretty sure it would be, just have to pay more for the extra hours. I'm not a German but it would be surprising if it's any different than the rest of the EU countries.

oh. My employer is giving me flexible schedule as a perk to me . Would be hard to convince them to pay extra on top of it. They might just ask me to work regular hours.

Re: Amazon Is Forcing Its Warehouse Workers into Brutal 'Megacycle' Shifts

#83

Post by ThePadawan »

khalilravanna wrote: post #56

From the article it sounds like the spirit behind this decision is to better serve the customer by hitting fast delivery times more. Is this really such an important thing for people? I for one would rather wait an extra day if it meant there weren’t countless workers having their schedules destroyed. I’d be interested to see the percentage of people complaining about slow delivery times vs the percentage of people w…

> I for one would rather wait an extra day if it meant there weren’t countless workers having their schedules destroyed.

Same, but it's at the discretion of the companies if they over that.

In Switzerland and the UK, there is the concept of "second class mail". Generally letters, but also (some) packages.

They come at a slower delivery guarantee (2-3 days instead of 1), but a ~20% discount.

But shopping online doesn't seem to be headed that way. Hell, the last time I bought something online, the cheapest (free), slowest, and only delivery option was "express". How messed up is that!

Re: Amazon Is Forcing Its Warehouse Workers into Brutal 'Megacycle' Shifts

#84

Post by ku-man »

yunohn wrote: post #17
sthnblllII wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thats not an accident. Offshoring and immigration have killed the ability of labor to walk when given terrible choices like this.

> Offshoring and immigration That is a straw man. Instead, corporates need to be forced to follow labor laws and respect human rights.

[dead]

Re: Amazon Is Forcing Its Warehouse Workers into Brutal 'Megacycle' Shifts

#85

Post by tomcam »

dusyshhhdudu wrote: post #80
FrozenVoid wrote: post #22

US is reverting to early 20th century labor market norms, thanks to 'gig' economy and megacorps subverting unions. https://edition.cnn.com/2021/01/22/tech/amazon-nlrb-union-el... Only thing missing is union-busting Pinkerton thugs... https://www.npr.org/2020/11/30/940196997/amazon-reportedly-h...

As a gig worker I hope it stays, gig work has been a massive quality of life improvement for me. I think if the unions want to compete with us that's fine but the state shouldn't get to pick the winner.

I would love to hear more from you about this. It’s different from my intuition even though I too work for myself.

Re: Amazon Is Forcing Its Warehouse Workers into Brutal 'Megacycle' Shifts

#86

Post by ceilingcorner »

bryanlarsen wrote: post #55
ceilingcorner wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not agreeing or disagreeing with this take, but it's not an uncommon one and shouldn't be so downvoted. Bernie Sanders himself was singing a similar tune for most of the last 20 years. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/03/16/years-ber...

Popular bad ideas should be down-voted much more liberally than unpopular bad ideas.

Not a fan of downvoting in general. Bad ideas should be engaged and shown to be wrong, not shouted down by a mob.

Re: Amazon Is Forcing Its Warehouse Workers into Brutal 'Megacycle' Shifts

#87

Post by wesapien »

mey wrote: post #27
random5634 wrote: post #21

I actually left an early job because it didn't offer a 4x10. 4x10 is amazing. Your work days are your work days, but the extra day off is amazing. You can actually go do stuff. My own view - everyone should switch to 4x10 or at least have it as an option. Now I'm working crazy hours so all a dream anyways these days. Note 4x10 shifts are not new in warehousing (or even in mfg).

Is that better/worse with manual labor? In software dev, I tend to fluctuate how productive I can be for an extended period, so being useful (instead of just ass in seat) for 10 hours seems rough. Granted some days I go for 12 but that's unhealthy and mostly because I get into a groove I am not interested in breaking.

You have a lower risk of physical injury in a desk job. Compare finger fudging your code to bumping warehouse shelves with a lift and causing a bunch of it to fall down.

Re: Amazon Is Forcing Its Warehouse Workers into Brutal 'Megacycle' Shifts

#88

Post by 93po »

dusyshhhdudu wrote: post #80
FrozenVoid wrote: post #22

US is reverting to early 20th century labor market norms, thanks to 'gig' economy and megacorps subverting unions. https://edition.cnn.com/2021/01/22/tech/amazon-nlrb-union-el... Only thing missing is union-busting Pinkerton thugs... https://www.npr.org/2020/11/30/940196997/amazon-reportedly-h...

As a gig worker I hope it stays, gig work has been a massive quality of life improvement for me. I think if the unions want to compete with us that's fine but the state shouldn't get to pick the winner.

The state is there to look after its people (in theory). If gig work doesn't provide livable wages and drives down wages or job availability for people looking for livable wages then it shouldn't be allowed

Re: Amazon Is Forcing Its Warehouse Workers into Brutal 'Megacycle' Shifts

#89

Post by quantified »

SerLava wrote: post #75
ceilingcorner wrote: post #11

American culture is optimized for consumers. When you're a consumer, it's a great thing: customer service, return policies, payment methods, and the entire process of buying stuff is leaps and bounds above somewhere like the European Union. When you're a worker, though, no one particularly cares about you. If a CEO can squeeze more profit out of his workforce by forcing them to work odd hours at the drop of a hat, he…

It's not optimized for consumers. It's optimized for the c-suite.

More towards both of them. Away from employees and problematic for merchants too from what I read.

Re: Amazon Is Forcing Its Warehouse Workers into Brutal 'Megacycle' Shifts

#90

Post by jfengel »

thatguy0900 wrote: post #44
random5634 wrote: post #21

I actually left an early job because it didn't offer a 4x10. 4x10 is amazing. Your work days are your work days, but the extra day off is amazing. You can actually go do stuff. My own view - everyone should switch to 4x10 or at least have it as an option. Now I'm working crazy hours so all a dream anyways these days. Note 4x10 shifts are not new in warehousing (or even in mfg).

For a few glorious weeks in a past job I managed to work 2x16 1x8, yeah those days really sucked but you get a 4 day vacation every single week.i don't think any employer would want to offer such a schedule but I would probably be willing to take a paycut to get it back.

I'd be reluctant to have an employee work regular 16 hour days, much less two in a row. It's not impossible that that 16th hour would be productive, but I'd put the burden of proof on them. Especially if we were talking about any kind of creative work, including programming.

I'd rather have an employee work 2x12+1x8. I'd rather they give me 32 productive hours than 32 productive ones + 8 dubious ones.

I'm aware that we frequently make doctors and nurses work those kinds of shifts. And people die because of it. I would much rather we reoriented the system so that we didn't have to require that of them.

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