'Fake' Amazon workers defend company on Twitter • Hacker News Board

Re: 'Fake' Amazon workers defend company on Twitter

#181

Post by nwienert » Tue, Mar 30, 2021, 5:29 PM UTC

ActorNightly wrote: post #164

cecida wrote: post #43

Imagine being worth 185 billion dollars and still obsessing about your workers advocating for better pay and conditions? What a miserable existence that must be. Bezos has always struck me as a man who cares about nothing else only his own personal wealth and success. There is no joy in his life.

Imagine building a company from the ground up that is succesfull solely because it produces a lot of value to people, and yet random people on the internet still think all you care about is hoarding money and think they can make better decisions than you. Here is the summary of the issue. Firstly, pre-pandemic, unemployment was at an alltime low (and its trending that way to as places are reopening), very close to fr…

> Walmart [will] offer better service and shipping while having shit working conditions

Wait so, should the unionize too? Or were they not fully staffed during the record low employment before?

One of these must be true, or you are making incompatible claims.

Re: 'Fake' Amazon workers defend company on Twitter

#182

Post by disabled » Tue, Mar 30, 2021, 5:30 PM UTC

Loughla wrote: post #170

disabled wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't think they are making it illegal to go the bathroom they are just making it economically awful. If you miss X minutes in an hour, the whole hour doesn't count. You have to deliver X packages per hour everyday and one miss gets you written up, which can lead to firing. It's called disability discrimination. Getting paid less on the sole basis of your disability is generally considered to be disability discri…

>Getting paid less on the basis of your disability is generally considered to be disability discrimination in the US. I mean, I get what you're saying. I work in Disabilities quite a bit in my profession - and your view is generally correct. But there are literal, specific carve-outs for employers to pay people with disabilities less. https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/fact-sheets/39-14c-subminim... >Section 14(c) of t…

Going to the toilet once per hour for 1-3 minutes is not going to allow a company to pay subminimum wages when the starting rate is $15/hour. It is a simple, basic, /reasonable accommodation/ necessary for me to be able to work, at any workplace, that Amazon is legally obligated to provide. In fact, it is the only accommodation that I would need to work at an Amazon warehouse!

The law you mention above is exploited by companies utilizing sheltered work environments (i.e. Salvation Army) for people who typically have severe disabilities that are often both developmental and intellectual, with respect to classification. Obviously companies that exploit human labor in this particular context are morally bereft.

The key concept here is reasonable accommodation. It is not some abstract concept or use-case, like the one you pointed out above.

Re: 'Fake' Amazon workers defend company on Twitter

#183

Post by evanlivingston » Tue, Mar 30, 2021, 5:30 PM UTC

ActorNightly wrote: post #164

cecida wrote: post #43

Imagine being worth 185 billion dollars and still obsessing about your workers advocating for better pay and conditions? What a miserable existence that must be. Bezos has always struck me as a man who cares about nothing else only his own personal wealth and success. There is no joy in his life.

Imagine building a company from the ground up that is succesfull solely because it produces a lot of value to people, and yet random people on the internet still think all you care about is hoarding money and think they can make better decisions than you. Here is the summary of the issue. Firstly, pre-pandemic, unemployment was at an alltime low (and its trending that way to as places are reopening), very close to fr…

Sorry, is unionization of workers not an element of a free market?

Re: 'Fake' Amazon workers defend company on Twitter

#184

Post by starclerk » Tue, Mar 30, 2021, 5:32 PM UTC

ahepp wrote: post #165

skohan wrote: post #3

I feel like authenticity of online communication is an unsolved problem. The web was supposed to be a democratizing platform: all you need to communicate with the world is an ISP and a keyboard. But if there's no way to control for authenticity, online sentiment will just be an arms race for who can pay for the best astroturfing.

I like both the authenticity and the anonymity of the web. Of course, those two things are often in substantial opposition to each other. The best solution I can think of at the moment is simply to not pay much attention to political speech on the internet.

I completely agree. But it's hard, since "politics" is broad and almost everything touches it in some way.

The main way I've tried to achieve this is by largely limiting what I read to:

1. Authenticated contributors, either people I know personally or hired by companies I trust (e.g. NYT).

2. Anonymous contributors with heavy moderation and filtration (e.g. Twitter, but with O(100) muted words and accounts. My feed is basically just art now and it's delightful).

Again, that's hard to do. I'm still on here for instance.

Re: 'Fake' Amazon workers defend company on Twitter

#185

Post by Matticus_Rex » Tue, Mar 30, 2021, 5:32 PM UTC

marricks wrote: post #173

ActorNightly wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imagine building a company from the ground up that is succesfull solely because it produces a lot of value to people, and yet random people on the internet still think all you care about is hoarding money and think they can make better decisions than you. Here is the summary of the issue. Firstly, pre-pandemic, unemployment was at an alltime low (and its trending that way to as places are reopening), very close to fr…

Amazon warehouses have a far, far, higher turn over rate than other warehouses, probably because the conditions are so cruel. It’s really sad how many people get super invested in defending mega corporations. I hope it’s just employees trying to move up but you never know. https://labor411.org/411-blog/warehouse-worker-turnover-rate...

Why do you assume it's people leaving because of cruel conditions and not people being fired, especially given that they're open about firing lots of people and encouraging many to quit? They don't hide the ball on that.

Re: 'Fake' Amazon workers defend company on Twitter

#186

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Mar 30, 2021, 5:32 PM UTC

taormina wrote: post #103

TheRealDunkirk wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For decades, I never thought people who kiss ass could have been serious. I was sure they were just cynically playing a game of advancement, and I despised them for it. What I've come to learn -- as disappointing as it is to me -- is that some people view this sort of thing as actual, legitimate opportunity, and are acting out of internal integrity. They don't see the hypocrisy of the power imbalance and how the comp…

https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2009/10/07/the-gervais-principle-... This is a fantastic read.

[deleted]

Re: 'Fake' Amazon workers defend company on Twitter

#187

Post by marricks » Tue, Mar 30, 2021, 5:35 PM UTC

Matticus_Rex wrote: post #185

marricks wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amazon warehouses have a far, far, higher turn over rate than other warehouses, probably because the conditions are so cruel. It’s really sad how many people get super invested in defending mega corporations. I hope it’s just employees trying to move up but you never know. https://labor411.org/411-blog/warehouse-worker-turnover-rate...

Why do you assume it's people leaving because of cruel conditions and not people being fired, especially given that they're open about firing lots of people and encouraging many to quit? They don't hide the ball on that.

Do they create high turn over because they’re selecting for the best people to exploit?

It’s a gestalt, you can see it two ways and I have no clue why someone would want to see it as a “good practice” unless that view was beneficial to their job and career advancement.

Re: 'Fake' Amazon workers defend company on Twitter

#188

Post by ksm1717 » Tue, Mar 30, 2021, 5:36 PM UTC

munk-a wrote: post #90

fipar wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree on the need to educate people, but disagree on the age group criteria. I've met enough people under 40 who believe whatever they read online, especially if it confirms their existing set of beliefs.

I've found this very disturbing, the generation I grew up in might be the most tech literate but I think that's a false impression due to the friends that I've chosen. When I joined a guild in an MMO and got to see some truly random folks from other walks of life that was a fair bit eye opening. My concern about younger folks is that the world is shrinking as large corporations try and squeeze as much revenue as poss…

This is how I feel when using visual studio.

Re: 'Fake' Amazon workers defend company on Twitter

#189

Post by Matticus_Rex » Tue, Mar 30, 2021, 5:38 PM UTC

asdff wrote: post #13

This reminds me of the "fake" uber drivers who were texting me last election to vote yes on their hand tailored, virtually immutable proposition 22. Unfortunately this sort of easy stuff works on so many people. Prop 22 passed with 58% of the vote and they won. The cynic in me says Amazon knows they won't lose.

You mean the real Uber drivers who correctly understood that Prop 22 would allow them to voluntarily work in the way they want to work, despite the fact that well-meaning busybodies didn't like it?

Re: 'Fake' Amazon workers defend company on Twitter

#190

Post by WC3w6pXxgGd » Tue, Mar 30, 2021, 5:38 PM UTC

cecida wrote: post #43

Imagine being worth 185 billion dollars and still obsessing about your workers advocating for better pay and conditions? What a miserable existence that must be. Bezos has always struck me as a man who cares about nothing else only his own personal wealth and success. There is no joy in his life.

Maybe you need to stop reading propaganda about Bezos.