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I lasted three minutes at Amazon

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Re: I lasted three minutes at Amazon

#161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The big difference here is that CI/CD should ideally be taking away annoying True. OTOH, I feel like some version of this is always sold as the worker-facing rationale for automation and increased productivity. For some jobs, it's "hey, we're going to automate your job away so you can go do something meaningful with your life". For devs, it's "we're going to automate this for you so you can focus on meaningful work…

I dont automate CI/CD because I'd rather be sword-fighting on roller chairs, I automate because I value the cost of my own work time and truly would rather spend it on a more interesting problem. (To say nothing of the fact its all too easy to make mistakes where processes arent automated, and I dont enjoy making mistakes) I dont disagree with your observations, just saying "productivity" gain is pretty far down the…

Mine is not an "automation = bad" position. Obviously, it has value. It's more to say that automation is frequently implemented in a way that treats devs as just another part of an automated pipeline, not much different than software.

>"productivity" gain is pretty far down the list of benefits to me personally

Yeah, in reply to the other comment, I was saying that automation from an organizational perspective is not so much about improving the quality of life for devs, as it is about increasing their productivity.

Re: I lasted three minutes at Amazon

#162
post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think there would be enormous political pushback by elements of both parties to expanding the guest worker program to unskilled labor.

There is significant political support for effectively open borders, which has the effect of importing unskilled labor without the permit implied by a guest worker program.

I'm sorry, did you and I experience the same 2016-2020? The one with a border wall, Muslim country of origin ban, and H1B visa cuts?

I'm not arguing these are good or bad (H1Bs especially are abused) but they definitely happened and have a massive groundswell of support from one party.

Re: I lasted three minutes at Amazon

#163
post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you think this doesn't happen often enough to fill a subreddit? There are billions of workers around the world, tens of millions using reddit.

Above comment is being charitable. I think real people have the exchange above and should be proud. The 1000+ upvote ones are long, overly personal explanations of why they can’t come in that make the boss look extra evil, but also sound fake as hell. If someone just quits good on them, but that text exchange is not going to draw enough eyeballs.

>long, overly personal explanations of why they can’t come in

I mean, the OP post already alludes to the issue with american labor where you're pressured to do something like fake a death in the family to justify taking a day off of what should be a totally replaceable hourly shift. Hourly wage labour jobs are pressured to give those overly personal explanations to get managers to respect any request for time off and it's just seen as the norm.

Re: I lasted three minutes at Amazon

#164

I highly mistrust anything on /r/antiwork. So many of the posts are the “and everyone clapped” variety but get hundreds or thousands of upvotes, I’m pretty sure it’s at least half a troll karma farm.

Since you're on HN, I'll give you the benefit of assuming you're working a nice, solid, salaried job.

Retail is hell. It's the worst on-call you've ever experienced times a thousand.

If you haven't worked retail in the last few years, I'd actually suggest doing the following: Go on the dating app of your choice and put out that you're legit looking for coffee with folks who work hourly retail jobs. You're vaguely tech adjacent, you can automate those swipes. Literally just ask people who match with you to tell their worst experience in retail.

Ask those retail folks: Are you trained enough? Are you understaffed? Does your manager give a shit? Do you actually get the tips you're supposed to get? If you could walk away right now, would you?

Invite 'em to have a coffee/tea, etc in some public place. Talk about what's going on. Genuinely give a shit. What you'll learn is that most hourly retail folks are living hand to mouth, paycheck to paycheck. A friend of mine in college was making $7.70 an hour as a shift manager at a Taco Bell. The straw that broke the camel's back was when his manager suggested he take a *decrease in pay* and an *increase in hours* in exchange for "maybe getting salaried". He left and now is paid $35/hr to sell marijuana.

As someone who works a salaried job at a MANGA/FAANG Forbes Top 100, I feel that some of us lose sight of what our retail-facing hourly folk are actually doing. Retail folks get the most abuse from both sides that I've seen.

Last week, in the grocery near me, I looked at a dude who was mad about a few labels being misaligned, screaming until he was red in the face at an employee about how he was being ripped off, about how this was terrible. It wasn't until I walked over and (legitimately wanting the thing he was mad over) asked him to politely shut up and get over himself for not reading that he stopped, stomping out of the store. This store, like many others, basically demand that these people be happy in the face of abject abuse. The security at the door? That's only for shoplifting. Being a complete jerk to the floor workers? Not that poor fuck's job, and they can be reprimanded for stopping a fight from happening.

In the face of [Nine dollar paychecks for 70 hours of work](https://www.today.com/food/working-mom-received-9-paycheck-7...), a [rising wage theft issue that accounts for billions in unpaid wages](https://www.epi.org/publication/employers-steal-billions-fro...), it's no wonder that [suicide rates of retail workers is going up](https://archive.md/VrvBu).

Re: I lasted three minutes at Amazon

#165
post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Kafka is one way to look at it, but if anything the description of the process evokes The Good Place to me. It must be an accident that the process is so catastrophically bad that it leaves new hires drained and crying. But you'd almost start to wonder how much worse you could really make it, if you were optimizing for "plausibly deniable torment”. I don't have it in me to imagine how.

Well, as one prerequisite for further torment, you'd need a system that actually allows employees to work for some period of time, rather than the first-day experience being "lol I dunno, also figure it out yourself or you're fired".

Just because they say he would be fired does not make it so. We don't know what sort of follow-up torture was planned if the original poster didn't just up and leave.

Re: I lasted three minutes at Amazon

#166
At my company I have seen several changes over the last few years: - Work is getting shittier - Corporate internal communication has become very intense: several emails a day - Company news is mostly green-washing - Corporate communication is shifting to non-work related topics like sport, charity actions and general well-being - Trivial MOOCs are heavily promoted, sometimes made mandatory - The intranet has been more vexating everyday.

Of course there is the "quest for sense" trend. But there is also a trend for selecting the most resilient to frustration and the most obedient. I interpret this as an influence low cost countries have on high-cost countries workforce.

Forget about creativity, efficiency, technical excellence. These are not the values cherished by many companies these days.

Re: I lasted three minutes at Amazon

#167
post #162
post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is significant political support for effectively open borders, which has the effect of importing unskilled labor without the permit implied by a guest worker program.

I'm sorry, did you and I experience the same 2016-2020? The one with a border wall, Muslim country of origin ban, and H1B visa cuts? I'm not arguing these are good or bad (H1Bs especially are abused) but they definitely happened and have a massive groundswell of support from one party.

In what universe is "there's significant political support for {X}" contradicted by "{not X} happened" or even "there's significant political support for {not X}"?

Re: I lasted three minutes at Amazon

#168
post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is significant political support for effectively open borders, which has the effect of importing unskilled labor without the permit implied by a guest worker program.

What in the I-485 are you even talking about? American immigration is hard as fuck for an Indian person making like half a million a year. You think they’re going to try to lobby to get blue collar people in? “Effectively open borders”, my ass.

I didn't claim that there was support for specific special cases. I also didn't say that the general case supporters had gotten their way.

That said, if the general case folk get their way, I assume that your special case will be included.

I do note that folks who want lots of low-skilled immigrants (the "who's going to pick grapes" folks) might not care that much about every instance of high-skilled immigrants.

Re: I lasted three minutes at Amazon

#169
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same. Do SWE/SDE roles also involve drug tests and orientations?

in Germany, they could do a background check if you used cannabis and got caught, you'll have a police record for up to 5 years when applying expect it not to be in your favour

No, they can't do that, anymore, except for very specific jobs, e.g. working with children.

Re: I lasted three minutes at Amazon

#170

I highly mistrust anything on /r/antiwork. So many of the posts are the “and everyone clapped” variety but get hundreds or thousands of upvotes, I’m pretty sure it’s at least half a troll karma farm.

Since you're on HN, I'll give you the benefit of assuming you're working a nice, solid, salaried job. Retail is hell. It's the worst on-call you've ever experienced times a thousand. If you haven't worked retail in the last few years, I'd actually suggest doing the following: Go on the dating app of your choice and put out that you're legit looking for coffee with folks who work hourly retail jobs. You're vaguely tec…

I work in retail for 20 years, last ten years in C-level jobs. You are mostly right. Modern retail floor we call internally "battlefield", "bloodshed", etc. It is tough, it is non-human (not anti-human, but very robotic), yearly employee turnover hovering at 50%+
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