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I lasted three minutes at Amazon

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Re: I lasted three minutes at Amazon

#171

Post by solnyshok »

hhmc wrote: post #69
mherdeg wrote: post #17

Hmm this is an interesting anecdote to compare against the view ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29459245 ) that: > In the Earnings Call in July of this year, they said they now employe 950,000 warehouse workers. They're probably over the 1 MM mark right now due to the holidays. Yes, there are plenty of people working there that are overqualified, but that is the beauty of what Amazon is doing. Their onboarding…

At what workforce size/turnover do you run into the issue that you might churn through your entire countrywide hiring pool?

oh, this question is so good. governments have history of getting millions of people into unpopular jobs. maybe, one day all people not rich enough, will have to serve 2-3 years at amazon logistics, when turning 18 years old.

Re: I lasted three minutes at Amazon

#172

Post by solnyshok »

nexuist wrote: post #32
johnny35 wrote: post #4

Systematizing and optimizing every detail of operations to create as large of a pool as possible of positions requiring the least possible skill, reducing the cost of turnover, training, and management complexity... seems to be externalizing a heavy toll on mental health. Regulation can tackle many cases of "socialized losses, privatized gains" but I am at a loss to understand how we can mitigate this one.

Other than the drug test it didn't seem like there was a single thing OP was required to do that wouldn't be solved by automation. At my current job we set up direct deposit, filled out info for background checks, completed training videos and quizzes, etc. all through online forms. Everyone OP interacted with shouldn't even be in the picture. It's a warehouse job; I struggle to see why you even need any humans in th…

imagine they read your comment and implement that...

Re: I lasted three minutes at Amazon

#173

Post by deelly »

throwaway55421 wrote: post #122

Reddit is one of, if not the single least reliable source of information on the Internet. You are looking at algorithmic feeds which propagate only information which has the majority vote. Not only that, but a majority vote of a community which becomes more radical as any opposition or moderates are pushed out. Point a microphone at a speaker and crank the gain. That awful feedback noise is Reddit.

So, basically, just like any other social platform? Good to know.

Re: I lasted three minutes at Amazon

#174

Post by coldacid »

TulliusCicero wrote: post #134
coldacid wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I look at things like Dynamics 365 and other no-code/low-code "solutions" and I fear that we're just about at that point.

People have been trying to get low or no code solutions to work for a very long time now. The problem is that they a) they tend to be limited in the scope of the problems they’re appropriate for, and b) if you try to solve really complicated issues with them, you usually run into the same difficulty problems that you do with regular coding.

As we've been finding out with our org's migration to Dynamics from our homebrewed organizational software. (The auditing features in Dynamics are particularly limited.) Still, as time goes on these platforms keep improving on the complicated issues and the edge cases that tend to work better with bespoke software. Slowly but surely they are killing us off.

Re: I lasted three minutes at Amazon

#175

Post by ryathal »

listenallyall wrote: post #114
crooked-v wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If people aren't doing it, then the money isn't reasonable.

Cute sentiment but wrong. These are skills, it's not Uber where you can simply choose to be a driver tomorrow without prior training. Lots of people simply cannot do these jobs, further, lots who might be able to are put off by the months/years of necessary training.

The money isn't reasonable for appraising. You are paid per appraisal, and the AMC will take 30-50% of that fee as a middleman. To even get to the point where you can make money as an Appraiser you need to be certified based on state level requirements. For my state

-154 hours of classes ($1000+)

-get initial license ($160)

-1,000 hours logged as a trainee of an appraiser (so anyone teaching loses money to pay a trainee or you work for free)

-apply ($35) to take and pass a state exam ($126)

- get full license ($175)

So it takes at least $1,500 and at least 6 months to even start making money. Then many appraisals require actually entering the home and taking pictures or a drive by, so there is massive amounts of travel on top of the paperwork. It's way more detailed than just picking a number for price based on X reasons, and anything that is inaccurate is on you to fix as part of the original fee.

Re: I lasted three minutes at Amazon

#176

Post by npteljes »

smt88 wrote: post #128
ProjectArcturis wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of the top posts have very similar construction: Employee: I can't come in today for a very good reason. Boss (rudely): You have to come in or you're fired. Employee: I quit. +1000 karma

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.

Of course there's a subreddit for this: /r/nothingeverhappens/

But to be serious, I don't personally believe the stories, because I just can't know. Sometimes entirely plausible stories get debunked as fake, other times wild ones turn out to be true. I'm not committed to call them all fake, but we really just can't know.

Re: I lasted three minutes at Amazon

#178

Post by chaorace »

tux3 wrote: post #66
version_five wrote: post #14

I clicked feeling like it would be impossible to give them a fair chance in 3 minutes, but reading it I definitely am on the workers side and he gave them way more than 3 min. This is a Kafka level story, having long dealings with an obviously incompetent and labyrinthine organization, only to be immediately penalized for the slightest miss on his own part. Especially the "if you're not at your workstation in one min…

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.

I imagine you could get a lot of mileage out of a "documentation fuzzer". If you hire employees in batches, simply swap x% of the field values between each of their onboarding papers and then enjoy the show!

Re: I lasted three minutes at Amazon

#179

Post by ProjectArcturis »

smt88 wrote: post #128
ProjectArcturis wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of the top posts have very similar construction: Employee: I can't come in today for a very good reason. Boss (rudely): You have to come in or you're fired. Employee: I quit. +1000 karma

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.

Not saying it's never real, just saying that the content that rises to the top there is extremely formulaic.

Re: I lasted three minutes at Amazon

#180

Post by q1w2 »

eco wrote: post #116
idontwantthis wrote: post #24

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.

While they usually seem to have started off fairly sincere, /r/antiwork like many of the subreddits dedicated to telling stories about ridiculous behavior in others seems to have quickly changed into more of a place where people practice creative writing. /r/TalesFromTechSupport, /JUSTNOMIL, /r/AmITheAsshole, /r/MaliciousCompliance, and many others. The stories can be fun but under no circumstances should anyone take…

This part was almost comical...

> I wake up with the worst existential dread I’ve ever experienced. I cried for an hour straight. Not because amazon specifically, but for the broader state of labor in general.

All you need to do is look at the subs the same mods mod...

r/Anarchism r/Anarchy101 r/IWW r/LateStageCapitalism r/lostgeneration r/Socialism_101 r/mutualism r/radicalmentalhealth

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