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Amazon worker chat app to ban words such as “union”, “pay raise”, “slave labor”

theintercept.com

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Re: Amazon worker chat app to ban words such as “union”, “pay raise”, “slave labor”

#191

Post by jimt1234 »

SOLAR_FIELDS wrote: post #151
avidphantasm wrote: post #104

When I was in grad school my advisor was in China for a few months. Any emails where air quality was discussed seemed to end up black-holed. Similar messages using pig latin versions of the same phrases seemed to make it through just fine.

Somewhat unsurprising - more interestingly, was it individual words or combinations of phrases that caught the filter? Also amusing that somewhat simple ciphers still easily defeat the Great Firewall (would ROT13 have also worked?)

Funny you mention ROT13. I lived in China for a short time, and I experienced this same thing (certain email messages seemed to get /dev/null'ed), so we started ROT13'ing the messages as a joke, thinking it would never work. But it did! We never had a ROT13 email message go missing.

Re: Amazon worker chat app to ban words such as “union”, “pay raise”, “slave labor”

#192

Post by [deleted] »

Aunche wrote: post #148
arcticbull wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've nothing against big employers, I think the more resources a company has, the bigger their responsibility is to their employees to keep them safe at work.

The fact remains that they were not working while the tornados struck, yet you claim that they were being "worked to death". Sounds like a preconceived grudge to me.

[deleted]

Re: Amazon worker chat app to ban words such as “union”, “pay raise”, “slave labor”

#193

Post by BrainInAJar »

josephcsible wrote: post #169

If this upsets you, then you probably shouldn't use the "it's a private company" defense when people are upset by other instances of Big Tech being guilty of censorship.

No, because concerted activity is protected at work. Being a nazi on twitter isn't.

Re: Amazon worker chat app to ban words such as “union”, “pay raise”, “slave labor”

#194

Post by rsanek »

knowledge-clay wrote: post #186
chii wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> skip FAANG’s 300k salaries and still do fine with 180k at a more ethical company. Those people are responsible. they are ethical, or altruistic, but certainly can't claim they are financially responsible. If they don't have dependents (now or in the future), then they can remain financially irresponsible, because it will have little effect. But if they plan on having dependents such as children, they will need the…

> they are ethical, or altruistic, but certainly can't claim they are financially responsible. I would hardly describe taking a salary that puts you in the top 5% of earners instead of the top 2% to be financially irresponsible.

That percentile can vary pretty significantly based on where you live.

Re: Amazon worker chat app to ban words such as “union”, “pay raise”, “slave labor”

#195

Post by grapeskin »

chii wrote: post #184
grapeskin wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tech workers can skip FAANG’s 300k salaries and still do fine with 180k at a more ethical company. Those people are responsible. The people slaving for 50 cents over minimum wage and still being unable to pay rent don’t have much of a choice.

> skip FAANG’s 300k salaries and still do fine with 180k at a more ethical company. Those people are responsible. they are ethical, or altruistic, but certainly can't claim they are financially responsible. If they don't have dependents (now or in the future), then they can remain financially irresponsible, because it will have little effect. But if they plan on having dependents such as children, they will need the…

Taking a job that screws over workers below you is really just sticking a middle finger up to the world around you.

A typical programming job is more than enough to provide for a family, a home, and early retirement. Burning down the next generation by empowering mega corporations just "for your kids" is the definition of selfish. Boomers did selfish things "for their kids" and now their kids are absolutely screwed with climate change and a worse off economic system.

But yes, they did certainly provide for their own retirement--at the cost of the whole world. FAANG developers are the same. Amazon and Apple can pay fat checks to their tech workers because they cut costs and shamelessly exploit everyone working in their lower level positions. Eventually they'll push everyone down to lower levels and have the technology to enforce it without human interference.

But hey, someone bought their kid a nice car and they retired to the Bahamas and got a few maids with that huge developer check. Got to look at the bright side.

Re: Amazon worker chat app to ban words such as “union”, “pay raise”, “slave labor”

#196

Post by notsureaboutpg »

chii wrote: post #184
grapeskin wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tech workers can skip FAANG’s 300k salaries and still do fine with 180k at a more ethical company. Those people are responsible. The people slaving for 50 cents over minimum wage and still being unable to pay rent don’t have much of a choice.

> skip FAANG’s 300k salaries and still do fine with 180k at a more ethical company. Those people are responsible. they are ethical, or altruistic, but certainly can't claim they are financially responsible. If they don't have dependents (now or in the future), then they can remain financially irresponsible, because it will have little effect. But if they plan on having dependents such as children, they will need the…

No post body was provided.

Re: Amazon worker chat app to ban words such as “union”, “pay raise”, “slave labor”

#197

Post by LoveGracePeace »

WYepQ4dNnG wrote: post #181
grapeskin wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Massive salaries for programmers won’t last forever. Most people here on HN are self-taught; it’s a skill a large number of motivated people can pick up. Eventually, large corporations will feel comfortable lowering wages once they have a secure grip on the market, and the tools programmers today made will be used against the next generation. It’s no different from millennials resenting boomers for burning economic b…

and that's why smart sw eng should start transitioning into management...

Forget that, approaching 60, still code every day. Management is for those who have management skills and want to do it. Coding is for the rest of us who want it. Saw how strong software would be as a kid in the 1970's and realized it was an industry whose dynamics were unlike any other industry, ever.

Re: Amazon worker chat app to ban words such as “union”, “pay raise”, “slave labor”

#198

Post by rsanek »

s1artibartfast wrote: post #106

Please keep in mind this is a rewards program text box, not a chat app. The program itself may be stupid, but I don't know any company that would allow these terms in internally visible recognition. My company uses manual review for recognition, but I would expect a call from my manager if I sent a public kudos "Great job fighting for union pay raises for the slave labor at our company"

How about other banned terms like accessibility, unite/unity, restrooms, fairness, diversity? Do those also feel unreasonable for any company to include in an internal app? To me, these terms are only concerning because it's Amazon.

The people behind the project are self-aware enough to realize these are such big issues that people will talk about them, but I guess they'd rather prevent discussion altogether than deal with the actual problems.

Re: Amazon worker chat app to ban words such as “union”, “pay raise”, “slave labor”

#199

Post by bfung »

chii wrote: post #184
grapeskin wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tech workers can skip FAANG’s 300k salaries and still do fine with 180k at a more ethical company. Those people are responsible. The people slaving for 50 cents over minimum wage and still being unable to pay rent don’t have much of a choice.

> skip FAANG’s 300k salaries and still do fine with 180k at a more ethical company. Those people are responsible. they are ethical, or altruistic, but certainly can't claim they are financially responsible. If they don't have dependents (now or in the future), then they can remain financially irresponsible, because it will have little effect. But if they plan on having dependents such as children, they will need the…

> they are ethical, or altruistic, but certainly can't claim they are financially responsible.

The definition of financial responsibility should be clarified.

I’d argue that making as much money as possible while ignoring morals or ethics is not “financially responsible”, it actually fits into the definition of psychopathic behavior (https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/features/sociopath-psych...).

As another sibling comment mentions, making 180k vs 300k as an individual doesn’t lowers one’s quality of life that much; there’s still enough disposable income to take trips, save for retirement, etc.

The “I don’t worry about my next meal” threshold for a warehouse hourly worker ($18/hr * 40hr/week * 52weeks/year ~= $37.5k) can be drastically improved.

Re: Amazon worker chat app to ban words such as “union”, “pay raise”, “slave labor”

#200

Post by panarky »

s1artibartfast wrote: post #106

Please keep in mind this is a rewards program text box, not a chat app. The program itself may be stupid, but I don't know any company that would allow these terms in internally visible recognition. My company uses manual review for recognition, but I would expect a call from my manager if I sent a public kudos "Great job fighting for union pay raises for the slave labor at our company"

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