Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

theintercept.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

211–220 of 476 posts

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

#211

Post by random314 »

randmeerkat wrote: post #165
someelephant wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems odd to blame other workers here even if they do make a lot of money. The only way workers will be helped is other jobs provide better value to the worker or companies are regulated to provide better conditions. Personal and corporate interests will always trump community interests.

> Personal and corporate interests will always trump community interests. People _are_ responsible for the choices they make _and_ the entities they choose to empower… Anyhow… I’ve known engineers that have chosen community over themselves… Regardless, you’re on HN, fortunately you don’t have to make that choice. Instead you can skip FAANG toxicity and join a startup “community” that aligns with your values. Even bet…

This is another transfer of responsibility from the government to the citizen. Same as carbon footprint being used to guilt trip the individual who cannot stop global warming.

No matter how many engineers quit or refuse to apply to Amazon they will always have a replacement. The solution for both climate change and Amazon is government intervention. Be it subsidies for Solar or regulatory fines for Amazon.

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

#212

Post by whateveracct »

booleandilemma wrote: post #61

Of course. A software company trying to solve all of its problems through software. Maybe Amazon should address why their employees feel they need to say these words in the first place.

FAANGs are masters of accountability-laundering through software.

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

#213

Post by s1artibartfast »

marricks wrote: post #163
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"

The article referred to it as an "internal social media program." Why call it something else? Do you know more about its functionality you wish to share with the rest of us?

This is a fair question. My process was to read the article and pull out the factual quotes, and ignore the title, innuendo, and dog whistles.

>In November 2021, Amazon convened a high-level meeting in which top executives discussed plans to create an internal social media program that would let employees recognize co-workers’ performance with posts called “Shout-Outs,”

>Shout-Outs would be part of a gamified rewards system in which employees are awarded virtual stars and badges for activities that “add direct business value,” documents state.

>“With free text, we risk people writing Shout-Outs that generate negative sentiments among the viewers and the receivers,” a document summarizing the program states. “We want to lean towards being restrictive on the content that can be posted to prevent a negative associate experience.”

To me this sounds exactly like the directed recognition at many tech companies and those I have used. You dump a thank you in a text box, and someone gets a notification their manager can see. It is not a place to talk about your kids, dog, or weekend plans. It is not a place to submit "constructive feedback" on your peers or company.

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

#214

Post by bamboozled »

someelephant wrote: post #162
grapeskin wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The scariest thing isn't that Amazon is a company worth nearly trillions and using that money to oppress workers to maintain their lead. It's that tech workers are happily applying to get a decent paycheck and crushing people under them, just to protect the company's billions. Then they'll post online about how happy they are to have been smart enough to save up to buy a lakefront home and retire at 45, and say peopl…

Seems odd to blame other workers here even if they do make a lot of money. The only way workers will be helped is other jobs provide better value to the worker or companies are regulated to provide better conditions. Personal and corporate interests will always trump community interests.

I've turned down a bunch of jobs on moral grounds. I work for a charity organization now. I make less money but I'm much happier then I have been working in jobs with different / more shady objectives.

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

#215

Post by sefrost »

Firmwarrior wrote: post #171
grapeskin wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The scariest thing isn't that Amazon is a company worth nearly trillions and using that money to oppress workers to maintain their lead. It's that tech workers are happily applying to get a decent paycheck and crushing people under them, just to protect the company's billions. Then they'll post online about how happy they are to have been smart enough to save up to buy a lakefront home and retire at 45, and say peopl…

I wouldn't say that coders as an industry are destroying the road behind us, since there isn't really a road between "warehouse worker" and "software engineer", unless someone has the knack for coding (in which case there's a very clear and well-paved road within the company between those roles) I think the best solution is to empower workers via unions or whatever else. It should be impossible for workers to get gro…

> I wouldn't say that coders as an industry are destroying the road behind us

I agree, in fact I would argue the total opposite. Has any industry/skill group in history put so much effort in to getting more people involved than the software industry has?

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

#216

Post by MathCodeLove »

mdorazio wrote: post #154
lupire wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jeff Bezos's $200B says he's not paying the most he can while still surviving in business.

Let's do some math for fun. Amazon now employs about a million workers in the US. Let's naively assume 3/4 of them work in warehouses and delivery as opposed to corporate. Let's also assume they work, on average, 2000 hours a year (roughly full-time). For Amazon to raise those wages by $1/hr (or lower efficiency demands by ~7%) it would cost them around $1.5B every year. Now, you're probably thinking that's chump cha…

No post body was provided.

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

#217

Post by MathCodeLove »

zaik wrote: post #210
tomschlick wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not the parent commenter, but its pretty weird / creepy that you spent the time to go through 2 years of their posts to find that rather innocuous comment. Also, it isn't really cancel culture for a company to say they dont want that on their internal kudos app presumably while using company equipment.

It only takes a few seconds to find a keyword in someones comment history: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...

Why would they search specifically for "cancel culture"? It seems pretty obvious that the individual didn't search but instead took the time to try and find anything they could to make OP look bad.

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

#218

Post by harry8 »

uncomputation wrote: post #49

> The major goal of the program, Amazon’s head of worldwide consumer business, Dave Clark, said, was to reduce employee attrition by fostering happiness among workers — and also productivity. Shout-Outs would be part of a gamified rewards system in which employees are awarded virtual stars and badges for activities that “add direct business value,” documents state. At the meeting, Clark remarked that “some people are…

Look out for stern opposition to Amazon's behavior in the Washington Post "Democracy Dies in Darkness"

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

#219

Post by GoodJokes »

grapeskin wrote: post #157
uncomputation wrote: post #49

> The major goal of the program, Amazon’s head of worldwide consumer business, Dave Clark, said, was to reduce employee attrition by fostering happiness among workers — and also productivity. Shout-Outs would be part of a gamified rewards system in which employees are awarded virtual stars and badges for activities that “add direct business value,” documents state. At the meeting, Clark remarked that “some people are…

The scariest thing isn't that Amazon is a company worth nearly trillions and using that money to oppress workers to maintain their lead. It's that tech workers are happily applying to get a decent paycheck and crushing people under them, just to protect the company's billions. Then they'll post online about how happy they are to have been smart enough to save up to buy a lakefront home and retire at 45, and say peopl…

No post body was provided.
Post reply on HN