Amazon Unpacked
ft.com
Amazon Unpacked
1–10 of 68 posts
Re: Amazon Unpacked
#2This seems less like a story about Amazon and more about the unrealistic expectations set by local politicians in a once-great industry town.
Re: Amazon Unpacked
#3Interesting article, sounds like a horrendous place to work by all accounts.
The technique of using temp agencies for the bulk of a workforce is very common in the States from what I understand, ensuring employees have few rights. Hopefully it doesn't become prevalent here in the UK.
Re: Amazon Unpacked
#4Too many anecdotes, not enough data.
Re: Amazon Unpacked
#5I like how the unit of size was football pitch. I guess around the world it's assumed that the reader has intimate familiarity with lining up sporting fields but can't handle things like a metric system.
Re: Amazon Unpacked
#6Similar stories like this were in the news in germany as well, a few month back, after a documentation of the ARD about working conditions in the Amazon warehouses.
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=auto&tl=en&u=...
Re: Amazon Unpacked
#7I like how the unit of size was football pitch. I guess around the world it's assumed that the reader has intimate familiarity with lining up sporting fields but can't handle things like a metric system.
I would have preferred metric. I spent a minute trying to figure out how the distance a pitched (US) football could be a useful unit of measure when it's so variable. Then I realized pitch means field. And probably not a US football field.
Re: Amazon Unpacked
#8It's funny how a job like this fits with the cultural idea of 'the dignity of work.'
The politicians and Amazon describe the human-robot job in positive terms, like they're helping the community. But the real way jobs help people is by providing them with enough resources to improve their situation, and gain control of their lives.
Working in an Amazon factory doesn't do that. First, after hustling for 15 miles a shift making minimum wage, you aren't going to be able to return to your shelter and work on a skill or education. You'd have to eat and sleep and recover. Second, the path of distinction and promotion that would exist in another career doesn't exist. The best way to do your job has been determined by a computer, and the only distinction you can achieve is 'accuracy as a pac-man.'
I think accurate language about a job like this would only describe it as allowing people to live, period. Life maintaining, not life-improving. It's a sweatshop for the first world, and only a blessing if you weren't going to be able to eat or find shelter otherwise.
Re: Amazon Unpacked
#9I wonder how long it takes for such jobs to be fully robot-staffed. I had the impression it's already the case for some types of warehouse tasks. With very high likeness, within our lifetime there will be no need for human pac-mans.
Re: Amazon Unpacked
#10I like how the unit of size was football pitch. I guess around the world it's assumed that the reader has intimate familiarity with lining up sporting fields but can't handle things like a metric system.
Very large sizes are often described in terms of football fields. Or basketball fields, if they're smaller. There's something reassuring and familiar in such comparisons which rings better for many people than (400 by 100 meters). While I come from a metric country, I can imagine why a football field comparison sometimes gives a quicker sense of scale.