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An open letter to Jeff Bezos: A contract worker’s take on Amazon.com

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Re: An open letter to Jeff Bezos: A contract worker’s take on Amazon.com

#151
Management will never understand the benefit of institutional knowledge because they have not yet devised a way to measure it. Managers love metrics because they cover their asses.

People hired to make decisions don't like to make decisions. But it's not a real decision if the metrics told you to do it. Blame the spreadsheet.

So institutional knowledge gets discarded like yesterday's dirty laundry because no one in a position to do anything recognizes it as valuable. Or even if they do recognize it as valuable it's certainly not more valuable than the cost of some employee compensation. Health insurance costs are quantifiable, institutional knowledge is not. And in the land of cover-your-ass with metrics qualitative values are useless to decision makers.

Re: An open letter to Jeff Bezos: A contract worker’s take on Amazon.com

#152
This was actually surprisingly evenly written - I was expecting one of those "OMG this sucks!!!" rants about how everyone are cruel bozos and so on. He very clearly indicates how, at least from his vantage point, the company itself is suffering due to the policies.

Re: An open letter to Jeff Bezos: A contract worker’s take on Amazon.com

#153
post #142

On the plus side, he doesn't have that 18 month non-compete. A current SDE would have to flip burgers till 2015 if they want to work at Google.

Well if your going to pay me for 18 months not to work at Google I am fine with that.

Non competes are hard to enforce especially for low level staff) and in fact almost impossible in CA.

Re: An open letter to Jeff Bezos: A contract worker’s take on Amazon.com

#154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand why you'd want to minimize profit just because of tax liability. Even if I paid 60% in taxes, I'd still be better off keeping 40% of a higher salary. What's the rational?

It's the difference between a business and an individual. Individuals pay taxes on incomes. Corporations pay taxes on profits, so they can have arbitrarily large incomes while maintaing zero profits. "Profit" is either "money you haven't spent yet" or "money you need to return to investors". Modern corporations have been telling investors to eat a bag of salted peanuts lately, so they really don't care about returnin…

So.. hold on.

If the companies have no profits, and investors get no return.

..why would you want to invest?

Re: An open letter to Jeff Bezos: A contract worker’s take on Amazon.com

#155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's the difference between a business and an individual. Individuals pay taxes on incomes. Corporations pay taxes on profits, so they can have arbitrarily large incomes while maintaing zero profits. "Profit" is either "money you haven't spent yet" or "money you need to return to investors". Modern corporations have been telling investors to eat a bag of salted peanuts lately, so they really don't care about returnin…

So.. hold on. If the companies have no profits, and investors get no return. ..why would you want to invest?

Indeed... Why?

Re: An open letter to Jeff Bezos: A contract worker’s take on Amazon.com

#156

> In this terrible economy, I am grateful for the work Seattle's unemployment rate is 4%, which is basically optimal and near what it was before the recession. https://www.google.com/search?q=seattle+unemployment+rate Seattle real-estate has almost completely rebounded. http://www.zillow.com/local-info/WA-Seattle-home-value/r_160... People may not realize it yet, but the recession is over. If Amazon values the work t…

> People may not realize it yet, but the recession is over. If Amazon values the work these people do, they shouldn't assume that there is an unending supply of people waiting to fill these positions.

Your grasp on the theoretical situation is quite firm, as is your apparent ability to ignore reality.

Re: An open letter to Jeff Bezos: A contract worker’s take on Amazon.com

#157

> In this terrible economy, I am grateful for the work Seattle's unemployment rate is 4%, which is basically optimal and near what it was before the recession. https://www.google.com/search?q=seattle+unemployment+rate Seattle real-estate has almost completely rebounded. http://www.zillow.com/local-info/WA-Seattle-home-value/r_160... People may not realize it yet, but the recession is over. If Amazon values the work t…

People may not realize it yet, but the recession is over. Nobody wants to "realize" it. It makes for a better narrative if we're still in the throes of depression. "In this tough economy..." It's easier to rationalize negative things in your life if you can attribute them to things outside your control, like the economy.

And LA used to be la la land.

Re: An open letter to Jeff Bezos: A contract worker’s take on Amazon.com

#158
post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please explain how the markets are unfair? As for my 'personal' judgement on what is fair, I always defer to those entering the terms of the contract, so long as those contracts abide by law. If you offer me $10 an hour to do something I might ordinarily charge $100 for, and I accept that $10 an hour, and the $10 an hour does not break any law, then to me, that is fair. I am by no means authoritative on the subject t…

I'm not saying the markets are unfair. I'm saying that's what exploitation theory assumes (which theory I am in no way supporting or endorsing) - the base for "exploitation" theory is that the market price diverges from the supposedly "fair" price, and the difference is the measure of "exploitation". This presupposes that a) "fair" price is known and b) it is different from market price.

Two points:

1) The general (non-Marxist) idea is not that 'the market price is unfair, so we should set different prices ourselves', but rather that the market isn't magic, and does not appear ex nihilo, but is impacted by many things. Some of those things (such as law about hiring, firing, welfare, safety, and so on) can materially affect the negotiation in a way that is patently not fair. For example, if unions had the kinds of powers some ascribe to them (ability to set wages however high they wanted with all staff being unfirable no matter what they did, with employers being powerless slaves) that would be obviously unfair. The power dynamic in many countries (including the US) is roughly that slanted at the moment, but in favour of employers rather than employees - in the US, for example, this is the effect of things like no cause firing, binding arbitration agreements, 'temp' positions and 'internships' being allowed to be offered in place of actual jobs, no real socialised healthcare, limited unemployment insurance in most states, low minimum wages, no 'union shops' in most states, anti union laws, limited occupational health and safetly laws in many states, and so on. So, to make things 'fair', these things have to be fixed - then the market will be 'fair'.

2) The general (Marxist) idea is not that 'the market price is unfair, so we should set different prices ourselves', but rather that capitalist-worker relationships are always unfair and exploitative due to the worker always having to sell their labour for wages, rather than capital, where the capitalist simply gains more money through the actions of capital - neatly setting up a coercive power structure. The (tl;dr version of the) Marxist response is not that this means that we have to set 'better' or 'fairer' levels for wages, but that we have to destroy capitalism and abolish wage slavery.

Re: An open letter to Jeff Bezos: A contract worker’s take on Amazon.com

#159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's the difference between a business and an individual. Individuals pay taxes on incomes. Corporations pay taxes on profits, so they can have arbitrarily large incomes while maintaing zero profits. "Profit" is either "money you haven't spent yet" or "money you need to return to investors". Modern corporations have been telling investors to eat a bag of salted peanuts lately, so they really don't care about returnin…

So.. hold on. If the companies have no profits, and investors get no return. ..why would you want to invest?

Coz the value of the company is still increasing as more warehouses are bought

Re: An open letter to Jeff Bezos: A contract worker’s take on Amazon.com

#160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's the difference between a business and an individual. Individuals pay taxes on incomes. Corporations pay taxes on profits, so they can have arbitrarily large incomes while maintaing zero profits. "Profit" is either "money you haven't spent yet" or "money you need to return to investors". Modern corporations have been telling investors to eat a bag of salted peanuts lately, so they really don't care about returnin…

So.. hold on. If the companies have no profits, and investors get no return. ..why would you want to invest?

Because if the company is spending that potential profit on something that will increase its future value - you as an investor will get a piece of that increase in the future
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