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I work in an Amazon warehouse in West Sacramento

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Re: I work in an Amazon warehouse in West Sacramento

#161

Post by wool_gather »

AnthonyMouse wrote: post #95
goldcd wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think I disagree. If job roles are arranged like a pyramid (wide base of lower paid jobs, with lower number of higher paid jobs above) - the largest benefit is always going to be automating away the high number of low paid jobs. Amazon might roll out some pick-and-pack droids - but are unlikely to replace Jeff with an AI farm of CEO-leadership. If you say look at say what Uber or AirBNB have done, it's replacing th…

> If job roles are arranged like a pyramid (wide base of lower paid jobs, with lower number of higher paid jobs above) - the largest benefit is always going to be automating away the high number of low paid jobs. Not quite. If you can automate a CEO you might cut a million dollars out of the budget -- maybe even ten or a hundred million in some companies. But if you can automate 500K people making $15/hour, that's ov…

> if you can automate 500K people making $15/hour

They have 500K total employees, not 500K warehouse workers. That's closer to 90K. Divide your automated-away figure by 5.

Re: I work in an Amazon warehouse in West Sacramento

#162

Post by WalterBright »

CPLX wrote: post #152
WalterBright wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fair enough, I agree he was being passive aggressive, but on the other hand, if someone is doing something that has the appearance of impropriety, it's a good idea to proactively bring it up with the boss to head off the suspicions.

There’s not a fucking thing that’s even slightly improper about taking your allotted PTO days.

It is improper to take sick leave if you're not sick. It wouldn't be improper if it is labeled PTO. I.e. it depends on how the policy is written.

Re: I work in an Amazon warehouse in West Sacramento

#163

Post by 4bpp »

komali2 wrote: post #51
ilaksh wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

State propaganda is a key function of mainstream outlets like the New York Times. Same in all countries. People just grow up brainwashed into thinking that their country has made a break from history.

What makes you believe the new York Times works with the US government to publish stories that benefit the interests of the US government? What mechanism do you believe the US government uses to reward the nytimes for publishing propaganda? Do they get a black money payment? Do they get not-jailed (as in China?)

One of the less speculative ones is that a lot of the NYT's glossy front-page publicism would be rendered much more difficult and expensive if government goodwill were withdrawn from it (and so it could no longer embed its staff with US military campaigns, would lose access to quotes from "anonymous defense officials" and what-not and might not be among the first to be informed if e.g. the government wants to tell the press that they shot down an Iranian drone). This probably extends to access to insiders who are not directly employed by the US government, but part of the wider "beltway culture" (work for think tanks, government contractors and sub^n-contractors etc.) and therefore under significant social (and maybe professional, to the extent they require security clearance) pressure to at least outwardly defend US government interests and shun those who are considered to be a risk to them.

Re: I work in an Amazon warehouse in West Sacramento

#164

Post by merb »

deogeo wrote: post #129
jacquesm wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here in NL employees get 2 full consecutive years of paid sick leave before you are allowed to terminate the contract.

I honestly think that's a terrible idea, and that paid sick leave should be paid not by the employer, but from taxes. Which should be raised slightly to cover such a policy. Otherwise, hiring someone presents a gigantic risk for smaller companies. Getting unlucky even once with someone that will use 1-2 years of sick leave (legitimately or not) would be enough to bankrupt them. In general I think making employers pay…

to add to the other german poster. in germany you are required to see a doctor to have a sick day. because a signed statement is needed for the company. they get money back from the insurance for the singed doctor statement.

Re: I work in an Amazon warehouse in West Sacramento

#165

Post by AlexCoventry »

komali2 wrote: post #51
ilaksh wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

State propaganda is a key function of mainstream outlets like the New York Times. Same in all countries. People just grow up brainwashed into thinking that their country has made a break from history.

What makes you believe the new York Times works with the US government to publish stories that benefit the interests of the US government? What mechanism do you believe the US government uses to reward the nytimes for publishing propaganda? Do they get a black money payment? Do they get not-jailed (as in China?)

Legacy of Ashes, p. 77:

> Dulles kept in close touch with the men who ran The New York Times, The Washington Post, and the nation's leading weekly magazines. He could pick up the phone and edit a breaking story, make sure an irritating foreign correspondent was yanked from the field, or hire the services of men such as Time's Berlin bureau chief and Newsweek's man in Tokyo. It was second nature for Dulles to plant stories in the press. American newsrooms were dominated by veterans of the government's wartime propaganda branch, the Office of War Information, once part of Wild Bill Donovan's domain. The men who responded to the CIA's call included Henry Luce and his editors at Time, Look, and Fortune; popular magazines such as Parade, the Saturday Review, and Reader's Digest; and the most powerful executives at CBS News. Dulles built a public-relations and propaganda machine that came to include more than fifty news organizations, a dozen publishing houses, and personal pledges of support from men such as Axel Springer, West Germany's most powerful press baron. Dulles wanted to be seen as the subtle master of a professional spy service. The press dutifully reflected that image. But the archives of the CIA tell a different story.

Re: I work in an Amazon warehouse in West Sacramento

#166

Post by zdragnar »

chrsstrm wrote: post #159
WalterBright wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fair enough, I agree he was being passive aggressive, but on the other hand, if someone is doing something that has the appearance of impropriety, it's a good idea to proactively bring it up with the boss to head off the suspicions.

What does "improper" mean and who gets to decide what actions are improper? Paid days are paid days and just because they have a certain name doesn't change a thing. Has anyone ever been accused of faking a vacation? Of course not, because that would be ridiculous. But since sick days are called sick days all of a sudden you need to prove you're bedridden or else face consequences? That's absurd. Treat your employees…

Sick days and vacation days typically have different notification requirements- in most places that had them I've worked at, it was 2 weeks for vacation and asap for sick leave. Vacation time could be denied if, say, the job involved time sensitive equipment or safety related tasks (I.e. nursing) and others had already requested the time off.

Abusing sick leave- depending on the job- has very real consequences for your coworkers and company, if someone absolutely has to pick up your slack.

Re: I work in an Amazon warehouse in West Sacramento

#167

Post by nerdponx »

vore wrote: post #7

The author seems to very much worry that negative press is going to be the cause of him losing his job due to automation: >Just about every job in my sortation center could probably be done by a robot. In fact, it amazes me that Amazon hasn’t simply automated the entire facility. [...] If I had to guess, I’d say that Amazon continues to employ lots of human beings because, by putting money into the pockets of working…

Yep. These lines made me squirm.

Amazon probably isn't a bad employer even by warehouse standards. But these kinds of statements are paternalistic propaganda on behalf of capital.

Re: I work in an Amazon warehouse in West Sacramento

#168

Post by rolltiide »

WalterBright wrote: post #113
jkaplowitz wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For vacation days, your point makes sense to me. For sick days, people don't get to choose when they get sick. Someone can just as easily get sick on day 1 or 2 of a job as on day 401 or 402.

I once talked to a manager about how he handed out raises. He mentioned one engineer who was sick exactly 10 days out of each year. Coincidentally, the company offered 10 days of paid sick leave a year. He laughed, and said she wasn't fooling anyone, and didn't give her a raise.

Paid sick days aren't just for when someone is contagious

Taking all 10 and just those has no indication on anything

Re: I work in an Amazon warehouse in West Sacramento

#169

Post by zdragnar »

hogu wrote: post #13
iamtheworstdev wrote: post #4

John Oliver did not say that Amazon had an employee die. John Oliver started off talking about Amazon and then switched the discussion to the companies trying to keep up with Amazon (in the order fulfillment business) which is where said death occurred. These competitors apparently have far worse employee treatment than Amazon but claim they have to in order to keep prices down due to Amazon's efficiency.

I believe the specific incident is xpo logistics https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/10/21/business/preg... For example, last October, a 58-year-old woman died of cardiac arrest on the warehouse floor after complaining to colleagues that she felt sick, according to a police report and current and former XPO employees. In Facebook posts at the time and in recent interviews, employees said supervisors told them to…

Well, it's not like they're going to be able to help her at that point. Might be that supervisors were just trying to get employees to clear out of the way of police ect. Without knowing the exact wording of what employees were told, it's kinda hard to judge the reaction.

Re: I work in an Amazon warehouse in West Sacramento

#170

Post by giaour »

wool_gather wrote: post #156
WalterBright wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Asking for a doctor's note is for children. These are professional adults. Often people who behave unethically at work believe they are getting away with it. But then they wonder why they don't get raises, are passed over for promotions, are let go in the first round of layoffs, and don't have the respect of their peers.

I mean, if that's the path we're going down...is telling someone they can only be sick for 10 days in a year treating them like a professional adult person in the first place?

You can take an unpaid leave if you need more. If you have temporary disability insurance through work (and I would imagine most US software developers do), you can file a claim to compensate you for lost wages due to a medical condition.
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