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

Amazon warehouse workers 'peed in bottles' fearing punishment for taking breaks

pulse.ng

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

181–190 of 721 posts

Re: Amazon warehouse workers 'peed in bottles' fearing punishment for taking breaks

#181

Post by kamaal »

TaylorAlexander wrote: post #47

My fear is that the future of work for most people is not unemployment, but shitty jobs like this. My feeling is that in order to avoid this and prosper, the people need to own the robots that do all the work (Marxism heyy). If robots provide huge productivity gains, then they will provide those gains for their owners. If it’s the big corporations that own them, they will see the gains. But as long as people are trea…

>>What do you all think of this?

Most of the software world made its choice. Remember the Open source movement is a political movement and not a software movement.

The point of Open source is to control the source or precisely 'Own the means of production'.

Re: Amazon warehouse workers 'peed in bottles' fearing punishment for taking breaks

#182

Post by ekianjo »

baby wrote: post #105
noonespecial wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But I do already own some of the robots. I have Amazon stock in my 401k. That's what "the people owning the robots" looks like. What you're getting at is that there are many people right now who are too poor (and are going to be too poor) to ever own any part of the robots. This century's great debate is forming up to be whether or not we should give them some anyway even though they can't "earn" it for whatever movi…

In a few centuries students in history classes will look back and try to understand why we let our people die in the streets.

we just halved poverty in the world in the past 20 years. Time to check your facts again.

Re: Amazon warehouse workers 'peed in bottles' fearing punishment for taking breaks

#184

Post by s73v3r_ »

matte_black wrote: post #26
LinuxBender wrote: post #15

Doesn't this affect more than the employees? If they are peeing in a bottle, shouldn't they sanitize their hands after touching their package so they can safely handle our packages? Should I be inspecting the inner contents using a black light?

They shouldn’t be pissing in a bottle period, they should be taking a break, they are just scared to. No one is forcing them to pee in a bottle.

If your livelihood is going to be taken away because you committed the grave sin of actually going to use the facilities, I would definitely call that force.

Re: Amazon warehouse workers 'peed in bottles' fearing punishment for taking breaks

#185

Post by ComodoHacker »

TaylorAlexander wrote: post #47

My fear is that the future of work for most people is not unemployment, but shitty jobs like this. My feeling is that in order to avoid this and prosper, the people need to own the robots that do all the work (Marxism heyy). If robots provide huge productivity gains, then they will provide those gains for their owners. If it’s the big corporations that own them, they will see the gains. But as long as people are trea…

>Instead, if the people own the machines collectively, then they can enjoy the productivity gains themselves as a group.

Isn't this basically a corporation?

Re: Amazon warehouse workers 'peed in bottles' fearing punishment for taking breaks

#186

Post by [deleted] »

aylmao wrote: post #121
noonespecial wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But I do already own some of the robots. I have Amazon stock in my 401k. That's what "the people owning the robots" looks like. What you're getting at is that there are many people right now who are too poor (and are going to be too poor) to ever own any part of the robots. This century's great debate is forming up to be whether or not we should give them some anyway even though they can't "earn" it for whatever movi…

> But I do already own some of the robots. I have Amazon stock in my 401k. That's what "the people owning the robots" looks like. Is it though? Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't stock only generates value if it increases in price (or the company decides it wants to pay dividends), and not directly from the productivity of robots? To put it a bit more clearly, your stock only makes you money if Amazon keeps growing…

[deleted]

Re: Amazon warehouse workers 'peed in bottles' fearing punishment for taking breaks

#187

Post by [deleted] »

80386 wrote: post #151
toomuchtodo wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you can't grow your business to be a monstrosity without treating your employees like slaves, your business should not exist.

I work at an Amazon warehouse. I'd rather be able to do that and write code on the side than be unemployed and have to live with my parents in the middle of nowhere. My parents don't even have an internet connection.

[deleted]

Re: Amazon warehouse workers 'peed in bottles' fearing punishment for taking breaks

#188

Post by gascan »

jrochkind1 wrote: post #27
atrexler wrote: post #23

Long-haul truckers have been doing this for decades for the same reason-- they don't have time to pull over and use the restroom-- and no one is upset about that. I'm sure there are many industries, white and blue collar, where similar norms are expressed. Edit to add: I'm not endorsing the practice in any industry at all, just pointing out that its not a unique problem to Amazon. My comment would have been better ph…

wait, you're sure there are many industries, white and blue collar, where workers routinely pee in bottles as a job requirement? Really? In the U.S.? You're pretty sure about this, eh? Many industries? I'd be curious to hear an example of one industry where "white collar" workers routinely pee in bottles as a job requirement, official or unofficial.

as a job requirement

If truckers are doing that, it's probably not a job requirement per se. My shallow understanding of the industry is you get paid by the load, especially if you're independent.

Turning an old racing adage on its head- the faster you are, the more money you make. How much money do you want to make?

Re: Amazon warehouse workers 'peed in bottles' fearing punishment for taking breaks

#189

Post by progval »

baby wrote: post #105
noonespecial wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But I do already own some of the robots. I have Amazon stock in my 401k. That's what "the people owning the robots" looks like. What you're getting at is that there are many people right now who are too poor (and are going to be too poor) to ever own any part of the robots. This century's great debate is forming up to be whether or not we should give them some anyway even though they can't "earn" it for whatever movi…

In a few centuries students in history classes will look back and try to understand why we let our people die in the streets.

You're assuming it will get better in the future.

Re: Amazon warehouse workers 'peed in bottles' fearing punishment for taking breaks

#190

Post by hajile »

atrexler wrote: post #49
jrochkind1 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

wait, you're sure there are many industries, white and blue collar, where workers routinely pee in bottles as a job requirement? Really? In the U.S.? You're pretty sure about this, eh? Many industries? I'd be curious to hear an example of one industry where "white collar" workers routinely pee in bottles as a job requirement, official or unofficial.

Sure, I can't tell you about white collar folks pissing in bottles, I may have exaggerated there. But in healthcare (for nurses, therapists, aides) its quite prevalent that people don't drink/eat enough at work nor do they take proscribed breaks because productivity standards are so high. Look I'm not saying its right or fair or good. I'm simply pointing out that its not unique to Amazon.

Quite true (especially for CNA, techs, etc). I worked that job for a while in my late teens. Never take breaks, clock out for lunch then go back to work. Finish your 12.5 hour shift, but have to spend a bit more time off the clock finalizing everything and handing off to the next person.

All that said, it's apples and oranges. Healthcare is that way because the government regulates and pays. They'll basically tell a nursing home that they have to take care of a person and then tell that same facility how much they will be paid. Government regulation of facility standards and market costs dictate that part of the equation. The only part that can be flexed is the worker, so the workers are stiffed and mistreated to make the budget balance.

This is not the case with Amazon. They don't have a government dictating all the rules forcing the workers into bad situations. They simply do it to profit off their worker's misery.

Post reply on HN