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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

#41
I don't have much of a problem with the argument that worker conditions are bad and should be improved. It's a valid subjective call. But I'm more skeptical of this argument:

> Although it may seem like the company is saving money — because you don’t have to provide temporary workers with medical coverage or paid vacation time — the revolving door of new hires encourages low quality work, inconsistent productivity and wastes useful resources on training.

I find it very hard to believe that an Amazon contract worker, based on his experience, is more qualified than Amazon management to judge whether this practice is financially good for Amazon.

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

#42
post #5

Speaking as a developer at Amazon.com, what contractors? I've never met any, and I only have heard of one who left a while ago. Edit later: Developer contractors at least. I mean, sure, cleaning staff are contractors/temps.

I've been a dev at Amazon. They don't hire devs as contractors. They hire the people that support the devs. Testers, validators, vetters, etc. If you need someone to manually poke, prod, click on a button all day long, they hire temps for that. The testers for our app were temps, same thing with the people that would click the "approve" button on user submitted images or uploads.

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

#43

Ama-Mart Wal-zon Take your pick. I don't care whether you are "online" or off. Treat your workers like shit -- yes, your workers, you wankers; I don't care what shell employment manoeuvring you use -- and run a business model that takes advantage of, if it's not outright predicated upon, the public dole, and I will be disinclined to send my business your way. Other readers here: If you don't like it, vote with your d…

I sometimes think that tech is worse than banking. Banking is about being "in the club", but if you ask them behind closed doors they know what they're doing. While in tech people seem to actually believe they are righteous. Looking at organizational structures law firms, somewhat paradoxical, seems much better than both tech and banking.

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

#44
post #9

Did this person actually go ahead and apply for any other full time jobs that were on offer on the amazon job site? I have seen this before where people expected to be presented full time jobs, when all they needed was a little prodding to go through the hoop jumping and formally apply.

A few of the temps, who had been on the project since X-Ray’s inception, applied for the now vacant position of project manager. I was convinced the position would be filled by one of two individuals who had trained me and acted as point people for questions and concerns when the manager was in a meeting. None of the temps who applied for the position got it, which most of us on the team found confusing because they…

That doesn't confirm that he applied for anything at all.

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

#45
> An outsider was brought in who knew nothing about X-Ray. I was later told the new manger was hired based on management experience. She spent her first week being trained by one of the temps who had been deemed unqualified for the product manager position. After spending a week training the manager, and being her go-to person for the next three weeks whenever there was a problem, he was let go because he reached the maximum of eleven months on his contract. Since the new manager never completely grasped the program, she asked a select few of the oldest temps to train the newest temps. It seemed to me that these people were not chosen based on merit or capability, but more like she was putting together her own collection of “cool” kids. The best way to be put in a leadership role was be a pretty girl or a dude who used liberal amounts of Axe hair gel.

I can't figure out what's going on here. Who is "her" and who is "him"?

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

#46
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The worker was grateful for the opportunity, and enjoyed his time at Amazon, though he felt unmotivated toward the end. He was paid fairly, and presumably commensurately to either his skills, experience, or what he was willing to accept. He entered into the contract freely, was not abused by the employer in any way, and knew full well going in that his employment term would be most likely limited to 12 months. Yet st…

'Freedom' becomes a slippery concept when you're dealing with contracts of adhesion, though. Non-executive workers have little or no negotiating power over their terms of employment, and the greater the asymmetry the less of a free economic choice it is. Obviously he's not that happy about it or he wouldn't have written this screed.

Is there research to back this up? Ie is it really the case that 'non-executive' workers have no negotiating power? Is this true in all sectors or only some? Anecdotally I've seen instances where non-execs successfully negotiated a salary increase, etc.

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

#47

Ama-Mart Wal-zon Take your pick. I don't care whether you are "online" or off. Treat your workers like shit -- yes, your workers, you wankers; I don't care what shell employment manoeuvring you use -- and run a business model that takes advantage of, if it's not outright predicated upon, the public dole, and I will be disinclined to send my business your way. Other readers here: If you don't like it, vote with your d…

I downvoted you because your comment doesn't recognize the context of the article. It's not about being treated poorly, but making stupid decisions that lead to poor product.

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

#48

Ama-Mart Wal-zon Take your pick. I don't care whether you are "online" or off. Treat your workers like shit -- yes, your workers, you wankers; I don't care what shell employment manoeuvring you use -- and run a business model that takes advantage of, if it's not outright predicated upon, the public dole, and I will be disinclined to send my business your way. Other readers here: If you don't like it, vote with your d…

If you believe the workers are taken advantage of, could be managed in a different way that increases productivity, or providing far more value than they are paid, then you have an opportunity to start a business and profit handsomely at the expense of those "wankers".

For some reason all the people making those observations never seem to start those businesses to show the "bad" guys up.

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

#49
> 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 these people do, they shouldn't assume that there is an unending supply of people waiting to fill these positions.

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

#50
post #45

> An outsider was brought in who knew nothing about X-Ray. I was later told the new manger was hired based on management experience. She spent her first week being trained by one of the temps who had been deemed unqualified for the product manager position. After spending a week training the manager, and being her go-to person for the next three weeks whenever there was a problem, he was let go because he reached the…

her is the new manager

him is the temp who trained her

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