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

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

#421

Post by frgtpsswrdlame »

fastball wrote: post #396
frgtpsswrdlame wrote: post #363

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>had marx seen the soviet union at its prime he would have probably revised his own theory. Actually I don't think so. Even Marx saw that socialism was a stage of history which followed from capitalism. In the same way that feudalism's aristocracy provides the conditions which create a merchant class that eventually overthrows the aristocracy, Marx sees capitalism and capitalists as providing the conditions which cre…

You don't think stagnation in wages can be attributed to the massive increase in women in the workforce? Supply and demand, after all.

Overall I think the point is who cares what caused an increase in labor supply? It doesn't matter from where Marx's reserve army originates, just that capitalists desire and ensure that it exists to the detriment of the working class.

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

#422

Post by hathawsh »

delecti wrote: post #409
hathawsh wrote: post #376

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's mysterious for me is just how much less Costco charges for staples than Amazon does. For example, for Honey Bunches of Oats cereal, Costco charges $0.15 per ounce (if you buy it locally), while Amazon charges $0.52 per ounce. Sometimes Costco even cuts 25% off that price. Bezos has a very long way to go if he wants to conquer that market! https://www.costco.com/Post-Honey-Bunches-of-Oats-with-Almon... https://…

That product isn't sold by Amazon, but by some other seller. A comparable product (though sans Almonds) sold by Amazon through their grocery delivery service is also $0.15/oz. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00IAE91AI/ref=afx_dp_ingr...

Ah, I suppose I didn't see that because Amazon Fresh is not available in my market.

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

#423

Post by wehadfun »

rconti wrote: post #315
CamTin wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't find a way that $500 per month adds up to "multi-million dollar net worth". Even at a very optimistic 10% return rate, it comes to just over 1.1 million over thirty years. What assumptions are you making in your calculation to come up with 2million+ at retirement from $500 per month of savings?

... and how is spending $0 on transportation a reasonable solution, anyway?

It's not. Even if you walked to your job. The additional money you would pay in rent / time / uber is not worth it. Just buy a car unless you live in an actual pedestrian city.

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

#424

Post by rland »

Is this worth it? Is this worth having the ability to pick between 10,000 different toasters via internet and have them delivered to your doorstep in 2 days?

Sometimes I look at society as a complete organ, with a hypothetical ability to make cohesive decisions for itself. And I think, it is making extremely self-destructive choices. All for the sake of satisfying the urge to buy more, at lower prices, with more convenience.

I wonder how much of the stuff in those warehouses is utter garbage that gets bought and used just once.

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

#425

Post by kendallpark »

amyjess wrote: post #386
cafard wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, long-haul truckers are required to keep logs showing that they are taking adequate rest: the public doesn't want people stoned on lack of sleep to be driving big rigs. Do a lot of long-haul truckers falsify their logs? So I understand. But I suspect they get more slack.

> Do a lot of long-haul truckers falsify their logs? So I understand. Companies have been moving to electronic logs to try and stop this. I don't know how successful this has been.

> Companies have been moving to electronic logs to try and stop this. I don't know how successful this has been.

I hear there is pushback from drivers about this. Say you're 20 minutes from home, truck is not empty, and you've hit your driving limit for the day. With a paper log you might fudge the numbers so you can get home, see your family, sleep in your own bed. With an electronic log you're not making it home that night.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Truckers/comments/5z4f7l/can_we_tal...

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

#426

Post by atourgates »

rando444 wrote: post #13
notheguyouthink wrote: post #2

Are Amazon's margins razor thin? I'm trying to understand what compels them to be so toxic in their work environment. Especially compared to the people I know who work at Costco, I struggle to understand why Costco treats employees so well, and Amazon treats their employees so poorly. It's really sad, regardless.

Costco employees interact with customers.. Having a healthy interaction with customers is important, and treating employees well goes a long way in helping grow a customer base. Customers will never interact with the person that boxes their amazon shipment. Those individuals are not seen as people, but just a necessity to continue operations.

But the real reason is the culture promoted by the founders.

Costco's Jim Sinegal steadfastly refused to cut employee pay and benefits to satisfy investor's demands. That kind of "employee first" thinking starts at the top and filters down throughout the entire organization.

Even if you're being charitable towards Bezos' attitude towards employees, it's clear that people aren't his focus. He's focused on automation, growth and performance. That kind of thinking also starts at the top, and filters down through the rest of the organization.

I remember reading a profile of Zappos around the time they were acquired by Amazon, that highlighted the differences between the two companies. Zappos built its brand on legendary customer service, and there are all kinds of stories about how the retailer empowering its reps to offer customer service that goes above and beyond. Things like sending flowers to a customer's hospital room.

In contrast, at Amazon, every time a customer has to interact with a human, it's seen as a failure. The goal is to remove human contact from the sales process as much as possible.

With that attitude, it's no wonder that employee wellbeing isn't a major focus.

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

#427

Post by sudhirj »

kajumix wrote: post #282
kelukelugames wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bezos. Jeff Bezos is the reason why Amazon treats workers they way they do. Compared to other tech giants, Amazon is incredibly anti-employee. Look at how their stocks vest. I worked at Microsoft during Balmer's reign. The founder/CEO's attitude dictates the work culture. And causes harm if it's bad. I live in Seattle and often hear this joke: Being an Amazon customer is the best. An investor is great. An employee no…

Judging from some of the comments here, software engineers working in Amazon must either be stupid or irrational to continue working there, given the market for software engineers. Amazon is a highly successful company with significant anticipate growth still to come. All that success doesn't come without talent. So maybe not stupid, maybe just irrational? Tech companies in general, and Amazon in particular, are high…

At the risk of rehashing other comments here, software devs at Amazon are profit centers - when they work the company gains exponentially more value than it pays them. A good engineer retained can often deliver 2X to 10X the value of a new hire. The company treats them them accordingly.

Warehouse employees are cost centers. They're replaceable pseudo-robots that are filling in the gaps until the engineers mentioned above finish building the real ones. A new worker at a cheaper rate is objectively better than retaining one, because the number of boxes packed tends to increase inversely proportional with age and tenure. The company treats them accordingly.

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

#428

Post by Dylan16807 »

rland wrote: post #424

Is this worth it? Is this worth having the ability to pick between 10,000 different toasters via internet and have them delivered to your doorstep in 2 days? Sometimes I look at society as a complete organ, with a hypothetical ability to make cohesive decisions for itself. And I think, it is making extremely self-destructive choices. All for the sake of satisfying the urge to buy more, at lower prices, with more conv…

We can have both. Amazon isn't going to implode if they pay some extra pennies for reasonable working conditions.

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

#429

Post by graeme »

vkou wrote: post #380
graeme wrote: post #373

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Energy wasn't sufficient, but it likely was necessary. That said, the energy was lying around all through history, so something exogenous got people to use it. And to develop the technology to do so.

> so something exogenous got people to use it. And to develop the technology to do so. That was James Watt's steam engine, which was efficient at turning combustion into mechanical motion, and it was happenstance that it was invented in 1780, and not 1580, or 1980. People didn't suddenly develop a need to move heavy things in 1780 - it came around then because of advances in steelwork, precision manufacturing, and ge…

Though why were they in development? This article says an early one was developed in 1698, to pump water from a coal mine:

http://www.his.com/~pshapiro/steam.engines.html

Why was there a coal mine? Why not use wood or charcoal? Why didn't the Romans go down this path? They invented a toy steam engine.

These things have many causes. Obviously watson's invention was a big inflection point.

But, as for the question "were liberal markets necessary?" my suspicion is yes. But, I don't actually know. I think the answer begins before James Watt.

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

#430

Post by billmalarky »

creep wrote: post #92
marsrover wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not eating or drinking enough is a whole different ballgame than pissing in a bottle.

You're right: not eating and drinking enough is damaging to your long-term health and well-being, while pissing in a bottle damages your pride.

>not eating and drinking enough is damaging to your long-term health and well-being, while pissing in a bottle damages your pride.

You're forgetting the end game here where employees simply consume less water in order to have less bathroom breaks.

Constant dehydration is quite damaging to ones longterm health.

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