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The outcry over deaths on Amazon's warehouse floor

theguardian.com

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Re: The outcry over deaths on Amazon's warehouse floor

#51

Post by kube-system »

londons_explore wrote: post #39

Amazon has 250,000 hourly employees in the USA? Can it really take nearly 0.1% of the US workforce just to deliver online goods? And presumably that's an under-estimate, because it doesn't include most courier work. I was sort of hoping that every item I order on amazon has only perhaps 30 seconds of human time going into it... Assuming I order 3 items/week, and am typical of US citizens, amazon ought to be able to s…

They might have 0.1% of the workforce, but don’t forget that they’re 5% of the entire retail market and 49% of e-commerce.

Re: The outcry over deaths on Amazon's warehouse floor

#52

Post by kiterunner2346 »

I've taken Amazon's warehouse guided tours several times The surprise was that there is NO surprise: the entire process is merely the application of current technologies in warehousing and distribution, with humans in the few niches where machines are not quite "there" yet. in the places where humans are involved, there's just enough workspace so that, say, once Amazon develops a proper "binning" robot, the human can be fired and a machine rolled in to replace him/her.

Place was nicely put together though: all the screws and bolts tight, racks and tracks level and properly aligned, sensors everywhere on the production line ready to alert of any problem. So kudos to the guys and gals who put it together and lined it up! Looks like the U.S. Army put it together (well, actually, if the Army did it, it would be use better parts and be more sturdily constructed).

As for what it does, nothing there of interest to high tech.

Re: The outcry over deaths on Amazon's warehouse floor

#53

Post by jacobush »

GarrisonPrime wrote: post #44
Cthulhu_ wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is expected from a nominal workplace is that they spot someone collapsing on the floor and give that top priority - I mean the article mentions a 20 minute response time, that's not normal for a busy warehouse. Vs a 2 minute response time for making a mistake. Also, do you work or are you paid for by Amazon? It's known they pay people to say how great it is to work at Amazon on e.g. twitter - not dystopian at al…

Considering how many blind spots their warehouses must have, and how rarely many of the isles might be visited, I don’t think any special maleficence or irresponsibility is required for some down person to be missed for a while. Not saying they shouldn’t be fixing this problem, just that it seems like a problem even the most perfectly humane company could easily have. And you might want to check your paranoia. It doe…

Delusional... wow. Is it the same Amazon famous for avoiding profit for years to play the long game?

Re: The outcry over deaths on Amazon's warehouse floor

#54

Post by corodra »

2rsf wrote: post #13

Totally coincidental collection of cases about > delayed medical attention to a warehouse worker during a cardiac arrest I'm not trying to say that Amazon warehouses are a good place to work for, but if you want to be taken seriously make an effort to bring meaningful numbers. How many workers work at Amazon's warehouses ? 6 out of 125,000 [0] seems like a rather low rate Were there any laws or regulations broken ? W…

The biggest issue is that every single incident is met with some extremely poor response. How would you feel if your spouse or sibling was lying on the floor for 20 minutes before anyone noticed? But holy shit, they put an item in the wrong place, 60 second response on an ass chewing. Seriously, the "personal medical issue", if dealt with just as fast as the misplaced item, could have actually saved his life.

Timeliness and telling other people to just ignore what's going on and keep working... other companies give people the day off or quarantine the area. It's a pretty fucked up situation for a lot of people. This isn't the military. It's a warehouse fulfilling movies and other useless junk that half the customers don't even remember ordering. There's no real mission to trudge through other than making sure Bezos can buy something else shiny.

Re: The outcry over deaths on Amazon's warehouse floor

#55

Post by watt3rpig »

theguppydream wrote: post #27
blakesterz wrote: post #2

The story has a link to the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health’s 2019 Dirty Dozen list of the most dangerous employers in the United States. Facebook is on that list, which surprised me at first, but then I guess it made sense: ● Facebook contracts with outside companies for low-paid moderators who remove objectionable content from its global social network ● “Every day, every minute… heads being cut…

The Verge had a long read on life of Facebook moderators that is worth a read if you have the time. https://www.theverge.com/2019/2/25/18229714/cognizant-facebo...

I read it a while ago and wish I hadn’t. It was quite disturbing. Read at your own risk.

Re: The outcry over deaths on Amazon's warehouse floor

#56

Post by thedaemon »

GarrisonPrime wrote: post #44
Cthulhu_ wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is expected from a nominal workplace is that they spot someone collapsing on the floor and give that top priority - I mean the article mentions a 20 minute response time, that's not normal for a busy warehouse. Vs a 2 minute response time for making a mistake. Also, do you work or are you paid for by Amazon? It's known they pay people to say how great it is to work at Amazon on e.g. twitter - not dystopian at al…

Considering how many blind spots their warehouses must have, and how rarely many of the isles might be visited, I don’t think any special maleficence or irresponsibility is required for some down person to be missed for a while. Not saying they shouldn’t be fixing this problem, just that it seems like a problem even the most perfectly humane company could easily have. And you might want to check your paranoia. It doe…

Amazon barely makes a profit.... you are just strengthening their paranoia by making such ludicrous claims! Such assertions you make come off across as delusional and biased. Jeff Bezos' net worth is billions and billions. Yet, no profit here. Give us a break and continue to collect your paycheck form Amazon.

Re: The outcry over deaths on Amazon's warehouse floor

#57

Post by gridlockd »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #34
gridlockd wrote: post #24

> The incident is among the latest in a series of accidents and fatalities that have led to Amazon’s inclusion on the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health’s 2019 Dirty Dozen list of the most dangerous employers in the United States. Completely ridiculous. Look at the list: http://nationalcosh.org/sites/default/files/uploads/2019_Dir... In five out of these twelve, nobody actually died. Those may be shi…

I'll repeat my question I did to another one - are you employed by or paid by Amazon? "nobody died" is not good enough. Whataboutism is not a good counter-argument.

> I'll repeat my question I did to another one - are you employed by or paid by Amazon?

No.

> "nobody died" is not good enough. Whataboutism is not a good counter-argument.

I can guarantee you, there are 12 employers in the US which had multiple fatalities in the past year, most of them in construction. Therefore, on a list of "12 most dangerous employers", every single item should include a fatality. Otherwise, your list is bullshit.

Re: The outcry over deaths on Amazon's warehouse floor

#58

Post by thedaemon »

gridlockd wrote: post #30
mapcars wrote: post #3

What is strange to me is that after a series of such incidents workers don't go out on protest or something, given this is happening in the US.

Despite all the bad press, an Amazon warehouse worker job is still one of the better jobs you can get, at that level of employability.

No.

Re: The outcry over deaths on Amazon's warehouse floor

#59

Post by corodra »

Merrill wrote: post #5

A few cubes away from me one of our guys put his head down on his arms on his work surface. No one noticed, but he died. The guys holding a meeting in the cube across the aisle from him felt bad about it, but they thought he was taking a nap. Any large employer will have people die on the job.

Okay, but no one is picking up on the fact that the misplaced item mentioned was viewed on camera and dealt with in single digit minute response.

He collapsed on camera. 20+ minute response.

Re: The outcry over deaths on Amazon's warehouse floor

#60

Post by pardavis »

jrockway wrote: post #19
ct0 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you quit an amazon corporate position or a warehouse position? I'm sure the two are very very different so I would be impressed if you left the corporate position because of warehouse chatter. More recently I have been considering applying to a corporate position but would hate to feel the same way in a couple of years there.

I am guessing that the warehouse workers don't read "seattle-chatter" mailing lists or have lunch-area coffee to complain about.

Actually, pretty much every Amazon FC (at least in North America) has free coffee machines in the breakrooms. Some FCs have really bad coffee, but it is there and it is free. It used to cost money at some sites (to pay for the vending machine) but based on associate feedback it is now broad policy to be free.

I work in a corp office where the coffee is far worse than many FCs I've been to.

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