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Leaked Amazon memo warns the company is running out of people to hire

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Re: Leaked Amazon memo warns the company is running out of people to hire

#81

Post by youessayyyaway »

I think this article might bury the lede a bit:

>Walmart is offering some workers with past warehouse experience as much as $25 an hour. An Amazon executive told Reuters in late 2021 that the company was bumping the average starting wage for new hires in the US to more than $18 an hour, attributing the decision to intense competition among employers.

People used to work for Amazon warehouses in the 2010s because $15/hr was a much better wage than they could find elsewhere in their geographic location.

After the pandemic and ongoing inflation, it's not difficult to find easier work which pays better. Amazon responded with a token raise that doesn't even cover CoL adjustments, but history shows that they need to pay well above market rates to hire the quantity of people that they need.

It's funny to see this dynamic at a time when the federal minimum wage is still stuck at $7.25/hr.

Re: Leaked Amazon memo warns the company is running out of people to hire

#82

Post by peyton »

_dqna wrote: post #41
throwaway894345 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hadn't really thought before about how left-wing folks typically want higher wages as well as more mass immigration which inherently suppresses wages. In their defense, they want raises waged by law rather than by market (an elevated minimum wage would raise wages irrespective of immigration), but considering how unlikely a minimum federal wage hike is, it seems like they're pursuing two contradictory goals. EDIT:…

[flagged]

Well Jeff Bezos wants to help people by supporting mass immigration as his father benefited from “grit, determination, and the support and kindness of people here in the U.S.,” but perhaps there is somebody more opportunistic and less altruistic than Jeff Bezos who might try to take advantage of such policies? Such a person may even lie about their motives.

Re: Leaked Amazon memo warns the company is running out of people to hire

#83

Post by azemetre »

mtnGoat wrote: post #61
azemetre wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's kind of interesting because Amazon has built a reputation for being absolutely ruthless to their workers (not just delivery or warehouse). You have the notorious NYT article from 2015 (the article mentions this): https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/16/technology/inside-amazon-... The online perception is that it has only gotten worse. It doesn't take much to find stories on teamblind, twitter, reddit, or even hacker…

Always remember there are many sides to most stories. I have a cousin who works at an Amazon warehouse and loves it, he says it’s the funnest and most rewarding job he has had. He’s in his late 40s and has worked all kinda of jobs. His schedule allows him a lot of work life balance, he knows exactly what is expected of him and advancement is possible and also easy to understand. In fact he said he doesn’t understand…

I don't need many sides of a story when there is one damning example of a human needing to see a medical professional then getting fired shortly after because no leader at Amazon took 5 seconds to think if this was compassionate or not.

Why should I give Amazon the benefit of the doubt when they have proven time and time again to be actively hostile and dehumanizing? Maybe we should expect Amazon to not treat their fellow humans as some flesh automaton and just be decent for a change.

Re: Leaked Amazon memo warns the company is running out of people to hire

#86

Post by reaperducer »

happytoexplain wrote: post #60
reaperducer wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hadn't really thought before about how left-wing folks Can't HN be the one place on the internet that isn't sullied by tribalism?

I don't see that as tribalistic/negative language at all. However, I do see it in the unqualified assertion that left-wing people want "more mass immigration", which seems misleading and tangential to their actual desires (which seem to be more about treating immigrants better and allowing more cases of legitimate asylum seeking, rather than actively seeking "more" and "massive" immigration in the general case). Even…

I don't see that as tribalistic/negative language at all.

Left wing is a tribe. Right wing is a tribe. Just like all the sportsball teams are tribes.

Politics would work better if politicians, and their followers, worked for people, rather than their tribes.

Re: Leaked Amazon memo warns the company is running out of people to hire

#88

Post by taway2dfadf4 »

azemetre wrote: post #31
crikeyjoe wrote: post #8

There's no shortage of workers, there's a shortage of workers wanting to work for Amazon.

It's kind of interesting because Amazon has built a reputation for being absolutely ruthless to their workers (not just delivery or warehouse). You have the notorious NYT article from 2015 (the article mentions this): https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/16/technology/inside-amazon-... The online perception is that it has only gotten worse. It doesn't take much to find stories on teamblind, twitter, reddit, or even hacker…

>> It's kind of interesting because Amazon has built a reputation for being absolutely ruthless to their workers (not just delivery or warehouse).

Even if Amazon changed their policies, I'd be cautious about any AMZN managers or directors. The fact that they survived there, or thrived, means they are probably ruthless and I wouldnt want to work with such an individual (or hire them, for that matter.)

Re: Leaked Amazon memo warns the company is running out of people to hire

#89

Post by azemetre »

mtnGoat wrote: post #63
zwieback wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not really what the article says - Amazon's enforced-churn policy leads to workers that want to continue working there being fired for no good reason.

You could argue the reason is that they weren’t good enough.

Needing to see a doctor suddenly means you're a poor worker?

Re: Leaked Amazon memo warns the company is running out of people to hire

#90

Post by alangibson »

ramesh31 wrote: post #59
alangibson wrote: post #22

The Fed is about to induce 3 years worth of rising unemployment by their own estimates, so the days of workers not needing to take crap jobs out of desperation will soon be at an end. https://qz.com/2178359/the-fed-predicts-3-years-of-rising-un...

This is the sad reality. The associated wage stabilization is going to be necessary for us to control inflation. SWEs probably don't need worry about remaining employed, but the days of salary wars will be over.

> The associated wage stabilization is going to be necessary for us to control inflation.

It won't. Everyone involved in business dealing with physical goods knows it's a supply side problem.

Fiscal policy will do little to control inflation at this time. The Fed of course knows this.

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