Amazon accused of using algorithms to push warehouse workers to breaking point.
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You deserve to be there or they wouldn't have hired you. You work with smart people who know their shit. They wouldn't have you there if you didn't contribute.
However remember that as soon as it starts to get bad jump ship or form a union. You only matter until that tiny company gets bought up by another larger company....like Amazon.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mergers_and_acquisitions_by_Amazon
With the impending financial crisis expect there to be a lot of "consolidation" in the market.
Thanks for the info.
We will definitely never be bought out by another company. Both the owners are also software engineers and are not in it for loads of money.
So we don’t actively look for new clients as we find that since we are so fair and work well with our clients we get a lot of repeat business and word of mouth means a lot of people recommend us.
This is part of why they increased our pay and reduced our hours, because they were in a position to be able to do that and they truly put life first then work. So there is literally no chance we would ever start ramping up our need for more clients or trying to sell the business.
As an example we could quote a client £30,000 for an application and write a very thorough specification and timescale. But then a year later we could still be making changes for the client at no extra cost as the boss takes the approach if the requests seems reasonable then we will do it. We make a fortune on hosting applications and servers for all clients anyway that it all evens out in the end.
Honestly it’s really hard for me to articulate what kind of a place it is and how they show everyday that they do care about us all. They don’t really like remote work but I’ve had car issues for over a year and they’re happy for me to do 2 days in office and 2.5 days at home. Now that the car situation is sorted but money is tight for a new one particular with the mileage I would do they just said nah the current situation is working for you and us so let’s just keep doing that.
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Thanks for the info.
We will definitely never be bought out by another company. Both the owners are also software engineers and are not in it for loads of money.
So we don’t actively look for new clients as we find that since we are so fair and work well with our clients we get a lot of repeat business and word of mouth means a lot of people recommend us.
This is part of why they increased our pay and reduced our hours, because they were in a position to be able to do that and they truly put life first then work. So there is literally no chance we would ever start ramping up our need for more clients or trying to sell the business.
As an example we could quote a client £30,000 for an application and write a very thorough specification and timescale. But then a year later we could still be making changes for the client at no extra cost as the boss takes the approach if the requests seems reasonable then we will do it. We make a fortune on hosting applications and servers for all clients anyway that it all evens out in the end.
Honestly it’s really hard for me to articulate what kind of a place it is and how they show everyday that they do care about us all. They don’t really like remote work but I’ve had car issues for over a year and they’re happy for me to do 2 days in office and 2.5 days at home. Now that the car situation is sorted but money is tight for a new one particular with the mileage I would do they just said nah the current situation is working for you and us so let’s just keep doing that.
Glad to hear it. Hopefully you have a long tenure there and the company grows at a sustainable rate. You're in like 1% of the market.
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Glad to hear it. Hopefully you have a long tenure there and the company grows at a sustainable rate. You're in like 1% of the market.
Thank you.
Yes I am aware and that’s funny is when I was interviewing for my first junior dev role I was so frustrated that none of the larger companies seemed to like me, I really sucked at interviewing and as I have ADHD I either overshare way too much or just blob the interview.
Now speaking to people I trained with who were hired by the likes of Goldman Sachs (they only took degree people) they all hate it. Like they got put on temp contracts and won’t be made permanent. Some women went in from Google and said why you paying these engineers so much get them out of the country to somewhere where labour is cheaper.
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This is what every big company does just sometimes without the algo. This is why we need unions
Not just unions, but also a functional Dept of Justice that hands out criminal charges for these criminal offenses.
Paying a fine is NOT adequate. The historical alternative was workers pulling the executives out of their houses in the night and burning down the factory.
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Me 8 years ago:
I'm absolutely not getting a job at amazon, or ups, or usps. I'm not taking a job where you don't have permission to pee. I'm a human being. I don't care if I'm the president of the united states giving a state of the union address live on tv. If I have to pee, I'd tell the camera "Hey America, go grab a snack or something. I'll be right back in like 2 minutes." Fuck it, if I gotta pee, that's just what I'm going to do. Fuck your profits for 3 minutes. I'M expelling waste.
And then my sister is like "it's not that bad."
Then me reading news 6 years ago that an amazon worker died of a heart attack and his coworkers didn't even stop to call 911.
My sister thinks I made that up.
Before the internet, people would say some ignorant shit and we'd all just carry it around like a nugget of gold.
People still say ignorant shit, but now at least we can mark them for their nonsense and ignore their opinions.
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USPS is unionized. No cameras, Way less micro-management, and you can pee when you want to.
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Amazon has used tricks, algorithms, and surveillance to discourage warehouse employees from unionizing, according to a paper published in the journal Socius.
Amazon doesn't sell anything you can't buy somewhere else for the same price. You have no excuse to keep using Amazon. Correction, I'm sure people who buy from Amazon have excuses, but they aren't good ones.
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Not just unions, but also a functional Dept of Justice that hands out criminal charges for these criminal offenses.
Paying a fine is NOT adequate. The historical alternative was workers pulling the executives out of their houses in the night and burning down the factory.
FYI they even don't pay a fine when they break the National Labor Relations Act.
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Amazon doesn't sell anything you can't buy somewhere else for the same price. You have no excuse to keep using Amazon. Correction, I'm sure people who buy from Amazon have excuses, but they aren't good ones.
There actually are things that one just cannot find elsewhere easily, and most of the places that reliably carry them locally are places like Walmart which aren’t better. That said, it’s always the very last place I look.
With all this nonsense I’m going to start asking local stores if they can order stuff for me, though, and just be extra patient. For example, it’s wild how little there is for mandolins at local music stores but at least the British strings I’m going to try switching to are there so that’s something.
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USPS isn't all sunshine and rainbows. I know multiple regional managers and local district managers as well as post masters. It's a very tough demanding and long job.
A single delivery driver can deliver 630am till 1030pm and still not have all the mail out. While head quarters will deny adding drivers to routes or changing anything to ease the loads.
Don't get me started on mentioning package theft, insurance claims, and other related issues.
People gotta start working the hours they’re paid for. If I’m working my shift well then it’s not my fault that the company is understaffed and I am not gunna bust my ass to cover for someone’s poor leadership.
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“Accused”? It couldn’t be more obvious.
It’s nothing new; I worked in a call center 15 years ago where the algorithms were designed to work them as hard as possible and steal commissions because they were too tired to pay attention. I should know because they told me to do that, I refused, and was fired for it.
Same old trick in a new venue. This has been happening for a long time in Asian warehousing, but has hopped the pond this last decade or so. Worker's efficiency is set to a certain rate of efficiency, then they're reprimanded/fired for failing to meet it. The catch is that it's a challenging pace to begin with, and the window for successful completion almost-imperceptibly narrows, eventually becoming so ludicrously small that they must injure or maim themselves trying to beat it or even match the pace. Once they quit or cripple themselves, the company simply slides in a new candidate who doesn't yet understand just how Hellacious the work is.
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Amazon doesn't sell anything you can't buy somewhere else for the same price. You have no excuse to keep using Amazon. Correction, I'm sure people who buy from Amazon have excuses, but they aren't good ones.
There was a “don’t use Amazon for a week” boycott thing at the beginning of March. It shocked me how quickly I lost the urge to just go order stuff the moment I thought of it. After the week was over I just kept not ordering stuff (with the exception of a subscription that came through).
Definitely at least helped me cut back.
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Before the internet, people would say some ignorant shit and we'd all just carry it around like a nugget of gold.
People still say ignorant shit, but now at least we can mark them for their nonsense and ignore their opinions.
Best way I've ever heard it described was that before the Internet, every village had it's idiot... "Hatians are eating pets? What? Oh, you were talking to Jerry."
Now, all the village idiots have glommed into each other and retweet the insanity back and forth until it takes on a life of it's own. "Buttery males!" and "adrenochrome extractions happening in basements of pizza places" etc etc etc.
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There actually are things that one just cannot find elsewhere easily, and most of the places that reliably carry them locally are places like Walmart which aren’t better. That said, it’s always the very last place I look.
With all this nonsense I’m going to start asking local stores if they can order stuff for me, though, and just be extra patient. For example, it’s wild how little there is for mandolins at local music stores but at least the British strings I’m going to try switching to are there so that’s something.
Wow, had no idea amazon was the only online marketplace. If we didnt have amazon, wed have to go back to thrift stores or some shit until some genius figures out how to take orders and ship goods far away again.
Also, musicians love to talk about music, and tend to work in music stores. Start calling around, they dont need to be local, most will ship to you.
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40 hours of personal time granted every week is great too
Wtf is this? You have 168 personal hours every week. It is not at the decision of your employer.
You misunderstood. What I meant is that for every hour you work, you get an hour of paid time off. So if you work 40 hours, you could go the entire next week without showing up to work at all if you wanted to.
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As someone who worked there for a year
In the warehouse?
Of course. You wouldn't want to drive for them. The stupid AI cameras are always watching. In the warehouse nobody pays attention to you.
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Amazon doesn't sell anything you can't buy somewhere else for the same price. You have no excuse to keep using Amazon. Correction, I'm sure people who buy from Amazon have excuses, but they aren't good ones.
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Amazon doesn't sell anything you can't buy somewhere else for the same price. You have no excuse to keep using Amazon. Correction, I'm sure people who buy from Amazon have excuses, but they aren't good ones.
You can often find it cheaper than what the price is on Amazon
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Amazon has used tricks, algorithms, and surveillance to discourage warehouse employees from unionizing, according to a paper published in the journal Socius.
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Amazon doesn't sell anything you can't buy somewhere else for the same price. You have no excuse to keep using Amazon. Correction, I'm sure people who buy from Amazon have excuses, but they aren't good ones.
