Amazon accused of using algorithms to push warehouse workers to breaking point.
Amazon accused of using algorithms to push warehouse workers to breaking point.
: Web souk hits back at critical study into union drive at package depot
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.
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.
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.
“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.
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.
FYI they even don't pay a fine when they break the National Labor Relations Act.
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.
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.
It really is that bad though, I used to think I was insane when I worked customer service call centre roles and they’d say (like all places I worked), without laughing, that we should get there 15 minutes before our shift to load all our systems. So basically work 75 mins for free each week. Whilst at the same time they pay as little as legally required and monitor your toilet breaks about 9 mins a day.
So naturally I am against this and push back and they say you gotta do it. And I’m like like fuck I do bro I could leave this job now and get another one tomorrow. In the end I was ready to die on this hill so I go in 15 mins early and at the end of the day I log off 15 mins early to get my coat on. Suffice to say I was no longer required to log in early. Most people did it though.
Now to contrast this I am a software developer who has got lucky at a small company, tiny actually. They really care about the staff and the clients. I’m sick quite a lot more than the average person and I overthink things but I am told that WE come first we don’t live to work we work to live. Recently we all got pay rises and our hours reduced. There is no micro managing, no targets and no pressure. Only the pressure my stupid brain puts on myself.
So uhhhhhh.....I'm not a software developer, but are you guys hiring? I don't know. I'll dress up in a clown suit and do unfunny things. Maybe I can mime a satire of what it's like working at other jobs. Like drinking coffee, looking exhausted, typing on a keyboard, looking exhausted, talking on the phone, looking exhausted, sorting through filing cabinets, hanging yourself with a noose......uh.....I mean......looking exhausted.
My point is, your job sounds amazing, and I want to work there even if I don't have any skills or qualifications. Let's make this happen.
USPS is unionized. No cameras, Way less micro-management, and you can pee when you want to.
Sure makes you wonder why the elected officials want to defund it in favor of Fedex and others /s
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.
As someone who worked there for a year, the nice thing about Amazon is that managers don't harass you—even if you come in late every single day—and the 40 hours of personal time granted every week is great too. It's the kind of job where you can just put on your headphones and zone out, and never have to come in on days when you don't feel like it. Just call off in the app.
Still wouldn't recommend that anyone works there. Everything else about the job sucks.
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.
As someone who worked there for a year
In the warehouse?
You are not a human. You are a meat robot. Just something to be used up and replaced.
And they're terrified of all the childless cat ladies opting to not produce their next generation of laborer/consumer brood to be said replacement. Hence the crackdown on abortions and contraception and people who pair up in ways that cannot yield children. You can't have the infinite growth that capitalism demands if the number of producers and consumers goes down.
Negative. I am a meat Popsicle!
It's gonna be hot Hot HOT!!
Amazon 101 work them until they break.