"Amazon never trained us in how to communicate with associates. We weren’t trained to be understanding of their struggles or communicate with them. It was all about mechanics."<p>I wonder if part of the reason a military vet was hired for the floor manager's job was the expectation that they'd act like drill sergeants towards the employees, while the tracking systems acted as a real-time sword of Damocles-type apparatus.
Let’s say the workers unionize as the guy they interviewed suggests, what is the result? Basically they will push to change the system so that people don’t have to work as hard, it’s harder to fire people and have a seniority system. It’s quite possible that it would be better for the workers in that case but I do wonder if amazon could bypass a lot of these issues by just saying that people can’t work more than say 4 days a week during the rush season. So they end up hiring more workers to get the job done but people can’t complain that they are being overworked. I mean I’m not a fan of conspiracy theories but I wouldn’t be surprised if Walmart wasn’t silently cheering all the Amazon hate and pro union talk for their fulfillment centers..
"Jeff Bezos is obscenely rich, and in any moral society, he would not have that much money."<p>There's the rub. Buried near the bottom.<p>The guy thinks people should not be allowed to be too rich.
This article indicts Amazon of the following cruelties:<p>- Expects workers to work compensated overtime during a busy period<p>- Tracks worker performance<p>- Expects people to take only their scheduled breaks, and writes them up if they're MIA for 30+ minutes<p>- Requires workers to show up and work during their scheduled work hours<p>The humanity! And this poor guy, working a non-specialized manager position attainable with just a high school degree, was only paid a meager $80,000 a year!<p>More seriously though: the caterwauling over Amazon's cruel and unusual work conditions is getting a little long in the tooth. I had more sympathy when it's peeing in bottles and passing out from heat exhaustion, but if the above is extent of the complaints now...get over it?
hmm...<p>> The former Amazon employee, a US Air Force veteran, requested anonymity for fear of professional repercussions.<p>> [...] I was at a fulfillment center in California from [redacted] to [redacted].<p>> I was an [redacted], inside a new facility that had about 1,000 associates.<p>Isn't this a lot of info given away?<p>/edit: in case the original article does the same
>> <i>The former Amazon employee, a US Air Force veteran, requested anonymity for fear of professional repercussions....I was an area manager, inside a new facility that had about 1,000 associates. I oversaw the packers, managing about 55 associates. My salary was $80,000...I said I wouldn’t accept anything less, since I had a master’s.</i><p>Oh yeah, anonymous.<p>People want their packages the next day or before Christmas. Amazon is paying them overtime and more for Black Friday. I mean this is the job, like a job that requires you start at 12am. Tiring sure, but weigh the pros and cons and make a decision. Amazon has no problems finding workers, or else they'd pay $30 an hour