Amazon: Staff told to work overtime as virus spikes demand

Amazon engineer here. Many of us (engineers, data analysts, fulfillment center associates) are working more hours to cope with extremely high demand coupled with border closures and extra delays in the road system. This is, I think, good for humanity. If your local store is out of stuff, maybe Amazon can bring it to you, and in any case you don't have to leave your house.

Amazon is a key part of the general system of logistics of getting stuff to people now.<p>So yeah it would make sense that OT is going to be a thing.<p>The article is sort of wishy washy on exactly what is going on though, it talks about voluntary and &quot;condition of employment&quot; OT.<p>I&#x27;ve worked in industries where OT was celebrated by employees and a lack of it was actually seen as a huge problem. I&#x27;m not 100% sure everyone&#x27;s response to OT will be identical.

Ha, I had a completely opposite connotation to the headline and was briefly confused when I read the body. In the couple of large factories I know of operators, mechanics, and others generally are thrilled with overtime, so I thought this was supposed to be a good thing. But the article body spun it very negatively. I wonder what the sentiment is in the factories there. Maybe it&#x27;s different in the UK.

Giving logistics line-workers priority just behind healthcare workers in testing and PPE would make sense.<p>We need logistics infrastructure to stay up, and we need the general populace to trust it.

Amazon is hiring 100,000 in the US to meet the demand and increasing wages to help with retention.<p>Last I checked, employment and OT was voluntary.<p>This is all good stuff.

At this point Amazon&#x27;s logistical performance is a matter of national security. The degree to which Amazon hiccups is the degree to which the nation is unnerved.

I am worried about this: Long hours means stress and stress means susceptibility to illness. And besides the first-order problem of these workers getting sick, I really don&#x27;t think we want to take down an increasingly important part of the supply chain for tons of people.

Border Force staff are being (asked&#x2F;forced) to work overtime specified in their contracts. Why are we so quick to hate on Amazon, who actually deliver things that we&#x27;re going to need?

The faster the automation of these types of jobs can happen the better. This crisis is showing us that.<p>People worry about the loss of jobs due to automation but humanity has to evolve to create new professional lines with new types of employment that don&#x27;t involve things like someone packing boxes or transporting goods.

&gt; Workers at Amazon&#x27;s UK warehouses are being told to work overtime to tackle huge demand due to the coronavirus pandemic, despite government calls to restrict social contact.<p>Amazon should be held responsible for all the damage that they do to their employees.<p>&gt; She pointed out that under Working Time Regulations in the UK, overtime is limited to a maximum of 48 hours per week, averaged over a 17-week period. Workers can &quot;opt out&quot; of the maximum weekly limit, however, and some are required to do so as a condition of employment.<p>Any right that you can opt-out it is not a right at all.<p>This is why the survival rate for the poor and the right is going to be different. In our modern society we have the resources for taking care of everybody, it is just greed and malice that allow for this situations.

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