Amazon tracks warehouse workers' every move because Jeff Bezos thinks people are inherently lazy, report says

[Br3wnor]

Every company in america wants to (and often does) get away with this. We have been conditioned to treat certain jobs as 'low skill' and utterly disposable, which is transferred to the value of the lives that get caught in the machinery.

Click to shrink...

While I agree, most of these places will at least turn SOME "low skill" employees into managers, ifyou work at Wal Mart or Target and really put effort in to stand out as a dedicated employee there's a chance of becoming an assistant manager or more, Amazon apparently doesn't even do that which is really fucked up.

One guy in that article worked his ass off for 5 years being one of the best performing Amazon warehouse workers and even was asked to help train a new warehouse stuff that opened up but all levels of career advancement were closed off to him until he finally quit, that's nihilistic shit

 

[NCR Ranger]

This is like what they did at my work, they introduced "workforce management" and now everything is tracked. How long you are on a ticket, how long it takes to resolve it, your adherence and occupancy rates, call length, how long your phone is turned on, what ticket queue you are in, if a ticket you responded to stays closed or reopens, everything is tracked and everything has KPI's attached to it. QA or your manager are going to be listening to random calls without your knowledge and scoring. It's super anxiety-inducing that there's all this shit going on in the background and you're just trying to work the best you can but you aren't allowed to be human.

There's as much effort on the backend making sure people are being as robotic as possible as people on the frontend are doing just trying to do a good job.

Click to shrink...

Best day of my life was a few days after I quit my call center job like that and the stress started to melt away. If you are ever lucky enough to have the option savour that moment. My former workplace got hit with some karma though. They treated their employees so badly that their turnover was so high they couldn't meet their promised manpower quota in the contract and had it yanked. Shut down pretty quick after that.

 

[LifeIsKillingMe]

In America, being a ruthless, cunning psychopath brings you success. If that says anything about our culture, I know it's not positive.

Click to shrink...

The unfortunate reality is this happens in almost any cultures. The sociopaths have no empathy and step on the backs of others. It can be argued that this system or that system doesn't work but in reality, no system will work when these types of people have access to money and power.

 

[RedMercury]

Best day of my life was a few days after I quit my call center job like that and the stress started to melt away. If you are ever lucky enough to have the option savour that moment. My former workplace got hit with some karma though. They treated their employees so badly that their turnover was so high they couldn't meet their promised manpower quota in the contract and had it yanked. Shut down pretty quick after that.

Click to shrink...

This gives me life haha

Thankfully I got promoted away from some of the bullshit but it's a temporary reprieve, QA is coming for us down the line and they are going to tighten up workforce management for the senior team. I just want to get out of the consumer-facing part of the division but I make good money with good perks and benefits so I'm stuck.

 

[DeliciousSunnyD!]

You just know it's a horrible place to work when the business has been pumping out advertisements glorifying how "great" it is to work for them.

Feel bad for all of the employees just trying to make ends meet.

 

[Richietto]

The absolute most dystopian ass shit. Fuck that sociopath.

 

[mbpm]

Hope that boi Jeff stays in space lol

 

[Dan-o]

I mean ...

 

[colorblindmode]

I'm nor looking forward to seeing the state of America in 20 years. Sigh... :(

Click to shrink...

Bold of you to assume this failed state can last that long

 

[Common Knowledge]

If only we can all afford to be as lazy as a rich person.

 

[Tavernade]

Kinda feel like all the money spent stopping workers from being lazy is more than the money that'd be lost if they just… didn't.

 

[Commedieu]

Kinda feel like all the money spent stopping workers from being lazy is more than the money that'd be lost if they just… didn't.

Click to shrink...

money is irrelevant at this point for amazon. They can literally buy anything worth value.

Its about ethics in shipping warehouses.

 

[PMS341]

Crossing my fingers for Event Horizon to happen to that motherfucker in space

 

[SpaceBridge]

Capitalism is broken and rotten to its core. It's feudalism dressed up with modern sensibilities. Let's see what happens to these exploitive mega rich who don't even pay taxes and are beneficiaries of corporate welfare when the working poor have had enough and decide to eat the rich.

 

[JABEE]

America's c suites are full of absolute psychopaths that live to work and are disdainful of work life balance as a concept. I believe this story completely.

Click to shrink...

They are in the White House and in Congress as well.

 

[Jedi2016]

"What he would say is that our nature as humans is to expend as little energy as possible to get what we want or need,"

Click to shrink...

Says the guy who makes ten times my yearly salary while he's literally taking a shit.

 

[louiedog]

Every company in america wants to (and often does) get away with this. We have been conditioned to treat certain jobs as 'low skill' and utterly disposable, which is transferred to the value of the lives that get caught in the machinery.

Click to shrink...

The person in charge of the staff that made the place run at a job I had shared this mindset. "These are mostly entry level people, let's extract everything we can out of them and let turnover be high." was more or less what they thought of them. I'm paraphrasing, but they said things like that often.

So many really good people came in and out of there that were treated like shit. There were talented people there for 10 years who were ignored even though they did great work far above what they were valued at. So many great people left after a year or so and then they'd be replaced and it took 8 months to train the next person up to basic competency. It was really stupid. What really gets me is the person right under them was brilliant and 30 years younger. Had she replaced her boss I could see her making that place 100x better, a place that retained staff, a place that ran efficiently, and a place where communication was encouraged.

If we'd restructured and this person had any say in my department I'd have quit on the spot.

 

[Red Comet]

Amazon will be the first company to replace all of their workers with robots, the moment it's feasible to do so.

 

[Jombie]

Give unto me your unfailing servitude, until your bodies literally break down and you're no longer of any use to me.

 

[Cyanity]

I hope Jeff Bezos dies when he goes to space. Sorry not sorry he's a fucking psychopath and the world would be better off without him.

 

[Wubby]

Interesting he cracks down on Amazon workers so hard yet his Blue Origin, which started before SpaceX has yet to put anything into orbit after all these years. Heck SpaceX has put more cars into orbit than they have satellites (stolen joke but a good one).

 

[Steven]

The absolute psychopathy being enabled by capitalism is seeming to reach its limits...

Is what I would love to say. But these evil fucks' greed knows no bounds.

 

[Huncho_Houdini]

Mixing big data and capitalism leads to this ultimately. Sick shit.

 

[JLP101]

I want every Amazon warehouse worker to go on strike for as long as possible.

 

[Thorn]

Remember when people were clutching their pearls about the Space Bezos thread?

 

[MaulerX]

Fuck Bezos. At my household we are trying our best to wean off ordering from Amazon. Screw this dude.

 

[joedick]

i think people are lazy. The problem though is the 40 hour work week, not the quality of employee. You can't ask an employee to do work when they complete their tasks ahead of schedule. If you want employees to constantly work, you need better management.

I've worked at jobs that didn't care about what you do at your desk, as long as you complete your tasks on time, but you need to make it look like you are "working" if say a visitor or client is expected to show up. Forcing someone to work a 40 hour work week when they only have 30 hours of work is the problem. A good manager (or good employee) will identify the work being complete and fill the time with ways to advance their career(or assist someone swamped), but 9 out of 10 times, its just they will be on their computer or their phone wasting time because they just don't give a shit.

Click to shrink...

What is this based on? Cause there are tons and tons of people who don't have enough hours in the week to finish everything they are tasked with. I'm sure it happens in some places, but I don't think the biggest problem with workplaces are that people aren't effectively using their ten free hours.

 

[Whitemex]

 

[Marvie]

Can we just leave this asshole in space?

 

[Foffy]

He believes much like his parasitic class cohorts think. It's not unquiet.

It's also wrong, but in our world, the wrong people get the most say.

 

[YellowBara]

He should hope the people creating the safety mechanisms of his so-called spacecraft aren't lazy then. I know I won't.

 

[Nepenthe]

You didn't have to prove to me that Bezos is a waste of matter.

 

[Razgriz-Specter]

Guess they can't partake in the act of toilet naps had by many a Walmart overnight employees.

 

[shenden]

I got recently a job offer through linkedin from a company to work with their product which literally is a tracking tool that is supposed to track people and their productivity and "endorse" you to improvement.

I will never support these fucking tracking things. I had a shitty job once where I worked my ass off because that's just the person I am, doing the best I can. Still got fucking speeches about improvement. That's actually when I decided to not work my ass off anymore and that no job is worth it. Doing my time in my own tempo that is healthy for me mentally and physically, is the only correct way.

So fuck this bazoo guy, my heart, respect and support to the workers having to deal with this shit to just being able to put food on the table.

 

[Muppet of a Man]

People are lazy, especially all the CEOs and investor class clowns out there.

 

[MrKlaw]

But if people *are* inherently lazy, thats your baseline and you hire according to that. You don't make people less lazy by scaring them and monitoring their every working second, you just make them hate you and want to leave as soon as possible.

 

[Amalthea]

I bet Jeff thinks the hero of Metropolis was Joh Fredersen.

 

[Chris.]

These billionaire idiots think an Amazon warehouse worker and driver need to put in 100% effort for shit pay and treatment?

Click to shrink...

Don't they pay good wages? I thought they were one of the only companies paying $15 an HR? Not American so there might be some fuckery involved and it's just a pr stunt but I'm sure that was a big deal when it happened?

Shocking treatment but not surprised, Amazon have history of treating their workers like shit and sadly dont see it changing. Fuck bezos

 

[Hrodulf]

At what point do we stop giving Amazon money? Seriously: what would it take for you to stop shopping with them?

Click to shrink...

I personally stopped using Amazon got anything years ago, but my anecdotal experience with trying to get others to do the same is that it's literally impossible. Amazon has just made it too "convenient" to shop with them, and that's all most people care about.

Remember when people were clutching their pearls about the Space Bezos thread?

Click to shrink...

A lot of people here care more about appearing "civil" than the well-being of workers who literally have to piss and shit wherever they can because of this company's garbage policies.

 

[Psittacus]

The only way people start moving away from them would be if there was a more convenient, cheaper option.

Click to shrink...

Any more convenient or cheaper option will be fueled by even more suffering. That's how we got here to begin with.

 

[Kill3r7]

But if people *are* inherently lazy, thats your baseline and you hire according to that. You don't make people less lazy by scaring them and monitoring their every working second, you just make them hate you and want to leave as soon as possible.

Click to shrink...

The key is to find people desperate enough who don't think they have anywhere else to go or better yet people who get comfortable quickly and become lifers. You can then push those employees to get more out of them. Those who don't meet your metrics are cut. So you can quickly build a self sustaining loop. Yes it is true that many will hate you but few of the "good ones" will actually leave. What really sucks about Amazon warehouse jobs is the lack of upward mobility.

 

[Dennis8K]

Sounds like what a plantation owner would say to justify whipping the slaves.

"We have to fight against the inherent laziness of Man to get them to work. It is the nature of men to want to eat and sleep and work only as little as they can get away with."

 

[Brinbe]

Oh good. Read this in full yesterday and was waiting for someone to make a thread on it here.

Fuck Bezos. Entirely proof that amazon warehouses (though I know their corporate office culture is shit too) are designed to be a soulsucking hellscape when they can easily afford to do better. Fuck that selfish idiot.

Made his wealth exploiting marginalised peoples and thinking they're lazy all the while. There's nothing nice about him at all. Basically lives up to every bad cliché of evil out of touch billionaires. And he deserves every single criticism imaginable.

 

[Cotton McKnight]

My brother-in-law is like this, and makes less than one million per year. It was pretty strange how is attitude towards me changes while I worked for him (he got nasty whenever he made requests). I quit working for him and he tried to be buddy buddy with me again, nope. He did get pissy when I went to join the biggest brokerage in the area that dwarfed his brokerage I worked so hard to manage despite his efforts to derail his own progress.

He is no billionaire, he thinks he will be one. I think he'll be a millionaire in his lifetime. If his oldest son (spitting image of his personality) gets a hold of the businesses and does not have shoot-himself-in-the-foot syndrome, he may become a billionaire. Disgusting.

How hard is it to actually talk the talk and walk the walk of treating people right and not being giant greedy turds?

 

[GeoGonzo]

Do not believe the narrative that people are treated like machines because of a flawed ideology, this is entirely about money. Its simply cheaper to use a stick than to buy carrots.

As for the "humans are lazy" thing: Even Bezos knows this is bullshit, because then everyone at Amazon would be tracked at all times. Instead of that, apparently only low paid workers with low chance of career advancement are tracked. Gee, I wonder why these people do not care about their job and have other priorities in life. 🤔🤔🤔

 

[Zombegoast]

Nothing out of the norm. Where I worked in Universal Studios, you only 1 30 minute launch break and maybe spend 10-15 minutes to actually relax. If I'm off the next day, I would use that day to rest and maybe do something productive on my second day off because it was physically brutal.

While I agree, most of these places will at least turn SOME "low skill" employees into managers, ifyou work at Wal Mart or Target and really put effort in to stand out as a dedicated employee there's a chance of becoming an assistant manager or more, Amazon apparently doesn't even do that which is really fucked up.

One guy in that article worked his ass off for 5 years being one of the best performing Amazon warehouse workers and even was asked to help train a new warehouse stuff that opened up but all levels of career advancement were closed off to him until he finally quit, that's nihilistic shit

Click to shrink...

I was once told about this back during my interview in Universal Studios. My managers and Supervisors recognized my hard work and trained new team members, I even got team member of the month. I worked there for almost 5 years and done jack shit for me after promising they will give me a full time position.

In reality, I'm worth too damn much for them

 

[Izzard]

Lazy or demotivated... Yeah people can be lazy, absolutely. Treat them well, keep them happy, and most will want to work for you.

 

[Kill3r7]

Do not believe the narrative that people are treated like machines because of a flawed ideology, this is entirely about money. Its simply cheaper to use a stick than to buy carrots.

As for the "humans are lazy" thing: Even Bezos knows this is bullshit, because then everyone at Amazon would be tracked at all times. Instead of that, apparently only low paid workers with low chance of career advancement are tracked. Gee, I wonder why these people do not care about their job and have other priorities in life. 🤔🤔🤔

Click to shrink...

Everyone is tracked even in corporate. There are performance bonuses at least. Amazon corporate is no cakewalk either as there are tremendous demands on your time even outside of work. I have close friends who have worked or currently work there.

 

[supremeplatypus]

I bet Bezos doesn't track himself. I've had heated debates with people who say Bezos deserves to be rich because he worked hard, took the risk and saw an opportunity to start a successful business and that if you don't like working there then 'go work somewhere else' that treats you better to force Amazon to improve conditions, and America offers amazing opportunities to improve your life if you'd 'try harder to take them'.

 

[Dennis8K]

Do not believe the narrative that people are treated like machines because of a flawed ideology, this is entirely about money. Its simply cheaper to use a stick than to buy carrots.

As for the "humans are lazy" thing: Even Bezos knows this is bullshit, because then everyone at Amazon would be tracked at all times. Instead of that, apparently only low paid workers with low chance of career advancement are tracked. Gee, I wonder why these people do not care about their job and have other priorities in life. 🤔🤔🤔

Click to shrink...

Great point.