Amazon has used tricks, algorithms, and surveillance to discourage warehouse employees from unionizing, according to a paper published in the journal Socius.

  • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    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.

    • FRYD@sh.itjust.works
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      2 days ago

      USPS is unionized. No cameras, Way less micro-management, and you can pee when you want to.

      • OhVenus_Baby@lemmy.ml
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        2 days ago

        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.

        • Soup@lemmy.world
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          1 day ago

          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.

    • Psythik@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      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 paid 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.

      • daddy32@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        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.

        • Psythik@lemmy.world
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          1 day ago

          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 one week, you could go the entire next week without showing up to work at all if you wanted to, and still get paid for it.

        • Psythik@lemmy.world
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          1 day ago

          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.

    • Prehensile_cloaca @lemm.ee
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      2 days ago

      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.