'Being Homeless Is Better Than Working for Amazon'

[eridani]

http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/27210-being-homeless-is-better-than-working-for-amazon

Nichole Gracely has a master’s degree and was one of Amazon’s best order pickers. Now, after protesting the company, she’s homeless

I am homeless. My worst days now are better than my best days working at Amazon.

According to Amazon’s metrics, I was one of their most productive order pickers – I was a machine, and my pace would accelerate throughout the course of a shift. What they didn’t know was that I stayed fast because if I slowed down for even a minute, I’d collapse from boredom and exhaustion.

During peak season, I trained incoming temps regularly. When that was over, I’d be an ordinary order picker once again, toiling in some remote corner of the warehouse, alone for 10 hours, with my every move being monitored by management on a computer screen.

Superb performance did not guarantee job security. ISS is the temp agency that provides warehouse labor for Amazon and they are at the center of the SCOTUS case Integrity Staffing Solutions vs. Busk. ISS could simply deactivate a worker’s badge and they would suddenly be out of work. They treated us like beggars because we needed their jobs. Even worse, more than two years later, all I see is: Jeff Bezos is hiring.

I have never felt more alone than when I was working there. I worked in isolation and lived under constant surveillance. Amazon could mandate overtime and I would have to comply with any schedule change they deemed necessary, and if there was not any work, they would send us home early without pay. I started to fall behind on my bills.

[TreasonousBastard]

1. I've been seeing this for years about Amazon, but yet...

people are still buying Kindles to read complaints about Wal-Mart.



Go figure.

[daredtowork]

26. Kindles Pay for the 1% to "Campfire" Bohemian Grove Style

Every wealthy elite needs a super secret gathering where they can make high level contacts with each other and take home ritzy swag:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/21/technology/a-writerly-chill-at-bezos-fire-.html

Meanwhile Amazon is telling the plebs that they can be "writers" if they will crowd-source their content (the novels they did put all their effort and imagination into writing - not necessarily "unvetted trash&quot into the Kindle system. Kindle has effectively wiped out the competition by allowing people to subscribe to ebooks (like Netflix). Most authors earn next to nothing, or give away their books for free just for the hope of "being authors" and the notion other people might read their books.

It's very similar to the original Wikipedia model actually, where Jimmy Wales originally made it super easy to participate in order to crowdsource enough content to dominate the sector. Then he raised the bar to mold Wikipedia into a more serious encyclopedia, and of course he is the one that benefits from all those crowdsourced labors.

Now Amazon has crowdsourced tens of thousands (hundreds of thousands?) of books. They dominated that sector by providing the Kindle platform (and now the subscription service) and gobbling up free labor.

Atop this mountain of exploitation: both crowdsourcing and warehouse Fordism, floats a small cult of the Celebrity Author. I'm sure it stokes Bezos' ego to be in their company.

[Wella]

2. This needs to be seen

Also, a list of alternatives that treat their employees better would be helpful. Barnes and Noble ok?

[Hekate]

3. You can use Alibris.com or Biblio.com

They don't have the fantastic variety and quantity of Amazon, but as far as I know Alibris and Biblio are only a collection of individual vendors and not a warehouse. Over the years I've been collecting books I've corresponded with various vendors from all three entities -- real people.

I'm kind of hooked on Amazon because they make it so convenient, but the more they push their warehouse side of the business, the less I want to buy anything with free shipping. Treating employees like slaves is unacceptable.

God we need strong unions again.

[Wella]

4. I'm with you about strong unions

Thanks for the advice. I am trying to figure out what to do about ordering books.

[ReRe]

6. I use ABEbooks.com

As I used to sell my books with them.

[Hekate]

7. I knew I was forgetting one. Thanks! nt

[Wella]

8. Thanks.

Appreciate it!

[trusty elf]

9. Hekate, I've gotten accustomed to using Abebooks.

I buy mostly second hand books anyway, so Abebooks is great. It's also a site that lists books from individual sellers.

I just found a 1955 first edition of Robert Graves' "Homer's Daughter" for $9.00.

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[Hekate]

10. What a great find!

So many books, so little time.

[ReRe]

11. I have a clock on the wall...

... that says "So many books, So little time!"

[dixiegrrrrl]

17. Where did you get it?

I would love to have one like that.

[ReRe]

30. In one of those stupid catalogs...

... that come in the mail. Google it and see what pops up.

[dixiegrrrrl]

31. Cafe Press!!!!

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[ReRe]

34. Cool!

Mine is also round, but is wooden, with a parchment looking face and Roman numerals for the numbers & the words placed as this one. Pic of books with bookends in the middle. Glad you found one!

[tammywammy]

20. Abebooks is an Amazon subsidiary. n/t

[brer cat]

16. Amazon also has individual vendors for used books.

I have sold on all three A's...abe, alibris, and amazon. I buy very little from the warehouse side of Amazon, but I do well there as a low-volume seller of books. If you spend a lot of time researching books, you will find that many (most?) of the same sellers are on all three of these sites. I dropped abe and alibris because the monthly/annual fees were too high.

I totally agree that we need strong unions again. The treatment of the warehouse employees is deplorable and inexcusable. Sometimes I feel that I should end my relationship with amazon, but it provides a really nice little supplement to my retirement.

[Hekate]

32. For several years I collected signed and unsigned books by LeGuin and Pratchett, so explored...

...all of those, and found that as you said, many cross-list. What I want is generally not in the warehouse, so I have bought from many individuals -- I've had some pleasant correspondence with some vendors over time.

I have not tried selling the books I no longer want, though I really should...

[Socal31]

5. The mandatory OT is not unusual, but boy does it suck.

Of course there are cameras, they are dealing with merchandise that can fit in a pocket and be worth hundreds of dollars.

When I worked at UPS, we went though screening on the way out every night.

[whathehell]

12. Union.

[C Moon]

13. Jesus Christ! A masters degree?

I've been working freelance, part time at best, for the past two years—after being layed off from a company for which I worked for 10 years. Day after day I keep telling myself something full time will come my way soon. :/

Well, Ronald Reagan and the 1% have succeeded: and now with the new congress/senate approaching quickly, things are looking even better for 1%.

This country is fucked.

[hughee99]

18. I see these "has a master's degree" stories and always wonder why they almost never mention

what the masters degree is in.

[ScreamingMeemie]

21. The people I have come into contact with who are underemployed tend to have their

Masters in education/music/humanities type areas.

[Warpy]

27. Masters degrees in the humanities aren't worth much

unless you want to get a teaching certificate and teach high school.

However, this person was used to train pickers, so I imagine the master's degree impressed the staffing company.

I see that staffing company as being the problem. Their model is fine for fleets of robots but it is brutal for living beings.

[mrripley43]

36. A Masters Degree?

My son was a picker in a warehouse for three years, then took a couple of years off to go back to college to take courses in product distribution and industrial engineering. He had job offers before he even graduated and moved into management right out of school. After only a year there, the company has started to send him, for 2-3 weeks at a time, to other warehouses in their system for an analysis of where they may be having problems. I think he's doing well, partly, because he has a lot of empathy for what the pickers and other workers are experiencing and usually gets a lot of cooperation from them. Also, having been raised in a liberal household, he's not averse to change if it may get better results. Is my pride too obvious?

[C Moon]

37. Brilliant idea your son had. You should be proud.

[justiceischeap]

14. This sounds like every experience I've ever had working in a factory

particularly factories that worked with retail items (surveillance). I can't recall a factory I worked in that didn't have some sort of quota to be met on your shift, I was sometimes alone for an entire shift, sometimes we were required to work OT and were only told about it at the beginning of our shifts... This is not news or unique, really.

Factory jobs are not fun, social jobs. The conditions are generally crappy, the work is tedious (particularly if you're looking at life with a Master's on your shoulder and think that factory work is beneath you). Temp agencies tell you upfront whether you're temporary or not or if the position is work to hire.

To state that she'd rather be homeless than have a job, tells me she needs a reality check. It's NEVER better to be homeless than to have a job--no matter how crappy the job is, ask any person that's been homeless for any real length of time.

[frogmarch]

15. Years ago (I don't recall how many) I saw

a TV show about Jeff Bezos and what a wonderful boss he was and what a paradise Amazon was for its employees. It showed him greeting everyone by their first names (and they him) and stopping to chat with each person, asking how their kids were (by name) and so on. Employees could come to work in their pajamas if they wanted to, and they could bring their kids as well as their pets. There was a staffed nursery, and the pets could stay with their owners (Steve Bezos knew the pets’ names too). For employees to use during breaks and their lunch hours, there was an employees swimming pool and I think an employees tennis court. There was also an employees workout room with treadmills, etc., and an employees cafeteria.

What happened?

[daredtowork]

24. There have been deaths in Amazon warehouses

OSHA is investigating...

http://www.latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-et-jc-amazon-warehouse-deaths-investigation-20140616-story.html

I read somewhere that Bezos deliberately creates a high pressure environment, automatically lays off the lowest performers, and also offers some sort of bounty money for people to "quit if they don't like it". That way Amazon sheds itself of complainers, and the pressure cooker remains without vents, so to speak.

It sounds like a terrible work environment to me. I presume people are paid very well to live under those psychological kill-or-be-killed circumstances, though.

[pipi_k]

19. OK so...

that's her opinion, and she's entitled to feel that way.

But that doesn't mean everyone would prefer being homeless to working at Amazon.

[snooper2]

22. readersupportednews....jeez

people do know that trolls make up stories there like this just for grins?

[Warpy]

29. That would be worth suspicion if there weren't so many similar stories out there

The one word that can be applied to Amazon's warehouse management style is "inhumane."

[daredtowork]

23. Inhumane: Reminds me of Fordism and Time-Motion Studies

In the early part of the 20th century capitalism went off the rails when it started to seriously perceive people as cogs in the machine and try to scientifically extract the maximum of work from them.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_and_motion_study

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fordism

People feel this as a form of not just psychological, but physical stress, that is worth no amount of money being paid to them. I think it' because along with the total amount of work/energy being extracted from them, it feels like the total amount of humanity and meaning is being extracted as well. If workers have control of their own pacing, that sense of autonomy preserves their humanity, sense of meaning, and ultimately their dignity.

Since a good portion of the social revolution of the 60s was fueled by reaction to this "total efficiency" approach, I'm surprised that Amazon has been able to take so far.

I've been suspecting we'd see this form of exploitation taken to the limit again, though. Over the years I've been seeing increasing amounts of job descriptions that emphasize the high pressure environment, over-time hours, rapidfire deadlines, etc. These advertisements want people to adjust to inhumane workplaces (that only serve the interest of abstract "investors" at the top) rather than adjusting the workplaces (as environmental niches where real people are contributing part of their lives) to make them less stress-laden and cruel environments.

This is wrong. But because the GOP has been so hot to keep a certain level of unemployment going so everything stays "competitive" and wages stay low, workers don't have any leverage to insist on change and there doesn't seem to be much energy left to unionize or address unfair Federal labor laws (that exempt "computer" work, for example).

Another basic inequity is the recommendation system: you have to have kept your last three employers happy in order to get your next job. So it's very hard for workers in salaried positions to challenge the system if it in any way crosses the interests of their immediate manager. I'm not sure what to do about this since obviously the person hiring you would like to be able to evaluate whether you work well with others as well as be able to verify whether you have the skills and achievements you claimed on your resume. But I think the recommendation system, with all its corruptions and implied threats holds back rebellion more than anything else.

[madville]

25. Can't blame it on profits

Since Amazon seems to lose money every quarter. I think they have had one profitable quarter in their entire existence. I read an article recently about large shareholders being disgruntled because they have never paid a dividend.

It's a race to the bottom and it's partly driven by consumers' demands for the lowest price and "free shipping" gimmicks.

[Stargleamer]

28. Powell's Books it is then. . .

unless you all tell me something bad about Powell's. But I heard their workers are part of Longshoremen's Union, the one Harry Bridges helped make exceptional.

Omaha Steve, where are you?

[brer cat]

33. I don't know anything bad about Powell's

however they do sell on Amazon. lol

[SomethingFishy]

35. We were in Portland a couple years ago and a friend brought me to Powells..

it was the most amazing place. I loved the room on the 3rd floor with the rare editions.