Amazon Offers Free Delivery of Workplace Hell
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/amazon_offers_free_delivery_of_workplace
_hell_20150826/
Posted on Aug 26, 2015
By Sonali Kolhatkar
Joe Ravi / Shutterstock
A lengthy exposé by The New York Times about Amazons work environment
recently revealed the depths to which American workplace culture has
plummeted, particularly for white-collar workers. Journalists Jodi Kantor
and David Streitfeld interviewed more than 100 current and former Amazon
employees and concluded, The company is conducting an experiment in how far
it can push white-collar workers to get them to achieve its ever-expanding
ambitions.
Amazonians, as employees are referred to, are constantly monitored by
their higher-ups and their time micromanaged ruthlessly. They are encouraged
to engage in a brutal Hunger Games-style practice of snitching on one
another to management. Those struggling with unexpected illnesses,
caregiving needs or even childbirth are often pushed out for supposedly not
being committed enough to their jobs. Regular performance evaluations are
designed to weed out employees who dont meet Amazon standards, and
reasonable interpretations of work-life balance are frowned upon. One former
worker told the Times, Amazon is where overachievers go to feel bad about
themselves.
But its not just office workers at Amazon. The companys poor treatment of
its lower-paid warehouse workers has been well documented. Author Simon
Head, in his 2014 book, Mindless: Smarter Machines Are Making Dumber
Humans, wrote, Amazons system of employee monitoring is the most
oppressive I have ever come across, and its management model is based on
pushing up employee productivity while keeping hourly wages at or near
poverty levels. Head described a level of brutality analogous to the
barbarism of upper-level jobs that The New York Times found later.
Head told me in a recent interview on Uprising that what the Times
described at Amazon crossed serious moral frontiers. He added, There is a
broad ethical question: Is it justified in pushing human beings and
undermining their dignity for such utterly trivial reasons ... as getting a
doll to someone in New York City 23 minutes faster? Head went as far as to
compare Amazons Anytime Feedback Tool, which managers use to bad-mouth
their colleagues, to the methods of the Stasi, the East German secret
police.
In July, Amazon surpassed Wal-Mart as the worlds largest retailer. The
company has thrived by espousing the worst workplace practices for both its
blue- and white-collar workers. This is no accident. American capitalism has
glorified overwork in the name of competition and at the expense of worker
well-being.
It is safe to say that Amazon has been built on the ruin of unions. The
function of labor unions since the capitalist brutalism of the 19th
century, said Head, is to stop this sort of thing from happening, to put
limits on the predatory nature of capitalism.
But its not just Amazon that has warped American work ethics. A majority of
U.S. workers are steeped in it. For millions of Americans, the summer of
2015 came and has almost gone without a vacation. A new survey found that 56
percentmore than 135 million peopledid not take a vacation over the past
year. As defined by the surveyor, Allianz Global Assistance, a vacation is
at least one week long, and at least 100 miles from home. Sadly, the number
of non-vacationers was 10 percent higher than the year before, breaking
records for how many Americans are either deniedor are denying themselvesa
vacation.
The U.S. is one of only a handful of countries in the industrialized world
that does not have a mandatory paid vacation requirement. Because employers
are not bound by law, many simply dont offer paid vacation, especially to
lower-income workers. But for higher-paid workers, vacations are used as
perks to attract talent. The problem is that at Amazon and other big
companies, those who have paid vacation benefits are increasingly less
likely to use them for fear of appearing less productive.
The trend is similar trend for parental leave. An in-depth report by Sharon
Lerner at In These Times magazine profiled several mothers and described
their heartbreaking struggles to balance childbirth and work. Lerner cited
the shocking statistic that 1 in 4 new mothers who work returned to their
jobs within two weeks of giving birth. While blue-collar working mothers
have less access to paid maternal leave, white-collar moms risk being fired
for taking advantage of their parental leave policy.
Netflix recently made waves when it announced that it would offer employees
up to a whole year of paid parental leave after the birth of a child. But
closer examination revealed a class divide within the company: Lower-paid
workers in the DVD distribution centers are not eligible for the
generous-sounding policy; it is extended only to higher-paid employees
within the streaming services section of Netflix. As is the case at Amazon,
it is likely that higher-paid employees are leery of taking full advantage
of the perk, lest they appear unenthusiastic about their work and find
themselves out of a job altogether.
And yet the notion that American workers are lazy and lack a good work ethic
continues to prevail, as this 2012 USA Today article asserted. The report
cites an author who derides younger workers in particular of wanting to get
the job done, then put it behind them and enjoy life. Imagine wanting to
enjoy life instead of pouring your soul into a job! The world of business
doesnt operate on whats convenient for you and what fits into your
schedule and your particular expectation, one employer told the newspaper.
Apparently, the world of business operates on what is convenient for profit
margins, rather than for workers.
In fact, Americans are working harder than ever. A study by the Economic
Policy Institute (EPI) in January found that [f]rom 1973 to 2013, hourly
compensation of a typical (production/nonsupervisory) worker rose just 9
percent while productivity increased 74 percent. In fact, if wages had kept
up with productively, the U.S. minimum wage would currently be $18 an hour!
Not surprisingly, the EPI also found that a [d]ecline in union membership
mirrors income gains of top 10%.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, whose work ethic seems to drive how his company
treats its workers, responded to The New York Times article by commenting
that it read like a description of a soulless, dystopian workplace where no
fun is had and no laughter heard. Bezos, one of the worlds richest men,
emphasized fun and laughter as hallmarks of a good workplace. But in fact,
justice, compassion and humanity are what is truly missing from todays
workplaces.
American workers are sacrificing their lives, happiness and humanity to
fulfill Bezos inhumane ideal of workplace ethics. And those are the
privileged ones among us. Lower-income workers are simply pushed as hard as
possible, with little or no time off, poor conditions, little job security
or quality and dismal pay.
It is possible that people are starting to dismiss the notion that hard work
for little gain is not in their interest. Or perhaps they have simply hit
the limit of their productivity. Either way, The Wall Street Journal
recently complained that After surging in the early days of the economic
recovery, worker productivity has slowed to a pace last consistently
recorded in the early 1980s. Bizarrely, the newspaper went on to blame low
productivity for low wages, instead of the other way around: [T]he lack of
stronger productivity gains is likely one factor restraining pay increases.
But growing worker productivity is exactly the opposite of what we need
today. Well-paid Americans are living to work instead of working to live.
Meanwhile, poor Americans, including those who are unemployed, cannot work
nor really live. If life is not the point, what is?
http://www.truthdig.com/ http://www.truthdig.com/
Amazon Offers Free Delivery of Workplace Hell
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/amazon_offers_free_delivery_of_workplace
_hell_20150826/
Posted on Aug 26, 2015
By Sonali Kolhatkar
Joe Ravi / Shutterstock
A lengthy exposé by The New York Times about Amazons work environment
recently revealed the depths to which American workplace culture has
plummeted, particularly for white-collar workers. Journalists Jodi Kantor
and David Streitfeld interviewed more than 100 current and former Amazon
employees and concluded, The company is conducting an experiment in how far
it can push white-collar workers to get them to achieve its ever-expanding
ambitions.
Amazonians, as employees are referred to, are constantly monitored by
their higher-ups and their time micromanaged ruthlessly. They are encouraged
to engage in a brutal Hunger Games-style practice of snitching on one
another to management. Those struggling with unexpected illnesses,
caregiving needs or even childbirth are often pushed out for supposedly not
being committed enough to their jobs. Regular performance evaluations are
designed to weed out employees who dont meet Amazon standards, and
reasonable interpretations of work-life balance are frowned upon. One former
worker told the Times, Amazon is where overachievers go to feel bad about
themselves.
But its not just office workers at Amazon. The companys poor treatment of
its lower-paid warehouse workers has been well documented. Author Simon
Head, in his 2014 book, Mindless: Smarter Machines Are Making Dumber
Humans, wrote, Amazons system of employee monitoring is the most
oppressive I have ever come across, and its management model is based on
pushing up employee productivity while keeping hourly wages at or near
poverty levels. Head described a level of brutality analogous to the
barbarism of upper-level jobs that The New York Times found later.
Head told me in a recent interview on Uprising that what the Times
described at Amazon crossed serious moral frontiers. He added, There is a
broad ethical question: Is it justified in pushing human beings and
undermining their dignity for such utterly trivial reasons ... as getting a
doll to someone in New York City 23 minutes faster? Head went as far as to
compare Amazons Anytime Feedback Tool, which managers use to bad-mouth
their colleagues, to the methods of the Stasi, the East German secret
police.
In July, Amazon surpassed Wal-Mart as the worlds largest retailer. The
company has thrived by espousing the worst workplace practices for both its
blue- and white-collar workers. This is no accident. American capitalism has
glorified overwork in the name of competition and at the expense of worker
well-being.
It is safe to say that Amazon has been built on the ruin of unions. The
function of labor unions since the capitalist brutalism of the 19th
century, said Head, is to stop this sort of thing from happening, to put
limits on the predatory nature of capitalism.
But its not just Amazon that has warped American work ethics. A majority of
U.S. workers are steeped in it. For millions of Americans, the summer of
2015 came and has almost gone without a vacation. A new survey found that 56
percentmore than 135 million peopledid not take a vacation over the past
year. As defined by the surveyor, Allianz Global Assistance, a vacation is
at least one week long, and at least 100 miles from home. Sadly, the number
of non-vacationers was 10 percent higher than the year before, breaking
records for how many Americans are either deniedor are denying themselvesa
vacation.
The U.S. is one of only a handful of countries in the industrialized world
that does not have a mandatory paid vacation requirement. Because employers
are not bound by law, many simply dont offer paid vacation, especially to
lower-income workers. But for higher-paid workers, vacations are used as
perks to attract talent. The problem is that at Amazon and other big
companies, those who have paid vacation benefits are increasingly less
likely to use them for fear of appearing less productive.
The trend is similar trend for parental leave. An in-depth report by Sharon
Lerner at In These Times magazine profiled several mothers and described
their heartbreaking struggles to balance childbirth and work. Lerner cited
the shocking statistic that 1 in 4 new mothers who work returned to their
jobs within two weeks of giving birth. While blue-collar working mothers
have less access to paid maternal leave, white-collar moms risk being fired
for taking advantage of their parental leave policy.
Netflix recently made waves when it announced that it would offer employees
up to a whole year of paid parental leave after the birth of a child. But
closer examination revealed a class divide within the company: Lower-paid
workers in the DVD distribution centers are not eligible for the
generous-sounding policy; it is extended only to higher-paid employees
within the streaming services section of Netflix. As is the case at Amazon,
it is likely that higher-paid employees are leery of taking full advantage
of the perk, lest they appear unenthusiastic about their work and find
themselves out of a job altogether.
And yet the notion that American workers are lazy and lack a good work ethic
continues to prevail, as this 2012 USA Today article asserted. The report
cites an author who derides younger workers in particular of wanting to get
the job done, then put it behind them and enjoy life. Imagine wanting to
enjoy life instead of pouring your soul into a job! The world of business
doesnt operate on whats convenient for you and what fits into your
schedule and your particular expectation, one employer told the newspaper.
Apparently, the world of business operates on what is convenient for profit
margins, rather than for workers.
In fact, Americans are working harder than ever. A study by the Economic
Policy Institute (EPI) in January found that [f]rom 1973 to 2013, hourly
compensation of a typical (production/nonsupervisory) worker rose just 9
percent while productivity increased 74 percent. In fact, if wages had kept
up with productively, the U.S. minimum wage would currently be $18 an hour!
Not surprisingly, the EPI also found that a [d]ecline in union membership
mirrors income gains of top 10%.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, whose work ethic seems to drive how his company
treats its workers, responded to The New York Times article by commenting
that it read like a description of a soulless, dystopian workplace where no
fun is had and no laughter heard. Bezos, one of the worlds richest men,
emphasized fun and laughter as hallmarks of a good workplace. But in fact,
justice, compassion and humanity are what is truly missing from todays
workplaces.
American workers are sacrificing their lives, happiness and humanity to
fulfill Bezos inhumane ideal of workplace ethics. And those are the
privileged ones among us. Lower-income workers are simply pushed as hard as
possible, with little or no time off, poor conditions, little job security
or quality and dismal pay.
It is possible that people are starting to dismiss the notion that hard work
for little gain is not in their interest. Or perhaps they have simply hit
the limit of their productivity. Either way, The Wall Street Journal
recently complained that After surging in the early days of the economic
recovery, worker productivity has slowed to a pace last consistently
recorded in the early 1980s. Bizarrely, the newspaper went on to blame low
productivity for low wages, instead of the other way around: [T]he lack of
stronger productivity gains is likely one factor restraining pay increases.
But growing worker productivity is exactly the opposite of what we need
today. Well-paid Americans are living to work instead of working to live.
Meanwhile, poor Americans, including those who are unemployed, cannot work
nor really live. If life is not the point, what is?
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