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Is this news? They do this right in their hometown, wage theft by Amazon is an institution. They "ask" employees to come in an hour or two early for a shift, an

by moyta 10y ago

Is this news? They do this right in their hometown, wage theft by Amazon is an institution. They "ask" employees to come in an hour or two early for a shift, and stay a few hours late. Unless the BBC is trying to organize Amazon workers to hit the streets and fight for better working conditions and/or a union, this isn't newsworthy or noteworthy.

pyromine 10y ago
To be honest, how does Amazon attract talent despite a pretty universal reputation of being a horrible place to work. I'd rather work for Microsoft or big blue than Amazon any day.
- moyta 10y ago
  At least here in the states, workers rights are very poor, and Amazon will hire nearly anyone. I know that they were only offering homeless in Seattle & Bellevue nigh shift hours as a temp employee, which meant they could not live in a shelter or rehab since they would start work a few hours after the curfew. Really a great helping hand Jeff, throwin' em to the wolves!
  - TheGrumpyBrit 10y ago
    That's one way to look at it, but for context, what other firms were offering work to the homeless?
    - moyta 10y ago
      Quite a few others, to the point that they put on a job fair: http://kuow.org/post/amazon-hires-homeless-workers-and-everyone-ends-disappointed http://kuow.org/post/amazon-hires-homeless-workers-and-every...
    - plandis 10y ago
      Amazon also has some undeveloped land that they have turned over to an organization that runs homeless shelters to provide housing for the years in between when the land is developed. But yes. Amazon is a terrible place to work and we are all just too dumb to quit. Oh, and we all hate homeless people, I guess.
      - moyta 10y ago
        Sure, they occasionally help out Mary's Place and the like, not disputing that. Many other companies do so too. From what I've heard from Amazon workers, from drinking with them on Cap Hill, or from my own neighbors who work there, or my Cousin who was a higher up there & left, or from my friends, on average its not a great place to work. There are good teams, but compared to what I've heard from IBM or Microsoft employees it sounds worse than working at either of them, and on par with working at Adobe Seattle over in Fremont.
- slipperyp 10y ago
  It's not a horrible place to work. I've worked at Microsoft and work for Amazon now. It's unavoidable that with a company the size of Amazon there will be some (maybe a lot) of bad areas to work and it's obvious that despite even the best hiring practices in the world, you'll find people winding up in a position for which they are not a good fit. There's a lot of interesting work, though, and a lot of people happy working on it. I wouldn't tell anyone it's the best place to work or that it's "better" to work than another place, but I love what I do and work with hundreds of people who (more or less) feel the same. I also know people who don't feel this way and I encourage them to move on or move out because nobody should be in a job they really dislike (and I'm aware of the incredible privilege that's reflected by my ability to say that).
- duaneb 10y ago
  I hear working hours are more about the team than the company.
  - notyourwork 10y ago
    This is true and also true of any company Amazon's size.
- mabbo 10y ago
  As a software developer at Amazon, if they treated us badly, we'd all quit and have new jobs next week. Tech is different.
middleclick 10y ago
I have never understood what people mean by "is this news?". Just because you know it, doesn't mean others do. I certainly had no idea about this before. Can we address the issue at hand instead of being condescending about it?
Chinjut 10y ago
Fine, it's not news, it's just a true story that deserves response and propagation. How about that?
- moyta 10y ago
  That is pretty good, just wish the BBC wrote a better article and ended with suggestions on who to contact regarding wage theft & how to organize to fight back against it, instead of ending the article with the Amazon contractor saying your free to quit at any time.
  - mathw 10y ago
    Ultimately the purpose of such articles, if they wish to affect change, is to get the UK courts to rule that the drivers cannot be classified as self-employed and must receive the National Minimum Wage and conform to rules on driving hours and breaks, which are fairly extensive. There were a number of similar reports about Uber before a court recently ruled that Uber drivers are legally employees, not self-employed contractors.

by moyta 10y ago

pyromine 10y ago

To be honest, how does Amazon attract talent despite a pretty universal reputation of being a horrible place to work. I'd rather work for Microsoft or big blue than Amazon any day.

moyta 10y ago
At least here in the states, workers rights are very poor, and Amazon will hire nearly anyone. I know that they were only offering homeless in Seattle & Bellevue nigh shift hours as a temp employee, which meant they could not live in a shelter or rehab since they would start work a few hours after the curfew. Really a great helping hand Jeff, throwin' em to the wolves!
- TheGrumpyBrit 10y ago
  That's one way to look at it, but for context, what other firms were offering work to the homeless?
  - moyta 10y ago
    Quite a few others, to the point that they put on a job fair: http://kuow.org/post/amazon-hires-homeless-workers-and-everyone-ends-disappointed http://kuow.org/post/amazon-hires-homeless-workers-and-every...
  - plandis 10y ago
    Amazon also has some undeveloped land that they have turned over to an organization that runs homeless shelters to provide housing for the years in between when the land is developed. But yes. Amazon is a terrible place to work and we are all just too dumb to quit. Oh, and we all hate homeless people, I guess.
    - moyta 10y ago
      Sure, they occasionally help out Mary's Place and the like, not disputing that. Many other companies do so too. From what I've heard from Amazon workers, from drinking with them on Cap Hill, or from my own neighbors who work there, or my Cousin who was a higher up there & left, or from my friends, on average its not a great place to work. There are good teams, but compared to what I've heard from IBM or Microsoft employees it sounds worse than working at either of them, and on par with working at Adobe Seattle over in Fremont.
slipperyp 10y ago
It's not a horrible place to work. I've worked at Microsoft and work for Amazon now. It's unavoidable that with a company the size of Amazon there will be some (maybe a lot) of bad areas to work and it's obvious that despite even the best hiring practices in the world, you'll find people winding up in a position for which they are not a good fit. There's a lot of interesting work, though, and a lot of people happy working on it. I wouldn't tell anyone it's the best place to work or that it's "better" to work than another place, but I love what I do and work with hundreds of people who (more or less) feel the same. I also know people who don't feel this way and I encourage them to move on or move out because nobody should be in a job they really dislike (and I'm aware of the incredible privilege that's reflected by my ability to say that).
duaneb 10y ago
I hear working hours are more about the team than the company.
- notyourwork 10y ago
  This is true and also true of any company Amazon's size.
mabbo 10y ago
As a software developer at Amazon, if they treated us badly, we'd all quit and have new jobs next week. Tech is different.

middleclick 10y ago

I have never understood what people mean by "is this news?". Just because you know it, doesn't mean others do. I certainly had no idea about this before. Can we address the issue at hand instead of being condescending about it?

Chinjut 10y ago

Fine, it's not news, it's just a true story that deserves response and propagation. How about that?

moyta 10y ago
That is pretty good, just wish the BBC wrote a better article and ended with suggestions on who to contact regarding wage theft & how to organize to fight back against it, instead of ending the article with the Amazon contractor saying your free to quit at any time.
- mathw 10y ago
  Ultimately the purpose of such articles, if they wish to affect change, is to get the UK courts to rule that the drivers cannot be classified as self-employed and must receive the National Minimum Wage and conform to rules on driving hours and breaks, which are fairly extensive. There were a number of similar reports about Uber before a court recently ruled that Uber drivers are legally employees, not self-employed contractors.