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You know where there isn't outcry about this? In Seattle at the Amazon corp offices. There are regular company wide email threads (seattle-chatter@ among others

You know where there isn't outcry about this? In Seattle at the Amazon corp offices. There are regular company wide email threads (seattle-chatter@ among others) making jokes about the shitty working conditions of warehouse employees. Walking around the hallways and lunch areas you hear people making jokes about how awful it is. Nobody there cares. Change the type of free coffee in the lunch areas though and all hell breaks loose. Quitting that company was such a relief to myself, and cutting ties with everything Amazon was at least important to me. I cannot morally support a company that treats their employees in such a way.

ct0 7y ago
Did you quit an amazon corporate position or a warehouse position? I'm sure the two are very very different so I would be impressed if you left the corporate position because of warehouse chatter. More recently I have been considering applying to a corporate position but would hate to feel the same way in a couple of years there.
- jrockway 7y ago
  I am guessing that the warehouse workers don't read "seattle-chatter" mailing lists or have lunch-area coffee to complain about.
  - pardavis 7y ago
    Actually, pretty much every Amazon FC (at least in North America) has free coffee machines in the breakrooms. Some FCs have really bad coffee, but it is there and it is free. It used to cost money at some sites (to pay for the vending machine) but based on associate feedback it is now broad policy to be free. I work in a corp office where the coffee is far worse than many FCs I've been to.
  - krapp 7y ago
    >I am guessing that the warehouse workers don't read "seattle-chatter" mailing lists or have lunch-area coffee to complain about. They do at least get the coffee, and it's awful as expected.
- claudeganon 7y ago
  While it’s always a difficult moral quandary to sort out the ethics of a given employer, there are plenty of opportunities in the software world that won’t make you complicit in treating working class people the way that Amazon does: https://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/19/inside-amazons-very-hot-warehouse/ https://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/19/inside-amazons-ver... https://nypost.com/2018/04/16/amazon-warehouse-workers-pee-into-bottles-to-avoid-wasting-time-undercover-investigator/ https://nypost.com/2018/04/16/amazon-warehouse-workers-pee-i... https://www.theverge.com/2019/4/25/18516004/amazon-warehouse-fulfillment-centers-productivity-firing-terminations https://www.theverge.com/2019/4/25/18516004/amazon-warehouse... https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/amazon-used-neo-nazi-guards-to-keep-immigrant-workforce-under-control-in-germany-8495843.html https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/amazon-used-... https://www.ft.com/content/b0c22a35-f553-39ec-8b89-d5986d02bfdd https://www.ft.com/content/b0c22a35-f553-39ec-8b89-d5986d02b...
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
Pfhreak 7y ago
I left corporate for similar reasons. Got tired of people cracking jokes about crying at their desks, poor treatment of workers, and an especially terrible policy restricting your side projects. It's a shame, because there was so much I loved about the culture in AWS.
jschmitz28 7y ago
I've been subscribed to that mailing list for about five years and I've never seen anybody making jokes about bad warehouse working conditions. Sometimes it gets brought up to let someone know that overcrowded bathrooms or "bad coffee" aren't so bad in relative terms. Also, some people care enough to sign their names next to quotes in support of warehouse worker strikes: https://medium.com/@amazonemployeesclimatejustice/quotes-of-solidarity-for-striking-amazon-warehouse-workers-fe6e1c1e3c61 https://medium.com/@amazonemployeesclimatejustice/quotes-of-...
- claudeganon 7y ago
  Just to be clear - did you sign your name in support or are you a current Amazon employee defending the company’s reputation in light of these deaths?
  - slowdog 7y ago
    How did you come to this conclusion... this is just flaming
    - claudeganon 7y ago
      No, I’m asking sincerely. They’re claiming knowledge of internal conversations at Amazon about these issues and then questioning whether the grandparent had supported warehouse workers in a protest action. I don’t think it’s “flaming” to inquire more or less the same thing they did of the original poster, especially since they stake out public support around these issues as some kind of litmus test.
    - netsharc 7y ago
      Didn't Amazon "encourage" warehouse workers to post tweets praising their working conditions? (Who knows if they actually worked there though). Someone found them and saw that the accounts had a pattern, and the tweets were eerily similar as well. With that in consideration, one has to ask whether they're also astroturfing HN...
victords 7y ago
> There are regular company wide email threads (seattle-chatter@ among others) making jokes about the shitty working conditions of warehouse employees. Walking around the hallways and lunch areas you hear people making jokes about how awful it is. Nobody there cares. I've been here for about three years, never saw any of that.

ct0 7y ago

Did you quit an amazon corporate position or a warehouse position? I'm sure the two are very very different so I would be impressed if you left the corporate position because of warehouse chatter. More recently I have been considering applying to a corporate position but would hate to feel the same way in a couple of years there.

jrockway 7y ago
I am guessing that the warehouse workers don't read "seattle-chatter" mailing lists or have lunch-area coffee to complain about.
- pardavis 7y ago
  Actually, pretty much every Amazon FC (at least in North America) has free coffee machines in the breakrooms. Some FCs have really bad coffee, but it is there and it is free. It used to cost money at some sites (to pay for the vending machine) but based on associate feedback it is now broad policy to be free. I work in a corp office where the coffee is far worse than many FCs I've been to.
- krapp 7y ago
  >I am guessing that the warehouse workers don't read "seattle-chatter" mailing lists or have lunch-area coffee to complain about. They do at least get the coffee, and it's awful as expected.
claudeganon 7y ago
While it’s always a difficult moral quandary to sort out the ethics of a given employer, there are plenty of opportunities in the software world that won’t make you complicit in treating working class people the way that Amazon does: https://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/19/inside-amazons-very-hot-warehouse/ https://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/19/inside-amazons-ver... https://nypost.com/2018/04/16/amazon-warehouse-workers-pee-into-bottles-to-avoid-wasting-time-undercover-investigator/ https://nypost.com/2018/04/16/amazon-warehouse-workers-pee-i... https://www.theverge.com/2019/4/25/18516004/amazon-warehouse-fulfillment-centers-productivity-firing-terminations https://www.theverge.com/2019/4/25/18516004/amazon-warehouse... https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/amazon-used-neo-nazi-guards-to-keep-immigrant-workforce-under-control-in-germany-8495843.html https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/amazon-used-... https://www.ft.com/content/b0c22a35-f553-39ec-8b89-d5986d02bfdd https://www.ft.com/content/b0c22a35-f553-39ec-8b89-d5986d02b...

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

Pfhreak 7y ago

I left corporate for similar reasons. Got tired of people cracking jokes about crying at their desks, poor treatment of workers, and an especially terrible policy restricting your side projects. It's a shame, because there was so much I loved about the culture in AWS.

jschmitz28 7y ago

I've been subscribed to that mailing list for about five years and I've never seen anybody making jokes about bad warehouse working conditions. Sometimes it gets brought up to let someone know that overcrowded bathrooms or "bad coffee" aren't so bad in relative terms. Also, some people care enough to sign their names next to quotes in support of warehouse worker strikes: https://medium.com/@amazonemployeesclimatejustice/quotes-of-solidarity-for-striking-amazon-warehouse-workers-fe6e1c1e3c61 https://medium.com/@amazonemployeesclimatejustice/quotes-of-...

claudeganon 7y ago
Just to be clear - did you sign your name in support or are you a current Amazon employee defending the company’s reputation in light of these deaths?
- slowdog 7y ago
  How did you come to this conclusion... this is just flaming
  - claudeganon 7y ago
    No, I’m asking sincerely. They’re claiming knowledge of internal conversations at Amazon about these issues and then questioning whether the grandparent had supported warehouse workers in a protest action. I don’t think it’s “flaming” to inquire more or less the same thing they did of the original poster, especially since they stake out public support around these issues as some kind of litmus test.
  - netsharc 7y ago
    Didn't Amazon "encourage" warehouse workers to post tweets praising their working conditions? (Who knows if they actually worked there though). Someone found them and saw that the accounts had a pattern, and the tweets were eerily similar as well. With that in consideration, one has to ask whether they're also astroturfing HN...

victords 7y ago

> There are regular company wide email threads (seattle-chatter@ among others) making jokes about the shitty working conditions of warehouse employees. Walking around the hallways and lunch areas you hear people making jokes about how awful it is. Nobody there cares. I've been here for about three years, never saw any of that.