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Amazon is interesting because there is a rift in the company; on one side you have upper middle class engineers, and on the other working class warehouse labour

Amazon is interesting because there is a rift in the company; on one side you have upper middle class engineers, and on the other working class warehouse labourers. It's easy to dismiss union organisation coming from the former side, but the real tragedy is the thousands of workers working in dangerous conditions. They won't get their union.

euix 6y ago
Yea this something I realized recently with the VP guy leaving. As a upper-middle elitist working engineering/ML/management how do you reconcile the cognitive dissonance? I have been considering a career changing and one of the things is studying for interviews at the FAANGS and I have trouble working for the "man" as it is and this whole affair is just turning me off more.
- ForHackernews 6y ago
  This isn't that hard: Just don't work for the evil ones! If their recruiters contact you, tell them why. There are plenty of non-evil companies that will pay you well to do interesting work. Even in your "FAANG" list, Netflix just makes entertaining videos. Apple makes pleasantly overpriced hardware and competes on privacy in software. Apply to them, instead of ad-tech and sweatshops-as-a-service.
  - wgerard 6y ago
    Just to play devil's advocate a little: You should look up some of the ethical issues around cobalt mining [1], which Apple is at least indirectly complicit in. Netflix famously made their culture documents transparent to much derision about their workplace being an unhealthy competitive environment. Relatedly, they're also arguably the most famous progenitor of the "unlimited-vacation-but-don't-actually-take-it-or-else" workplace cliche. 1: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2019/dec/16/apple-and-google-named-in-us-lawsuit-over-congolese-child-cobalt-mining-deaths https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2019/dec/16/a...
    - ForHackernews 6y ago
      Maybe we should revise this to "try to work for companies that are only indirectly (rather than directly) evil"
claudeganon 6y ago
Why is it easy to dismiss HQ organizing? One of the biggest obstacles to warehouse workers organizing is the tacit acceptance of their mistreatment by those at HQ. Were that calculus to change, HQ employees organize in solidarity with them, I’m not sure how much execs could do to stop them.
danharaj 6y ago
One big union babyy

euix 6y ago

Yea this something I realized recently with the VP guy leaving. As a upper-middle elitist working engineering/ML/management how do you reconcile the cognitive dissonance? I have been considering a career changing and one of the things is studying for interviews at the FAANGS and I have trouble working for the "man" as it is and this whole affair is just turning me off more.

ForHackernews 6y ago
This isn't that hard: Just don't work for the evil ones! If their recruiters contact you, tell them why. There are plenty of non-evil companies that will pay you well to do interesting work. Even in your "FAANG" list, Netflix just makes entertaining videos. Apple makes pleasantly overpriced hardware and competes on privacy in software. Apply to them, instead of ad-tech and sweatshops-as-a-service.
- wgerard 6y ago
  Just to play devil's advocate a little: You should look up some of the ethical issues around cobalt mining [1], which Apple is at least indirectly complicit in. Netflix famously made their culture documents transparent to much derision about their workplace being an unhealthy competitive environment. Relatedly, they're also arguably the most famous progenitor of the "unlimited-vacation-but-don't-actually-take-it-or-else" workplace cliche. 1: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2019/dec/16/apple-and-google-named-in-us-lawsuit-over-congolese-child-cobalt-mining-deaths https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2019/dec/16/a...
  - ForHackernews 6y ago
    Maybe we should revise this to "try to work for companies that are only indirectly (rather than directly) evil"

claudeganon 6y ago

Why is it easy to dismiss HQ organizing? One of the biggest obstacles to warehouse workers organizing is the tacit acceptance of their mistreatment by those at HQ. Were that calculus to change, HQ employees organize in solidarity with them, I’m not sure how much execs could do to stop them.

danharaj 6y ago

One big union babyy