10 ms·

Amazon Just Cut Off Warehouse Workers from a Companywide Directory

129 points by aaronbrethorst 6y ago

ipsocannibal 6y ago
Related HN submission: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26576416 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26576416
notamy 6y ago
> This move also blindsided higher-tier employees who communicate with warehouse workers on a daily basis, and threatened to impede daily functions for onsite medical and security staff. This cannot POSSIBLY go wrong in any way, can it? I'm struggling to understand how that could ever have been approved.
- ocdtrekkie 6y ago
  Companies make radical and damaging changes like this when the threat of not doing so is existential. Amazon does not feel it can survive being held to standards of basic human rights in handling its employees.
  - cwhiz 6y ago
    This is such absurd hyperbole. You would think Amazon is running American slave camps and kidnapping workers. By almost any account Amazon pays well and has good benefits.
    - krapp 6y ago
      Amazon also just got caught stealing millions of dollars in tips from drivers they're also being sued for paying less than minimum wage. Amazon would absolutely burn their entire infrastructure to the ground, salt the earth and piss on the ashes before giving an inch of power to their employees that they couldn't take a mile of back at their leisure, a power dynamic which unions would deny them. That's just who they are. But yes, the benefits are nice.
      - cwhiz 6y ago
        Do you not understand the difference between the claims you’ve just made and “unable to stay in business without violating basic human rights?”
        krapp 6y ago
        Yes I do, I don't believe Amazon violates basic human rights, at least not on a regular basis, but their business model depends on having the option of getting as close to doing so as the law and market will allow when business needs demand it. And like any large company, they will break laws and occasionally people if the cost/benefit analysis works in their favor.
        SonicSoul 6y ago
        You are reducing employee mistreatment to a removed from reality statistic. As if staying close to not breaking the law is some kind of Bible scripture that makes it all ok. Lots of horrible things were legal in history and are legal today. Just because a company wants to “survive” doesn’t mean we can’t point out the things that are wrong and push for change. If you want to be cynical why not go the other way and say who cares if Amazon survives. Let someone else fill in that role that will prioritize their people. It’s easy to talk about statistics when you’re not the one at the bottom of this thing you’re so eloquently dismissing
        krapp 6y ago
        >You are reducing employee mistreatment to a removed from reality statistic. As if staying close to not breaking the law is some kind of Bible scripture that makes it all ok. No, I'm arguing that corporations aren't moralistic entities, but legalistic entities, and will make decisions based on profit risk versus legal risk instead of morality versus immorality. I never said I thought it was ok. Amazon pays better than many jobs in their market, and they have a generous health and insurance package. They constantly give training and tutorials about wellness and safety, and they're fastidious about following regulations, sometimes to a Kafkaesque degree. And when no one is looking they'll push you in front of a bus to get to a dime on the sidewalk. >It’s easy to talk about statistics when you’re not the one at the bottom of this thing you’re so eloquently dismissing I'm closer to the bottom than you might think. Not everyone here is a SV bubble baby making six figures.
    - ToFab123 6y ago
      Yes. With all the stories there has been published over the years about Amazon warehouse working condition "slave camp" is the term that springs to my mind when I hear the word Amazon. Being an Amazon warehouse worker must be hell. That Amazon pays so little in tax only shows, to me, that the company Amazon's only concern is to get money and that they don't care about society or humans.
      - Aerroon 6y ago
        >With all the stories there has been published over the years about Amazon warehouse working condition "slave camp" is the term that springs to my mind when I hear the word Amazon. Have you considered that it might be propaganda? Correct me if I'm wrong, but all the employees choose to work at Amazon, right? What are the other jobs like, if people still choose Amazon over the alternatives?
        thisisjustmine 6y ago
        Amazon has been systematically destroying local businesses preventing any alternatives. So low skill workers that used to work for smaller local stores involved in the community now have to work for the replacement. I would bet if there was an alternative people would prefer higher quality of life and pay over the scraps Amazon is willing to share.
        tracer4201 6y ago
        Which local businesses does Amazon destroy? That’s a pretty wild accusation. I just visited several places last year before COVID. Pretty much all the businesses that hire warehouse skilled workers are still there. As a matter of fact, most of those places still pay the actual federal minimum wage, not $15/hr with benefits. This comment you’ve made is propaganda at best and an intentional lie at worst.
        eximius 6y ago
        America has been running out of low-skill jobs that pay a livable wage for years.
    - frongpik 6y ago
      A third world country would indeed just run a slave camp. First world countries are more sophisticated and achieve the same result within the legal framework. They do it because they love mental gymnastics. Amazon comes to a 3rd tier town, wipes out competition by undercutting them, becomes the only employer in town and then tells the workers to bend, and they do because Amazon has made sure they have no choice.
      - krapp 6y ago
        First world countries simply outsource labor to those third world countries with more "libertarian" ideals.
    - fuzxi 6y ago
      >By almost any account Amazon pays well and has good benefits How do you square this with the huge proportion of their employees who rely on food stamps? [1] [1] https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-employees-on-food-stamps-2018-8?op=1 https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-employees-on-food-sta...
      - cwhiz 6y ago
        Amazon can’t control your family situation, and they can’t base pay on it, either. No single adult should be on food stamps with a $15/hour wage.
        marcusverus 6y ago
        It's kind of shameless, in my opinion: 1) Obama (in the ACA) expands food stamp access by making it available to households with an income of <=133% of the poverty line. 2) food stamp enrollment rises significantly. 3) Progressives, clutching their pearls, cite "high" food stamp enrollment as an indication of the need for more Progressive policies!
        koheripbal 6y ago
        Amazon warehouse salaries start at $15.25/hr. That is more than double the US Federal minimum wage. ~$31K per year.
        cwhiz 6y ago
        MIT has a living wage calculator[0], and in most locations in the US $15/hour is a living wage for a single adult. Amazon can't alter their wage scale based on your family situation. They aren't even allowed to ask about your family situation, it's a protected class. [0]: https://livingwage.mit.edu https://livingwage.mit.edu
    - xnx 6y ago
      There's a phenomenon (which must have a name) where large companies are held to a different standard. We see this with: Amazon (there are doubtless jobs with worse conditions). Tesla (quality problems sure, but there's also some real nit-picking). Apple (class-action lawsuits around the most minor defects). Google (unbelievably clean compared to other companies and ad networks that handle personal data)
- ipsocannibal 6y ago
  I think [1] is related. It seems that the internal tool that was modified was the big company directory. Cutting off employees in different FC's from each other by removing them from the tool seems to be an effort to isolate the unionization contagion. Its pretty stupid, social media exists, employees will still find each other, most of what this does is make every Amazon employee believe in those leadership principles Amazon loves to bandy about a little bit less. Day 2 has arrived. 1. https://gizmodo.com/inspired-by-alabama-coworkers-amazon-workers-nationwid-1846517412 https://gizmodo.com/inspired-by-alabama-coworkers-amazon-wor...
sn_master 6y ago
Disclaimer: First amendment people, I am not saying my opinion is correct, but this is just how I personally feel. If this will prevent Amazon from becoming overly-political like Google, I am not going to feel too bad about it. They can still chat using Chime/Slack, just don't have full access to emails/phones of everyone in the company. And it doesn't look like it will impact the unionization efforts either, as employees within the same facility can still chat and communicate normally within themselves.
- ipsocannibal 6y ago
  I think the major concern is the motivation behind the change. From the report HR's response to pushback on this change was basically "we don't care what this breaks deal with it, we are not reverting, implement a workaroud, end of discussion". This seems highly unusual for what seems essentially to be a technical change. For starters, why is HR involved at all in this change?
  - sn_master 6y ago
    I don't think anyone is claiming this is a pure technical change, not even the HR. The response tone is expected and must have been pre-approved before the change was put in place.
- sudosysgen 6y ago
  Of course it will affect unionization, that's the #1 sought effect - to silo unionization efforts into individual locations and atomize them. As for companies becoming "overly political", mega corporations will ALWAYS get involved in politics. The question is whether it's public or in the shadows. The other side is corporations trying to PR their way out of abuses so they can keep a good image and lessen progressive opposition.
  - sn_master 6y ago
    Silos are standard in all big organizations, full access is/was the exception in Amazon. Why should it be the corporation's duty to make it easier for employees to organization a union if it's not something that the executives deemed in the best interest of the corporation? (I am not anti-union per-se at all, you can silence me by downvoting but you'll also be creating your own echo chamber in the process)
designium 6y ago
It reminds me of the last Star Trek Voyager when the Borg Queen had to cut off the Borg network to slow down / prevent the spread of the virus from Captain Janeway.
- Areading314 6y ago
  Spoilers?
  - Forge36 6y ago
    After how many years is it not a spoiler?
    - nickt 6y ago
      https://xkcd.com/1053/ https://xkcd.com/1053/
      - grayhatter 6y ago
        Doesn't apply, not the same conversation. Discussions about limits on spoilers isn't the same as teasing someone for lacking knowledge on the same topic.
    - deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
    - ipaddr 6y ago
      2 weeks after all seasons show up on netflix.
    - anoncake 6y ago
      When everyone who will ever want to see it has done so. So never.
      - SAI_Peregrinus 6y ago
        It's a spoiler if the enjoyment depends on surprise. It's not a spoiler if the item can be enjoyed for its own sake. Anything you can re-watch/read/see/listen to/etc and still fully enjoy isn't spoilable. Some genres (like mysteries) depend on spoilers. For other genres the unspoilability of a work is often correlated with quality.
unanswered 6y ago
This isn't news; this is pure speculation.
- fuzxi 6y ago
  It's factual news and some editorialization. Amazon confirmed they cut off access to some employees. Obviously they'd never state outright that it was done to hinder unionization, but the fact that union formation is incipient is still relevant. >On the company's internal message boards, employees claimed that Amazon cut off Phonetool access to all L1-L3 workers, which impacted "500,000+" people. But Parmley said the company only pulled the plug on L1 and L99 workers.
david-cako 6y ago
This can't go on! Phone Tool awards for all workers! Now they can't send all 6 of Andy Jassy's assistants important emails surrounding on-going unionization efforts in the retail org. Andy's in the dark, he needs our one-pagers!
wu_187 6y ago
it's pretty clear what's going on when HR is involved with a technical issue. We should drop AWS and move to another provider. Hit them where it really hurts.
- adamcstephens 6y ago
  Amazon wants to compete in every vertical, and as a dominant player. That alone should be reason for no company to use rely on AWS.
person_of_color 6y ago
Just making it easier to split up the company in the inevitable antitrust battle.
macinjosh 6y ago
Seems like a shitty move, but I don't think there is some right employees have to things like this. In fact I would encourage union organizers to avoid communicating on company owned hardware and/or software. Chances are they know or can know what you're saying and to whom.
- gremlinsinc 6y ago
  Easiest thing would be an anonymous app that you just list the org you work for, and dept/branch. Nothing more. Then they can communicate that way.
airhead969 6y ago
So, do they have a replacement communication system for warehouse workers between themselves and with higher-tiers?
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
throwaway1959 6y ago
I am personally not worried. I know that Amazon is a big supporter of diversity, inclusion and progressive values. I think it's probably an innocent misunderstanding.
juanani 6y ago
What's also modern and super interesting is that Amazon (and gang) employs people to surf these very internet forums just to keep their brand clean. They will argue us into circles. Now these are bright people, I'm guessing some of them even have English degrees(or they copy from the ones that do), they probably organize in a slack channel and attack these very threads with misleading info and denial. It would be great if these sub-humans can actually mention when they are writing for their employer. I'd love it if we can send these info combatants on the next ship to Mars, as test-dummies. Most backwards pieces of humans to exist.
Irongirl1 6y ago
As a minority female who has unpleasant interactions with people sometimes forced upon me, this "PhoneTool" gives me the willies. I cannot imagine being a part of a large company with 1M+ employees and having no control whatsoever over whether or not another employee can "reach out" or not. It is awful and I'm surprised Amazon's legal team hasn't shut it down or at least found ways to limit its reach before now. Many things can be the trigger: differing politics, racial views, etc. Would I want someone who holds views which are damaging to my well-being to have the ability to reach out to me directly? Heck no...and yes I realize the timing is terrible, but from the outside looking in we have no idea why this was done. Something else may have happened that we (the reading, judging public) has no idea of...for all kind of reasons. I think the fact that it is happening during a stressful time for Amazon could be clouding more important issues. EEs at Google used their company access to spy on co-workers calendars, another ex-Googler was using his access to harass customers of Google products. At 1M EEs, there is bound to be a bad/crazy apple in the bunch and it only takes one incident for this whole thing to become a very bad conversation. Reddit recently added a glowing dot on profile pictures to alert people when you are online, but reddit has awful moderation and women are constantly getting attacked. I shut that light off as soon as I heard about it. This seems so much worse because there is no escaping work place harassers without quitting. Attacks against individuals of various racial groups have been in the news alot recently and I could easily see a bad actor using this tool to make real trouble for an unsuspecting person. Hopefully, Amazon keeps it shut down and devises a new way for its EEs to communicate.

Related HN submission: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26576416 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26576416

> This move also blindsided higher-tier employees who communicate with warehouse workers on a daily basis, and threatened to impede daily functions for onsite medical and security staff. This cannot POSSIBLY go wrong in any way, can it? I'm struggling to understand how that could ever have been approved.

ocdtrekkie 6y ago
Companies make radical and damaging changes like this when the threat of not doing so is existential. Amazon does not feel it can survive being held to standards of basic human rights in handling its employees.
- cwhiz 6y ago
  This is such absurd hyperbole. You would think Amazon is running American slave camps and kidnapping workers. By almost any account Amazon pays well and has good benefits.
  - krapp 6y ago
    Amazon also just got caught stealing millions of dollars in tips from drivers they're also being sued for paying less than minimum wage. Amazon would absolutely burn their entire infrastructure to the ground, salt the earth and piss on the ashes before giving an inch of power to their employees that they couldn't take a mile of back at their leisure, a power dynamic which unions would deny them. That's just who they are. But yes, the benefits are nice.
    - cwhiz 6y ago
      Do you not understand the difference between the claims you’ve just made and “unable to stay in business without violating basic human rights?”
      - krapp 6y ago
        Yes I do, I don't believe Amazon violates basic human rights, at least not on a regular basis, but their business model depends on having the option of getting as close to doing so as the law and market will allow when business needs demand it. And like any large company, they will break laws and occasionally people if the cost/benefit analysis works in their favor.
        SonicSoul 6y ago
        You are reducing employee mistreatment to a removed from reality statistic. As if staying close to not breaking the law is some kind of Bible scripture that makes it all ok. Lots of horrible things were legal in history and are legal today. Just because a company wants to “survive” doesn’t mean we can’t point out the things that are wrong and push for change. If you want to be cynical why not go the other way and say who cares if Amazon survives. Let someone else fill in that role that will prioritize their people. It’s easy to talk about statistics when you’re not the one at the bottom of this thing you’re so eloquently dismissing
        krapp 6y ago
        >You are reducing employee mistreatment to a removed from reality statistic. As if staying close to not breaking the law is some kind of Bible scripture that makes it all ok. No, I'm arguing that corporations aren't moralistic entities, but legalistic entities, and will make decisions based on profit risk versus legal risk instead of morality versus immorality. I never said I thought it was ok. Amazon pays better than many jobs in their market, and they have a generous health and insurance package. They constantly give training and tutorials about wellness and safety, and they're fastidious about following regulations, sometimes to a Kafkaesque degree. And when no one is looking they'll push you in front of a bus to get to a dime on the sidewalk. >It’s easy to talk about statistics when you’re not the one at the bottom of this thing you’re so eloquently dismissing I'm closer to the bottom than you might think. Not everyone here is a SV bubble baby making six figures.
  - ToFab123 6y ago
    Yes. With all the stories there has been published over the years about Amazon warehouse working condition "slave camp" is the term that springs to my mind when I hear the word Amazon. Being an Amazon warehouse worker must be hell. That Amazon pays so little in tax only shows, to me, that the company Amazon's only concern is to get money and that they don't care about society or humans.
    - Aerroon 6y ago
      >With all the stories there has been published over the years about Amazon warehouse working condition "slave camp" is the term that springs to my mind when I hear the word Amazon. Have you considered that it might be propaganda? Correct me if I'm wrong, but all the employees choose to work at Amazon, right? What are the other jobs like, if people still choose Amazon over the alternatives?
      - thisisjustmine 6y ago
        Amazon has been systematically destroying local businesses preventing any alternatives. So low skill workers that used to work for smaller local stores involved in the community now have to work for the replacement. I would bet if there was an alternative people would prefer higher quality of life and pay over the scraps Amazon is willing to share.
        tracer4201 6y ago
        Which local businesses does Amazon destroy? That’s a pretty wild accusation. I just visited several places last year before COVID. Pretty much all the businesses that hire warehouse skilled workers are still there. As a matter of fact, most of those places still pay the actual federal minimum wage, not $15/hr with benefits. This comment you’ve made is propaganda at best and an intentional lie at worst.
      - eximius 6y ago
        America has been running out of low-skill jobs that pay a livable wage for years.
  - frongpik 6y ago
    A third world country would indeed just run a slave camp. First world countries are more sophisticated and achieve the same result within the legal framework. They do it because they love mental gymnastics. Amazon comes to a 3rd tier town, wipes out competition by undercutting them, becomes the only employer in town and then tells the workers to bend, and they do because Amazon has made sure they have no choice.
    - krapp 6y ago
      First world countries simply outsource labor to those third world countries with more "libertarian" ideals.
  - fuzxi 6y ago
    >By almost any account Amazon pays well and has good benefits How do you square this with the huge proportion of their employees who rely on food stamps? [1] [1] https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-employees-on-food-stamps-2018-8?op=1 https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-employees-on-food-sta...
    - cwhiz 6y ago
      Amazon can’t control your family situation, and they can’t base pay on it, either. No single adult should be on food stamps with a $15/hour wage.
      - marcusverus 6y ago
        It's kind of shameless, in my opinion: 1) Obama (in the ACA) expands food stamp access by making it available to households with an income of <=133% of the poverty line. 2) food stamp enrollment rises significantly. 3) Progressives, clutching their pearls, cite "high" food stamp enrollment as an indication of the need for more Progressive policies!
        koheripbal 6y ago
        Amazon warehouse salaries start at $15.25/hr. That is more than double the US Federal minimum wage. ~$31K per year.
        cwhiz 6y ago
        MIT has a living wage calculator[0], and in most locations in the US $15/hour is a living wage for a single adult. Amazon can't alter their wage scale based on your family situation. They aren't even allowed to ask about your family situation, it's a protected class. [0]: https://livingwage.mit.edu https://livingwage.mit.edu
  - xnx 6y ago
    There's a phenomenon (which must have a name) where large companies are held to a different standard. We see this with: Amazon (there are doubtless jobs with worse conditions). Tesla (quality problems sure, but there's also some real nit-picking). Apple (class-action lawsuits around the most minor defects). Google (unbelievably clean compared to other companies and ad networks that handle personal data)
ipsocannibal 6y ago
I think [1] is related. It seems that the internal tool that was modified was the big company directory. Cutting off employees in different FC's from each other by removing them from the tool seems to be an effort to isolate the unionization contagion. Its pretty stupid, social media exists, employees will still find each other, most of what this does is make every Amazon employee believe in those leadership principles Amazon loves to bandy about a little bit less. Day 2 has arrived. 1. https://gizmodo.com/inspired-by-alabama-coworkers-amazon-workers-nationwid-1846517412 https://gizmodo.com/inspired-by-alabama-coworkers-amazon-wor...

sn_master 6y ago

Disclaimer: First amendment people, I am not saying my opinion is correct, but this is just how I personally feel. If this will prevent Amazon from becoming overly-political like Google, I am not going to feel too bad about it. They can still chat using Chime/Slack, just don't have full access to emails/phones of everyone in the company. And it doesn't look like it will impact the unionization efforts either, as employees within the same facility can still chat and communicate normally within themselves.

ipsocannibal 6y ago
I think the major concern is the motivation behind the change. From the report HR's response to pushback on this change was basically "we don't care what this breaks deal with it, we are not reverting, implement a workaroud, end of discussion". This seems highly unusual for what seems essentially to be a technical change. For starters, why is HR involved at all in this change?
- sn_master 6y ago
  I don't think anyone is claiming this is a pure technical change, not even the HR. The response tone is expected and must have been pre-approved before the change was put in place.
sudosysgen 6y ago
Of course it will affect unionization, that's the #1 sought effect - to silo unionization efforts into individual locations and atomize them. As for companies becoming "overly political", mega corporations will ALWAYS get involved in politics. The question is whether it's public or in the shadows. The other side is corporations trying to PR their way out of abuses so they can keep a good image and lessen progressive opposition.
- sn_master 6y ago
  Silos are standard in all big organizations, full access is/was the exception in Amazon. Why should it be the corporation's duty to make it easier for employees to organization a union if it's not something that the executives deemed in the best interest of the corporation? (I am not anti-union per-se at all, you can silence me by downvoting but you'll also be creating your own echo chamber in the process)

designium 6y ago

It reminds me of the last Star Trek Voyager when the Borg Queen had to cut off the Borg network to slow down / prevent the spread of the virus from Captain Janeway.

Areading314 6y ago
Spoilers?
- Forge36 6y ago
  After how many years is it not a spoiler?
  - nickt 6y ago
    https://xkcd.com/1053/ https://xkcd.com/1053/
    - grayhatter 6y ago
      Doesn't apply, not the same conversation. Discussions about limits on spoilers isn't the same as teasing someone for lacking knowledge on the same topic.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  - ipaddr 6y ago
    2 weeks after all seasons show up on netflix.
  - anoncake 6y ago
    When everyone who will ever want to see it has done so. So never.
    - SAI_Peregrinus 6y ago
      It's a spoiler if the enjoyment depends on surprise. It's not a spoiler if the item can be enjoyed for its own sake. Anything you can re-watch/read/see/listen to/etc and still fully enjoy isn't spoilable. Some genres (like mysteries) depend on spoilers. For other genres the unspoilability of a work is often correlated with quality.

unanswered 6y ago

This isn't news; this is pure speculation.

fuzxi 6y ago
It's factual news and some editorialization. Amazon confirmed they cut off access to some employees. Obviously they'd never state outright that it was done to hinder unionization, but the fact that union formation is incipient is still relevant. >On the company's internal message boards, employees claimed that Amazon cut off Phonetool access to all L1-L3 workers, which impacted "500,000+" people. But Parmley said the company only pulled the plug on L1 and L99 workers.

david-cako 6y ago

This can't go on! Phone Tool awards for all workers! Now they can't send all 6 of Andy Jassy's assistants important emails surrounding on-going unionization efforts in the retail org. Andy's in the dark, he needs our one-pagers!

wu_187 6y ago

it's pretty clear what's going on when HR is involved with a technical issue. We should drop AWS and move to another provider. Hit them where it really hurts.

adamcstephens 6y ago
Amazon wants to compete in every vertical, and as a dominant player. That alone should be reason for no company to use rely on AWS.

person_of_color 6y ago

Just making it easier to split up the company in the inevitable antitrust battle.

macinjosh 6y ago

Seems like a shitty move, but I don't think there is some right employees have to things like this. In fact I would encourage union organizers to avoid communicating on company owned hardware and/or software. Chances are they know or can know what you're saying and to whom.

gremlinsinc 6y ago
Easiest thing would be an anonymous app that you just list the org you work for, and dept/branch. Nothing more. Then they can communicate that way.

airhead969 6y ago

So, do they have a replacement communication system for warehouse workers between themselves and with higher-tiers?

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

throwaway1959 6y ago

I am personally not worried. I know that Amazon is a big supporter of diversity, inclusion and progressive values. I think it's probably an innocent misunderstanding.

juanani 6y ago

What's also modern and super interesting is that Amazon (and gang) employs people to surf these very internet forums just to keep their brand clean. They will argue us into circles. Now these are bright people, I'm guessing some of them even have English degrees(or they copy from the ones that do), they probably organize in a slack channel and attack these very threads with misleading info and denial. It would be great if these sub-humans can actually mention when they are writing for their employer. I'd love it if we can send these info combatants on the next ship to Mars, as test-dummies. Most backwards pieces of humans to exist.

Irongirl1 6y ago

As a minority female who has unpleasant interactions with people sometimes forced upon me, this "PhoneTool" gives me the willies. I cannot imagine being a part of a large company with 1M+ employees and having no control whatsoever over whether or not another employee can "reach out" or not. It is awful and I'm surprised Amazon's legal team hasn't shut it down or at least found ways to limit its reach before now. Many things can be the trigger: differing politics, racial views, etc. Would I want someone who holds views which are damaging to my well-being to have the ability to reach out to me directly? Heck no...and yes I realize the timing is terrible, but from the outside looking in we have no idea why this was done. Something else may have happened that we (the reading, judging public) has no idea of...for all kind of reasons. I think the fact that it is happening during a stressful time for Amazon could be clouding more important issues. EEs at Google used their company access to spy on co-workers calendars, another ex-Googler was using his access to harass customers of Google products. At 1M EEs, there is bound to be a bad/crazy apple in the bunch and it only takes one incident for this whole thing to become a very bad conversation. Reddit recently added a glowing dot on profile pictures to alert people when you are online, but reddit has awful moderation and women are constantly getting attacked. I shut that light off as soon as I heard about it. This seems so much worse because there is no escaping work place harassers without quitting. Attacks against individuals of various racial groups have been in the news alot recently and I could easily see a bad actor using this tool to make real trouble for an unsuspecting person. Hopefully, Amazon keeps it shut down and devises a new way for its EEs to communicate.