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> slightly lower pay and the benefit of bathroom breaks is a trade-off they’re willing to make in the labor market I really don't understand Amazon's position

> slightly lower pay and the benefit of bathroom breaks is a trade-off they’re willing to make in the labor market I really don't understand Amazon's position here. A small number of cheap improvements would vastly raise worker satisfaction. More bathrooms through the building, paid time in security lines, and some honest safety interventions are all cheaper than raising wages or even, say, a private space program or an airliner fleet.

krapp 5y ago
Amazon is weird that way. It's a multi-billion dollar global corporation that's run like a mafia front. They'll spend who knows how many millions of dollars on video game kiosks[0] to incentivize productivity through addictive feedback loops but won't spend a dime updating or replacing the equipment their employees actually use. [0]https://www.theverge.com/2021/3/15/22331502/amazon-warehouse-gamification-program-expand-fc-games https://www.theverge.com/2021/3/15/22331502/amazon-warehouse...
skybrian 5y ago
These improvements sound good to me too, but they are not cheap. Paid time in security lines would increase worker’s paychecks. It’s effectively another way of raising wages. As is more breaks. (Amazon doesn’t have a space program.)
- flerchin 5y ago
  Blue Origin seems like a space program. Whether "Amazon" owns it is kind of pedantic.
  - skybrian 5y ago
    No, it's like saying Tesla and SpaceX are the same company. It means you're fundamentally confused about what's going on. (It's a pretty close parallel. Tesla is public and SpaceX is private. Similarly for Amazon and Blue Origin.)
- qchris 5y ago
  I'm not sure if the parent was referring to Blue Origin as a space program, but Amazon very arguably is developing a space program of one sort or another, with services like AWS Ground Station [1] for operating satellites coming online. [1] https://aws.amazon.com/ground-station/ https://aws.amazon.com/ground-station/

krapp 5y ago

Amazon is weird that way. It's a multi-billion dollar global corporation that's run like a mafia front. They'll spend who knows how many millions of dollars on video game kiosks[0] to incentivize productivity through addictive feedback loops but won't spend a dime updating or replacing the equipment their employees actually use. [0]https://www.theverge.com/2021/3/15/22331502/amazon-warehouse-gamification-program-expand-fc-games https://www.theverge.com/2021/3/15/22331502/amazon-warehouse...

skybrian 5y ago

These improvements sound good to me too, but they are not cheap. Paid time in security lines would increase worker’s paychecks. It’s effectively another way of raising wages. As is more breaks. (Amazon doesn’t have a space program.)

flerchin 5y ago
Blue Origin seems like a space program. Whether "Amazon" owns it is kind of pedantic.
- skybrian 5y ago
  No, it's like saying Tesla and SpaceX are the same company. It means you're fundamentally confused about what's going on. (It's a pretty close parallel. Tesla is public and SpaceX is private. Similarly for Amazon and Blue Origin.)
qchris 5y ago
I'm not sure if the parent was referring to Blue Origin as a space program, but Amazon very arguably is developing a space program of one sort or another, with services like AWS Ground Station [1] for operating satellites coming online. [1] https://aws.amazon.com/ground-station/ https://aws.amazon.com/ground-station/