4 ms·

That might be a big part of the business context behind the "We are going to be Earth’s Best Employer…" statements in the 2020 Letter to Shareholders.

tyingq 5y ago
I found this update somewhat amusing: https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/operations/update-on-our-vision-to-be-earths-best-employer-and-earths-safest-place-to-work https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/operations/update-on-our-vi... "The first update I want to give you today is to a policy called Time off Task. If you’re not familiar with it, this policy is a way to measure the amount of time employees are logged on to the software tools in their work area...Starting today, we’re now averaging Time off Task over a longer period to ensure that there’s more signal and less noise" It's going to be a long road to "Earth's Best" if this sort of thing is the best they can do. Edit: Although not testing for marijuana anymore is actually noteworthy...I give them credit for that.
- awillen 5y ago
  I don't know that they really deserve credit for not testing for marijuana. It increases their potential pool of hires and saves them money. Add to that the fact that a positive test for marijuana doesn't necessarily indicate that you would ever be in any way impaired on the job, and it feels more like a rational business move than a good social policy.
  - tyingq 5y ago
    I agree with all that, yet lots of places still test. So the "credit" I'm giving is for being somewhat early in the cycle.
- WillAdams 5y ago
  Worked at Amazon twice, once part-time for a year, the other full-time in-between jobs. The metrics thing is interesting, and they've managed to put a number on pretty much everything, so they can adjust for conditions and the available pool of workers by just shifting numbers around. Still surprised at injury statistics --- both places I worked at took safety quite seriously and I never felt that management ignored it or was unconcerned, quite the opposite --- the one change I would have made would have been having folks volunteer for operating the powered equipment, and only requiring folks to do it if there weren't enough volunteers. Wrote up a bit on this on Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/EDC/comments/dmnuts/53mamazon_fulfillment_center_warehouse_worker/ https://www.reddit.com/r/EDC/comments/dmnuts/53mamazon_fulfi... The bottom line is every day in the world there's a certain amount of work which needs to be done, and we as a society need to work out who does it, for what compensation, and how we are going to handle the folks for whom there is no work. There's a bunch of sad science fiction on this: https://marshallbrain.com/manna1 https://marshallbrain.com/manna1 but not much reasoned discussion or policy-making. Capital continues to seek the lowest points for employment so as to maximize profit, and since folks want their 401Ks and investment portfolios to do well, most folks look the other way. Similarly, it's hard for folks to complain about rents others are paying when a home is the biggest investment owned by most homeowners and rents are driven by real estate valuation.

tyingq 5y ago

I found this update somewhat amusing: https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/operations/update-on-our-vision-to-be-earths-best-employer-and-earths-safest-place-to-work https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/operations/update-on-our-vi... "The first update I want to give you today is to a policy called Time off Task. If you’re not familiar with it, this policy is a way to measure the amount of time employees are logged on to the software tools in their work area...Starting today, we’re now averaging Time off Task over a longer period to ensure that there’s more signal and less noise" It's going to be a long road to "Earth's Best" if this sort of thing is the best they can do. Edit: Although not testing for marijuana anymore is actually noteworthy...I give them credit for that.

awillen 5y ago
I don't know that they really deserve credit for not testing for marijuana. It increases their potential pool of hires and saves them money. Add to that the fact that a positive test for marijuana doesn't necessarily indicate that you would ever be in any way impaired on the job, and it feels more like a rational business move than a good social policy.
- tyingq 5y ago
  I agree with all that, yet lots of places still test. So the "credit" I'm giving is for being somewhat early in the cycle.
WillAdams 5y ago
Worked at Amazon twice, once part-time for a year, the other full-time in-between jobs. The metrics thing is interesting, and they've managed to put a number on pretty much everything, so they can adjust for conditions and the available pool of workers by just shifting numbers around. Still surprised at injury statistics --- both places I worked at took safety quite seriously and I never felt that management ignored it or was unconcerned, quite the opposite --- the one change I would have made would have been having folks volunteer for operating the powered equipment, and only requiring folks to do it if there weren't enough volunteers. Wrote up a bit on this on Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/EDC/comments/dmnuts/53mamazon_fulfillment_center_warehouse_worker/ https://www.reddit.com/r/EDC/comments/dmnuts/53mamazon_fulfi... The bottom line is every day in the world there's a certain amount of work which needs to be done, and we as a society need to work out who does it, for what compensation, and how we are going to handle the folks for whom there is no work. There's a bunch of sad science fiction on this: https://marshallbrain.com/manna1 https://marshallbrain.com/manna1 but not much reasoned discussion or policy-making. Capital continues to seek the lowest points for employment so as to maximize profit, and since folks want their 401Ks and investment portfolios to do well, most folks look the other way. Similarly, it's hard for folks to complain about rents others are paying when a home is the biggest investment owned by most homeowners and rents are driven by real estate valuation.