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Agreed. I'd been reading about Amazon's treatment of their warehouse workers over the years and an article in The Guardian [1] finally pushed me over the edge.

by conorh 13y ago

Agreed. I'd been reading about Amazon's treatment of their warehouse workers over the years and an article in The Guardian [1] finally pushed me over the edge. I stopped shopping at Amazon (I shopped a huge amount there) and cancelled my prime account. I hope they can get their act together and offer their warehouse workers better wages and better treatment, if Costco can do it then I believe they can too. [1] http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/dec/01/week-amazon-insider-feature-treatment-employees-work http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/dec/01/week-amazo...

deegles 13y ago
Amazon has the second-highest turnover of all the Fortune 500 companies [1]. That data combined with conversations I've had with several Amazon developers makes me wary of Amazon's long-term prospects for retaining talent. More here: http://mynorthwest.com/646/2378309/Bezos-rules-Amazon-employees-with-ice-water-in-his-veins http://mynorthwest.com/646/2378309/Bezos-rules-Amazon-employ... [1] http://mynorthwest.com/646/2378309/Bezos-rules-Amazon-employees-with-ice-water-in-his-veins http://mynorthwest.com/646/2378309/Bezos-rules-Amazon-employ...
eikenberry 13y ago
Bad jobs play an important role in an economy. They provide a high turn-over, relatively easy to acquire job that you can get when you have trouble finding proper work. So you can provide for yourself while looking for a good job. If the job didn't suck it wouldn't have the turn-over and availability. Once we eliminate the need for employment to provide the basics then shitty jobs will go away. Until then they have a place.
- johnvschmitt 13y ago
  True, but there will always be tons of "inherently bad" jobs (smelly, sweaty, monotonous). It is unnecessary to make these jobs MORE shitty by bad management. For example, the worst thing IMO that Walmart does (IDK about Amazon), is to mandate that employees be on call 24x7 to be ready to come in for a shift on short notice (3 hours). This cripples the worker from taking on a 2nd job, school, or anything else. This traps them into the Walmart job & makes this not an entry level job.
- conorh 13y ago
  Sure, however in the US there are already huge number of terrible low paid jobs. The balance of jobs is not right as it stands. I believe that Amazon has the resources to provide better jobs and should do so.
res0nat0r 13y ago
Question: everyone keeps talking about low pay amazon workers, but do the lowest paid warehouse employees of Costco get paid the same comparable low wage or not? There are many tiers of employment at amazon and the same for costco, I'm wondering if the great costco benefits also apply to their hourly warehouse employees or their equiv on the amazon side.
- cdjk 13y ago
  I'm pretty sure the costco benefits are fairly good for hourly warehouse employees. Here's the first reference I found: http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2013/12/08/costco-whole-foods-and-the-container-store-3-compa.aspx http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2013/12/08/costco-whol...
sneak 13y ago
> I hope they can get their act together and offer their warehouse workers better wages and better treatment If their wages and treatment aren't enough to drive them to quit their jobs, they are sufficient. I am glad Prime costs what it does and not more.

by conorh 13y ago

deegles 13y ago

Amazon has the second-highest turnover of all the Fortune 500 companies [1]. That data combined with conversations I've had with several Amazon developers makes me wary of Amazon's long-term prospects for retaining talent. More here: http://mynorthwest.com/646/2378309/Bezos-rules-Amazon-employees-with-ice-water-in-his-veins http://mynorthwest.com/646/2378309/Bezos-rules-Amazon-employ... [1] http://mynorthwest.com/646/2378309/Bezos-rules-Amazon-employees-with-ice-water-in-his-veins http://mynorthwest.com/646/2378309/Bezos-rules-Amazon-employ...

eikenberry 13y ago

Bad jobs play an important role in an economy. They provide a high turn-over, relatively easy to acquire job that you can get when you have trouble finding proper work. So you can provide for yourself while looking for a good job. If the job didn't suck it wouldn't have the turn-over and availability. Once we eliminate the need for employment to provide the basics then shitty jobs will go away. Until then they have a place.

johnvschmitt 13y ago
True, but there will always be tons of "inherently bad" jobs (smelly, sweaty, monotonous). It is unnecessary to make these jobs MORE shitty by bad management. For example, the worst thing IMO that Walmart does (IDK about Amazon), is to mandate that employees be on call 24x7 to be ready to come in for a shift on short notice (3 hours). This cripples the worker from taking on a 2nd job, school, or anything else. This traps them into the Walmart job & makes this not an entry level job.
conorh 13y ago
Sure, however in the US there are already huge number of terrible low paid jobs. The balance of jobs is not right as it stands. I believe that Amazon has the resources to provide better jobs and should do so.

res0nat0r 13y ago

Question: everyone keeps talking about low pay amazon workers, but do the lowest paid warehouse employees of Costco get paid the same comparable low wage or not? There are many tiers of employment at amazon and the same for costco, I'm wondering if the great costco benefits also apply to their hourly warehouse employees or their equiv on the amazon side.

cdjk 13y ago
I'm pretty sure the costco benefits are fairly good for hourly warehouse employees. Here's the first reference I found: http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2013/12/08/costco-whole-foods-and-the-container-store-3-compa.aspx http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2013/12/08/costco-whol...

sneak 13y ago

> I hope they can get their act together and offer their warehouse workers better wages and better treatment If their wages and treatment aren't enough to drive them to quit their jobs, they are sufficient. I am glad Prime costs what it does and not more.