I agree with what you say, but whAt if amazon treated employees as customers instead of servants? Maybe the pay wouldn't be better, but the could listen to employe grievances better.
Do they go out of there way to foster relationships among employees? Encourage out of work get togethers like Friday happy hour, light team sports? Groups to visit the local zoo or Japanese Gardens, group outings to a new movie, organize a hobbit marathon, a real marathon or maybe just a 5k? Groups for board game enthusiasts? Clans on WoW?
The work may be mndane and shitty, but slogging through with friends makes it a million times better.
I guess this is my first personal comment on hn, but boy are you out of touch with the world.
This is low to minimum wage work. The employee benefits are that you are employed. Your work is a commodity and they make you feel it and they have all the reasons in the world to make you feel grateful for having that job...
Group Visits? On whose time? The employer won't pay for the time, since he is trying to get the work done as cheap as possible and the employee won't want to use his private time for it, for the obvious reason of having so little of it...
Get out there and work for 6€/hour before you go about imagining how things could be improved for people in these jobs.
"Do they go out of there way to foster relationships among employees? Encourage out of work get togethers like Friday happy hour, light team sports? Groups to visit the local zoo or Japanese Gardens, group outings to a new movie, organize a hobbit marathon, a real marathon or maybe just a 5k? Groups for board game enthusiasts? Clans on WoW?"
I'm not sure if you're being sarcastic here? It seems like you're saying it's OK to pay people low wages and per-week contracts as long as you have a company WoW guild?
(I'm quite opposed to unions in general and I'm not on the 'Amazon is evil' bandwagon, but you comments doesn't make much sense to me).
Hmmm, I think the point is, they treat the staff like shit. The suggestion is that treating them like employees in a higher status job may help (though personally I am sure most would prefer to see the wages directly, rather than a new movie trip).
I think you pay people exactly what they will accept. The fact is the jobs aren't worth much, but there are ways for a company to make life better that aren't costly.
I've worked for a company that did those types of things and I found it awful. On top of the work, you had to negotiate strained, forced, Corporate Fun. After 10 hours working, the last thing I wanted was to be told by the company that was exploiting me that I should smile and be grateful and give it my all in the Company Nintendo Wii Bowling Tournament.
> The work may be mndane and shitty, but slogging through with friends makes it a million times better.
You make it sound like school and as though the workers are children. People don't want to be infantilized at work. They want to feel as though they are valuable -- that the work they are doing has some impact in the world -- and they want to be compensated fairly for it.
Well I wasn't suggesting they were to be infantilized. I was suggesting there jobs aren't worth very much and certainly aren't fun, and that the company can offer ways to make life better that aren't costly.
If someone wants to feel their work is valuable, the should probably find some work that is valuable.
Btw, I didn't suggest the company sponser or track any of this.
Do they go out of there way to foster relationships among employees? Encourage out of work get togethers like Friday happy hour, light team sports? Groups to visit the local zoo or Japanese Gardens, group outings to a new movie, organize a hobbit marathon, a real marathon or maybe just a 5k? Groups for board game enthusiasts? Clans on WoW?
The work may be mndane and shitty, but slogging through with friends makes it a million times better.